RePORT is your go-to source for NIH data, and I’m excited to let you know about a new addition to the NIH Data Book on RePORT: data on peer review across NIH. The new “NIH Peer Review” section provides information related to initial peer review across NIH. It includes data on peer review organized by the Center of Scientific Review as well as by NIH institutes and centers. ….
How can we at NIH compare a $1 million investment in research today with the same $1 million investment twenty years ago, ten years ago, or even five years into the future?
You might be familiar with the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures inflation experienced by consumers in their day-to-day living expenses, or the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Price Index, which measures general inflation across the nation’s economy. But as readers with an active interest in biomedical research, you might be interested in how these numbers ‘translate’ into the research world. Naturally, so are we, and this is where the Biomedical Research and Development Price Index, or BRDPI, comes in. ….
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Biomedical science and healthcare research are generating increasingly large and complex sets of data, from many different subfields. …. In February of 2013 I wrote about NIH’s request for community input on how to best prepare the research workforce to capitalize on big data. Since then, the BD2K group has announced its flagship programs, and welcomed Philip E. Bourne as NIH’s first Associate Director for Data Science. Now, I’m excited to update you on the important research training programs that are part of the BD2K initiative. ….
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There are many ways my NIH colleagues and I keep up with the concerns of the research community, but one way that I have not discussed in depth on the blog is the Federal Demonstration Partnership or FDP. The FDP is a forum of federal agencies and funding recipients, sponsored by the Government, University, Industry, Research Roundtable of the National Academies, that comes together to work on identifying, testing, and implementing effective processes and systems for the management of federal government-supported research and education. ….
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NIH’s biomedical research workforce initiatives, which implement Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) recommendations, include improving graduate student and postdoctoral research training through a number of measures, including increasing postdoctoral stipends to reflect years of training, and considering policies on benefits. In February we announced increases to NRSA stipend levels in the NIH Guide. Today, I’d like to talk about how we are proceeding with evaluating postdoc benefits.
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Let’s delve a bit deeper into one of your and my favorite topics: success rates. Most of you monitor success rates as an indicator of NIH funding trends but also as the main way to determine your chances of receiving an NIH award. But what exactly do these rates mean? ….
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NIH supports critical research that advances human health, while protecting the rights and welfare of the research participants who are integral to research success. NIH’s human subjects protection policies ensure the conduct of quality research and provide the proper stewardship of NIH funding. Some of you may have taken human subjects training offered at your home institution, but did you know NIH offers free online training as well? ….. Now we have even more good news for physicians interested in this training! Beginning March 3 2014, physicians who successfully complete the course will be able to earn up to 3 American Medical Association Physician’s Recognition Award (AMA PRA) Category 1 Credits™ continuing medical education (CME) credits. ….
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You probably saw earlier this week that we announced policies for NIH’s fiscal operations and legislative mandates for the 2014 fiscal year, implementing the 2014 Consolidated Appropriations Act signed by President Obama on January 17. NIH has a budget of $30.15 billion, an increase of $1 billion over fiscal year 2013. I am particularly grateful that NIH was able to recover a significant portion of the funds lost due to sequestration, which should bring our budget situation back on track not only for this year, but hopefully into the future.
Here are some key points from the new NIH Guide notices that were published Monday. ….
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Many of you may have seen the recent Nature Commentary by NIH Director Francis Collins and NIH Deputy Director Larry Tabak that talks about how NIH is addressing concerns about reproducibility in science. If you haven’t I’d encourage you to take a look. ….
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Since the last time I’ve written about our small business research programs, there have been a lot of important changes as a result of the Congressional reauthorization that mandated Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) funding requirements through fiscal year 2017. …. We have been working diligently alongside the Small Business Administration to put these changes into effect for NIH, as described on the SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2011: NIH Implementation of Key Changes website. As the 2014 HHS-wide SBIR and STTR Omnibus solicitations were announced last week, I thought it would be good to highlight some of these important reforms. ….
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