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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
March 2, 2018
No. Pre-prints are not included in the list of allowable post-submission materials, because they do not fall in the category of unanticipated events.
Post-submission materials are not intended to correct oversights or errors discovered after submission of the application, but rather ….
February 22, 2018
In October 2015, eRA introduced xTRACT as an electronic system within eRA Commons for creating research training data tables and tracking trainee outcomes. xTRACT permits users to leverage data already in eRA Commons to pre-populate training tables with trainee names, institution information, award information, etc., which can be used both in new application submissions and for progress reports [the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR)]. While use of xTRACT is not required currently, it is anticipated to be required as of FY 2020 for certain types of training grant applications. ….
February 5, 2018
Our application instructions provide guidance to submit a study record for each protocol. When in doubt, NIH supports lumping several aims or hypotheses into a single study record, to the extent that makes sense for your research.
Have other questions related to the new PHS Human Subject and Clinical Trial form or NIH clinical trial policies? Find more FAQs and their answers at grants.nih.gov.
February 5, 2018
Like all NIH application forms, the new PHS Human Subjects and Clinical trials Information form is accessed through the submission method you are using. ASSIST, Workspace and all system-to-system solutions provide a way to access and complete the forms. ….
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