Progress on the Biomedical Workforce Initiatives: Upcoming Changes to the K99/R00 Awards and Pre-doctoral Fellowships

February 19, 2013

As I posted back in December, NIH is implementing many of the recommendations proposed by the Advisory Committee to the NIH Director (ACD) working group that studied the biomedical research workforce. I’d like to draw your attention to several Notices that have been posted in the NIH Guide in the past few weeks, laying out some of the details and providing a bit of background on the ACD recommendations that preceded them. ….

Update on NIH’s Public Access Policy

February 14, 2013

In November I blogged about NIH efforts to improve access to research results and updates related to the NIH public access policy. Today, NIH announced that the compliance measures outlined in the November guide notice will be implemented for all awards with anticipated start dates on or after July 1, 2013 (see NIH Guide Notice NOT-13-042). ….

Another Approach to Transparency

February 8, 2013

As you know, in August 2011 we issued a final rule in the Federal Register revising the regulations on financial conflicts of interest (FCOI) of extramural investigators, and these regulations were implemented in August 2012. One of the major changes in the new regulations was the requirement that institutions make publicly accessible certain information concerning identified financial conflicts of interest held by senior/key personnel.

One Step Closer: OMB Asks for Comments on Proposed Rule on Federal Grant Policy Reforms

February 6, 2013

You may recall that back in February 2012 I blogged about OMB’s request for comment on proposed reforms to federal grant policies contained in Office of Management and Budget (OMB) circulars such as A-21, A-133, and A-122. OMB proposed these reforms to streamline Federal policies relating to grants. The essential idea behind this reform is to reduce the “red tape” and unnecessary or overly burdensome requirements so that grantees can better focus their efforts achieving their research objectives.

Does Your Academic Training Destine Your Choice of Research Subject?

February 1, 2013

As I’ve been discussing the biomedical research workforce with people in the extramural community over the past few months, I’ve heard people say things like “PhDs don’t do much research with human subjects”. I decided to look into data that could support or refute statements such as this, and started with checking data on the use of animal and human subjects in research.

New Resource on Scientific Research Integrity

January 17, 2013

As scientists, we’re well acquainted with the importance of protecting our research from factors that could undermine objectivity. And as the nation’s largest single funder of biomedical research, it is vitally important that the public trusts the research NIH supports.  To this end, NIH recently published a centralized document describing our policies pertinent to scientific … Continue reading “New Resource on Scientific Research Integrity”

Two Years of Rock Talking!

January 16, 2013

Time flies when you’re having fun! I started Rock Talk on January 19, 2011 (see the first two posts here and here) and when Nature asked me to write about my adventures in blogging to commemorate Rock Talk’s two year anniversary I gladly agreed… check out my article here.