Celebrating Women’s History Month: Scientist Spotlight

March 27, 2018

Women’s History Month quiz question (and no “Googling” allowed): Who was Joan Procter?
I didn’t know either until a few months ago when I learned that my colleague, Dr. Patricia Valdez, wrote a children’s book, called “Joan Procter, Dragon Doctor.” Alfred A Knopf published Patricia’s and her illustrator Felicita Sala’s book a few weeks ago, on March 13, 2018. Critics have already acclaimed the work: Publisher’s Weekly in a starred review wrote, “Valdez paints a portrait of a unique woman whose love for reptiles developed into a gratifying career.”

Make Your Voice Heard! We want Your Ideas to Reduce Administrative Burden in Research with Laboratory Animals

March 15, 2018

NIH has, for many years, been concerned about the increasing burden of applying for, reporting on, and the costs faced by researchers when complying with requirements on federally-funded research grants— so much so that it is even called out in our strategic plan as an area to address. Today, as we continue to implement the 21st Century Cures Act, NIH is requesting public feedback on some proposed approaches to reduce administrative burden on investigators use of laboratory animals in biomedical research (NOT-OD-18-152 and Federal Register Notice 2018-05173). Together with our colleagues at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), we are looking for constructive and thoughtful feedback on this topic from individuals, research institutions, professional societies, animal advocacy organizations, and other interested parties. Input will be accepted electronically during a 90-day comment period, that is until June 12, 2018.

Principal Investigators, Delegate!

March 12, 2018

Did you know that the eRA Commons allows principal investigators the ability to grant permission to have others at their institution help with some grants administration tasks?  You might want to consider whether delegating any or all of the following tasks is right for you…

How Many Researchers, Revisited: A Look at Cumulative Investigator Funding Rates

March 7, 2018

In May 2016, we posted a blog on “How Many Researchers” NIH supports. We cited the findings of a University of Wisconsin workshop, which concluded that the biomedical research enterprise suffers from two core problems: too many scientists vying for too few dollars and too many post-docs seeking too few faculty positions. We also noted that NIH leadership and others were increasingly interested in describing the agency’s portfolio not only in terms of the numbers of awards and dollars (as we do each year in our “By the Numbers” reports), but also in terms of the numbers of researchers those awards support. Today we show updated figures on how many researchers are vying for NIH support and how many are successful.

FY 2017 By the Numbers

March 7, 2018

We recently released our annual web reports, success rates and NIH Data Book with updated numbers for fiscal year 2017. Looking at data across both competing and non-competing awards, NIH supports approximately 2,500 organizations. In 2017 about 640 of these organizations received funding for competing Research Project Grants (RPGs) which involved over 11,000 principal investigators.

Requesting Your Input on the Draft NIH Strategic Plan for Data Science

March 5, 2018

To capitalize on the opportunities presented by advances in data science, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is developing a Strategic Plan for Data Science. This plan describes NIH’s overarching goals, strategic objectives, and implementation tactics for promoting the modernization of the NIH-funded biomedical data science ecosystem. As part of the planning process, NIH has published a draft of the strategic plan, along with a Request for Information (RFI) to seek input from stakeholders, including members of the scientific community, academic institutions, the private sector, health professionals, professional societies, advocacy groups, patient communities, as well as other interested members of the public.

May I Submit Citations of Newly-received Issued Patents Relevant to My Application as Post-submission Materials?

March 2, 2018

Yes. Citations of newly-received issued patents are allowable post-submission materials, because issuance of the patent is not in the control of the investigator. A citation of a patent must include the names of the inventors, patent title, issued patent number (including country designation, e.g, US for USA), filing date, and the date the patent was issued: … Continue reading “May I Submit Citations of Newly-received Issued Patents Relevant to My Application as Post-submission Materials?”