Applying for an NIH Loan Repayment Program (LRP) award? A reminder that applications along with supporting documentation are due on November 15. The NIH Loan Repayment Programs are a set of Congressionally-mandated programs that are designed to recruit and retain highly qualified health professionals into biomedical or biobehavioral research careers. ….

As discussed in recent Open Mike blog posts, NIH issued a new policy to enhance the privacy protections of individuals participating in NIH funded research studies. The policy eliminates the need for NIH funded investigators to apply for a certificate of confidentiality (CoC). As of October 1, 2017 ….

Due to the exceptional impact of Hurricane Maria, we want to assure grantees that NIH will be doing our part to help you continue your research. Recently, we published an NIH Guide Notice that outlines the application and report submission flexibilities available for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. We have previously published guidance for those affected by other major hurricanes this year ….

In response to questions about career development (K) award policies, NIH issued a Guide Notice NOT-OD-17-094, to clarify percent effort requirements for K award principal investigators (PIs), and acceptable sources of research support. We’d like to provide some additional details to put the recent Guide Notice in context with existing K award policies on percent effort. ….

To advance science and improve human health, peer-reviewed articles arising from NIH funds must be made available to the public on PubMed Central. Grantees should ensure their peer-reviewed manuscripts arising NIH funds are deposited into PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication, as well as reported in their annual Research Performance Progress Reports (RPPRs), to be compliant with the NIH public access policy. As described in NOT-OD-16-079, NIH will not process RPPRs until all papers arising from the award are compliant with the public access policy. That means funding for awards with non-compliant RPPRs could be delayed. The NIH manuscript submission system (NIHMS) is processing papers in about 3 weeks.  We encourage you to ensure compliance well before your RPPR is due to avoid delays processing your RPPR and receiving funding. ….

Now that we are in the closing stretch of the fiscal year, we remind research institution officials to review whether your awarded grants are accurately assigned to the correct department/school within eRA Commons. This ensures that the grants are reported correctly in tools like ….

Do you submit using downloadable forms packages? If so, be sure to read an important message from the NIH eSubmission Items of Interest listserv: “Grants.gov to Retire Legacy PDF Application Packages at end of 2017”. ….

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is pleased to present the 2017 Annual SBIR/STTR Conference: In The Heartland of BioHealth Innovation. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Administration for Community Living (ACL), and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) will be present to demonstrate and discuss research funding opportunities with interested entrepreneurs and innovators. ….

In June, NIH announced plans for a new initiative to provide additional support to the next generation of researchers. We will be announcing policy details this month. Stay tuned to the Notices published in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts. We will also include an announcement here on the NIH Extramural Nexus & Open Mike blog site, when the policy is published.

Update: The two day seminar has reached capacity today. However, the following workshops are still available to attend without seminar registration: Human Research Reviews: Mastering the Process, Intellectual Property – Understanding Requirements and Recipient Responsibilities, and Intellectual Property – A Hands-on Demonstration of iEdison. Further details …..