January 9, 2007
News Articles
Opportunities and Resources
Advice Corner
New Funding Opportunities
|
|
News Articles |
 |
Meeting the Challenge of the FY 2007 Budget
As you likely know, NIH is gearing up for a tough budget year. And as long as we are operating under a continuing resolution, we still don’t have a picture of the final budget.
Nevertheless, we are developing a funding strategy for FY 2007, which includes the goal of raising the R01 payline to the 12 percentile. Both NIH and our own budget offices have been crunching numbers, based on estimates, to come up with approaches that will best serve the interests of the research community.
These initial plans are based on a philosophy of spreading the gain and the pain. By trimming existing awards, we can keep more investigators afloat and fund new grants and new investigators.
Current Modus Operandi
Before we discuss the future in the next section of this article, here is our interim financial management plan while we are under a continuing resolution. You can find it online, together with some interim paylines at Paylines and Budget.
Competing Awards
- Using a provisional R01 payline at the 10 percentile.
- Under NIH guidance, funding competing awards at 80 percent of the study section-approved level. This will enable investigators to get started on their research during the interim funding period. We expect this number to improve after we receive our budget.
Noncompeting Awards
- Following NIH’s policy of issuing noncompeting grants at an interim lower level than the one listed on the most recent Notice of Grant Award, typically at 80 percent of the previously committed level. See the October 6, 2006, Guide notice.
- Not making inflationary adjustments for noncompeting awards in FY 2007. This translates into no inflationary increases for nonmodular awards and a 3 percent cut to modular grants. Read more in the December 15, 2006, Guide notice.
Investigator-Initiated Research: Our Top Priority
With an anticipated flat-lined budget for this fiscal year, one of our most critical objectives is to stabilize the number of grants to new and established investigators for R01 and other investigator-initiated awards.
Maintaining numbers of R01s is the crux of our planned FY 2007 strategy. We will take the following measures in an attempt to raise the R01 payline for established investigators and keep a higher payline for new investigators:
- Cut funding for noninvestigator-initiated research, including contracts, initiatives, intramural research, and center grants.
- Spend some money that would normally be targeted to solicited areas (scientific initiatives) on investigator-initiated applications.
- Continue our programs that set aside small pots of money for unsolicited R01s that rank just beyond (worse than) the payline: 1) selective pay, which fully funds an application for up to four years, and 2) R56-Bridge awards, which give investigators one additional year of funding for the proposed work.
Additionally, the Institute may need to reinstitute programmatic adjustments -- lowering grant budgets from their study section-recommended levels – in this or in future years.
Helping New Investigators
We will do our utmost to continue to support a higher payline for new investigators at two percentile points higher than the standard R01 payline.
Though it is a major priority, we cannot yet make a final decision on this point. So while we operate under a continuing resolution, we have set the R01 payline at the 10 percentile for everyone.
We will continue to use both the selective pay and R56-Bridge award programs to fund high-priority applications from new investigators and new investigators submitting a first renewal as well as established investigators at risk of losing their labs.
In future issues of this newsletter and  Email Alerts, we will let you know as soon as all financial policies for this year are final.
Getting a Grip on the Budget Blues
Anxious investigators are asking why, after dramatic increases in the NIH budget, we are dealing with such sparse fiscal resources.
NIH data show three related causes:
- More new applications and applicants. In FY 2007, NIH expects about 49,000 research project grant applications with 36,000 from new applicants. Those numbers approximately doubled in the past 10 years.
- Stagnant budgets. While the demand for grants is soaring, NIH's budget growth is flat.
- Inflation. Expanded budgets for research project grant have outpaced NIH budget increases as well as inflation, as indicated by the Biomedical Research and Development Price Index (BRDPI).
Contrary to popular perception, big-ticket projects for applied research and clinical trials do not monopolize our funds. In FY 2007, NIH will devote about 56 percent of its total budget to basic research, 41 percent to applied research, 3 percent to infrastructure, and 1.6 percent to the Roadmap.
Read more in NIH director Dr. Elias Zerhouni's article in Science, "NIH in the Post-Doubling Era: Realities and Strategies."
New PI Salary Cap
If you're funded under an NIH grant or contract, you can now request a maximum salary of $186,600, up from $183,500 in 2006. Investigators salaries are capped by law at executive level I of the federal executive pay scale, which changed in January, prompting this latest increase.
