Funding News Edition: June 01, 2022 See more articles in this edition
Effective July 9, 2022, awardee institutions must notify NIH within 30 days after acting to remove or discipline key personnel due to concerns about harassment, bullying, retaliation, or hostile working conditions. The term “key personnel” includes the principal investigator (PI) and anyone else listed as senior/key personnel in your NIH Notice of Award.
NIH announced the updated requirements in a May 10, 2022 Guide notice. Your institution’s authorized organization representative must follow the Institutional Reporting process to submit the Notification Form. We have updated our NIAID Allegations of Research Misconduct SOP with a new Awardee Institutions section.
Be aware that the notification process described above does not replace NIH’s prior approval requirements. You must still obtain approval from NIH before making any significant change to the status of key personnel—e.g., access limits, reassignment, or replacement. Find details in the NIAID Prior Approvals for Post Award Grant Actions SOP and NIH Grants Policy Statement sections 8.1.2.6 and 8.1.2.7.
Learn more about NIH Expectations, Policies, and Requirements for recipient institutions to foster an environment free from harassment, including sexual harassment, discrimination, bullying, retaliation, and other forms of inappropriate conduct.
On a related note, use NIH’s Find Help page if you have concerns about misconduct at your institution. NIAID also provides the following guidance:
- For allegations of financial abuse, fraud, or waste of NIAID funds as defined here, refer to the Reporting Fraud, Waste, and Abuse SOP.
- For all other types of misconduct in NIAID applications, proposals, or funded work, refer to the Allegations of Research Misconduct SOP. It covers harassment, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, and many other possibilities.