March 25, 2015
There has been a lot of discussion in the community about the age of NIH supported researchers. As I’ve mentioned here on the blog before, we continue to examine how best to sustain the biomedical workforce. There are many ways to characterize our workforce or the biomedical research ecosystem, and many factors that contribute to successfully obtaining an NIH award. Since the topic of age is a popular one right now, I’d like to share with you some recent analyses that my office looked into regarding the distribution of research funding by age group.
We examined total and direct costs of NIH research project grants from 1998 through the last full fiscal year, and graphed the distribution of research funding by age group. The full data is posted on RePORT, and since the patterns are similar, I’ll post the graph of direct cost funding distribution below: ….
March 20, 2015
It’s spring and that means it’s time for the NIH Regional Seminar. This year, I’m especially excited that I will have more than 50 of my NIH and HHS colleagues joining me in Baltimore to share the latest updates and guidance on NIH initiatives, policies, and updates on the NIH grants process. If you are new to working with NIH – or maybe just in need of a brush-up on NIH funding and grant policy-related topics – consider joining us May 7-8, 2015. ….
March 2, 2015
On February 5, NIH announced its “NIH Interim Grant General Conditions”, our first step toward implementing Fed-wide administrative requirements for the use of Federal funds.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB)’s “Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards” (2 CFR part 200), (you may also hear it referred to as the “Uniform Guidance” or “UG”), published in December 2013, provided a government-wide framework for administrative requirements, cost principles, and audit requirements when ….
February 20, 2015
Last year we highlighted a new section of the NIH Data Book that provides statistics about peer review across NIH, including peer review organized by the Center of Scientific Review as well as peer review organized by NIH institutes and centers. Then, and now, these data truly demonstrate how you, our peer reviewers, are the lifeline of the scientific process. During 2014 nearly 24,000 reviewers participated in more than 2,500 peer review meetings to assess the scientific and technical merit of NIH applications, and many of those reviewers participated in multiple meetings. Your service to NIH expands our capacity to fund the best science, and provides an essential breadth of perspectives on the research projects and research training that NIH supports. In the lab and in the study section, we’re grateful for the myriad ways you work with us to advance human health and benefit the health of our nation, and the world. ….
February 3, 2015
From enhancing diversity to supporting training in emerging fields, over the past three years NIH has continued to examine the needs of the biomedical workforce and create initiatives that will sustain the amazing work being performed by you, the extramural research community. Our efforts place a lot of focus on trainees and early stage investigators through policy changes and new programs, but there are two sides to every equation. We have many well-established research programs run by senior investigators. We want to explore how ….
January 30, 2015
Since 2008, NIH’s Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools, better known as RePORT, has provided easy access to info on NIH funded research. My office continues to look at new ways to enhance your access to important information through robust search tools, data visualization dashboards, and more. I’d like to highlight one of our newer tools today: Matchmaker.
Matchmaker allows you to enter manuscript abstracts, research bios, ….
January 12, 2015
In the rapidly evolving world of modern medicine, it is important that the transition of basic scientific discoveries into new medical treatments takes place with both precision and speed.
NIH’s Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs – which I’ve discussed a few times on the blog before – are a key part of NIH’s translational research portfolio. ….
January 7, 2015
Happy 2015! Just a quick blog to let you know that last week, NIH announced policies for fiscal operations for fiscal year (FY) 2015, implementing the 2015 Consolidated Appropriations Act signed by President Obama on December 16, 2014. NIH has a budget of $30.31 billion, an increase of approximately $240 million over the FY 2014 final budget allocations of $30.07 billion. We also announced the stipend levels for Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards (NRSA), and salary limits ….
December 31, 2014
Application and award summary data for fiscal year 2014 are now available in the NIH Data Book. These data are of particular interest for all of us this year, considering the historic low of the success rate last year, and the reduction of NIH’s budget in fiscal year 2013, due to sequestration. For this reason, in the table below, we include both FY2013 and FY 2012 data for comparison purposes. ….
December 22, 2014
We’ve received some questions about shipment and receipt of biological samples, particularly in the context of the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa; for example, whether grantees can accept biological materials from Africa, and whether NIH has in place any requirements for transporting such research materials. In light of these incoming questions, I think this is a good time to remind you that a number of regulations are in place to ensure ….
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