Once NIH gets its FY 2007 appropriation, it will publish the final levels. NIH announced the interim pay raise in the January 4, 2007, Guide notice.
Delay Your Application Due to Winter Storms
Following usual NIH practice, you can submit your application late if snowbound in the wake of recent storms in Colorado and adjacent states.
Include a cover letter noting the reasons for the delay. You do not need to ask permission, and the delay should not exceed the time your institution is closed. NIH announced this in the December 21, 2006, Guide notice.
|
|
Opportunities and Resources |
|
F31 Applicants: New Receipt Dates, Revised FOA
Mark your calendars with new receipt dates for NRSA Predoctoral Fellowships to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (F31): April 13, August 13, and December 13.
You’ll find these dates in the revised F31 funding opportunity announcement. For an explanation of how this FOA differs from the previous version, see the December 12, 2006, Guide notice.
Keep in mind that receipt dates for NRSA for Individual Postdoctoral Fellows (F32) remain April 8, August 8, and December 8.
|
|
Advice Corner |
|
Feel Better About Technical Problems and Deadlines
Don't despair if your electronic application is delayed due to system problems with either Grants.gov or eRA Commons. Contact the eRA Commons Help Desk as soon as you spot trouble.
To ensure you aren't penalized, the Help Desk will verify the problem, track your case, and report issues to the Division of Receipt and Referral (DRR) in the Center for Scientific Review.
Thankfully, applications are rarely affected by serious system issues. Only four of about 3,000 applications were reported to DRR for the October 1 receipt date. The difficulties were resolved in time for the applications to continue to review on schedule.
Also, if there are significant eRA or Grants.gov downtimes near a receipt date, NIH extends the window for you to correct any errors in your application.
NIH typically allows tardiness for circumstances out of your control -- including natural disasters and personal tragedies -- as well as PI service on an NIH study section. Read more in the questions and answers for Corrected or Late Electronic Applications.
Reminders
R01s Are Open for Electronic Application
It's here: the funding opportunity announcement for submitting your electronic R01 application for the February 5 receipt date.
For more information about submission timing, read When are the submission deadlines? on our General Info and Planning for Electronic Applications question and answer page.
Introducing Your R21 Resubmission -- On One Page
Get out the red pen, and exercise your editing skills. With the switch to electronic application, the introduction for resubmitted R21s slimmed from three pages to one, creating last-minute surprises for some applicants.
Find advice for preparing a resubmission in Pick a Strategy That Suits the Problem in the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal.
Requesting $500,000 or More? Get Approval First!
If you are planning to submit a big-ticket application, you must get our approval in advance.
This policy applies to budget requests of $500,000 or more in direct costs in any year, excluding consortium facilities and administrative costs. Many applicants don't realize that the limit applies to any year of a grant.
If your application does not contain a letter that we approved the submission, the NIH Center for Scientific Review will send your application back to you without peer review.
Request approval from an NIAID program officer at least six weeks before you plan to submit. Read more in our Big Grants SOP.
Reader Questions
Qualifying as a new PI
Christine Kocks, Ph.D, assistant professor of pediatrics,
Harvard Medical School, asks:
"I was assigned to be PI of a P01 application after the former PI left. Does that disqualify me to be a new PI for my first R01 application?"
Yes. NIH's rules for qualifying as "new" refer to the role of PI and apply to anyone who has ever been in that role. Even if you were not the applicant, you are no longer considered "new" once you have served as a PI on most types of grants, including multiproject.
Read more on the NIH definition and the exceptions on our Are You "New"? page, which we've updated with this additional information, including for multiple PIs.
We also received this related question:
"Are recipients of R29 grants who had no subsequent R01s or other NIH grants considered new investigators?"
No, they are not. NIH didn't include the R29 in the exception list because it considers it an R01 equivalent. Since many people may not be aware of this, we added it to our Are You "New"? page.
When to expect my next year of funding
An unidentified reader asks:
"When can I expect my second year of funding? Is it based on the new appropriation?"
While we are operating under a continuing resolution, we are funding noncompeting awards at 80 percent of the previously committed level. When our FY 2007 budget is final, this number may change. Visit Paylines and Budget for updates and details.
|
|
New Funding Opportunities |
|
See these and older announcements on our NIAID Funding Opportunities List. |
