The devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey cause deep concern about the health and safety of people and animals, and about the health of the biomedical enterprise in the affected areas. While everyone’s immediate efforts need to be focused on getting through this immediate crisis, we want to assure our applicant and grantee community that NIH will be doing our part to help you ensure your research continues. We issued a Guide notice reminding the community about our natural disaster policy, Reminder: NIH Natural Disaster Policy – Hurricane Harvey. To give you an idea of the ways NIH can help in these situations, our website on Extramural Response to Natural Disasters has a list of available resources, including guidance on animal welfare issues.
A recent National Academies study
, supported in part by NIH, highlighted the importance of the research community working together to build resilience in the face of natural disasters. These recent events underscore their recommendations to work together to continue this dialog.
Following Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy, we issued supplemental funding due to the severity and devastating effect of these storms. For major disasters such as these impacting many institutions, NIH coordinates with other Federal agencies (such as HHS, FEMA and OMB), as well as with state, local, and institutional representatives, to develop any additional response. We consider issues as whether a Federal Disaster is declared; the severity of damage inflicted; the length of time needed for the institutions to recover; the impact on investigators, human research participants, and animal subjects, and the overall impact on the community. We will be continuing to monitor the situation closely, identifying ways we can help as outlined on this page and we will publish additional information in the NIH Guide.
Our thoughts are with all of you affected by this crisis.
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