NIH funding in the Economic Recovery Act (Zotmail)
Dear Colleagues,
This morning, a conference call was held for the Research Vice Chancellors from the 62 AAU universities to hear from the Acting Director of NIH, Dr. Raynard Kington, concerning NIH funding in the Economic Recovery Act. The broad outlines of the plan are presented below, but the details are not yet available.
Altogether an additional $10.4 B will be available from February 17, 2009 through September 2010, and every effort will be made to spend as much as possible in FY 2009. $10.4 B total NIH funding to be distributed as follows:
- $8.2 B towards NIH’s scientific research priorities
- $7.4 B of which goes to the institutes, centers and common funds, in proportion to their overall budget. (Common fund supports Roadmap, etc.)
- $800 M for the Office of the Director
- $1 B to National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) for extramural construction, repair and alterations – in support of broad mission of all the institutions
- $300 M to NCRR for shared equipment
- $500 M for construction of buildings, renovations and improvements on the NIH campus
- $400 M for Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to fund comparative effectiveness research.
The Director made it clear that there were no assumptions that any of this funding would be additive to the base NIH funding level in the future. Three broad areas that will be the focus of funding for the scientific component of the budget ($8.2 B for research):
- RO1s: NIH will rely heavily on peer review system and 2nd level of review at council, to help inform decisions. The pool of grant applications from 2008, and some from early 2009 that were meritorious but unfunded, will be targeted for funding. R01s will be the primary mechanism, as this constitutes the bulk of the funding from NIH. Only those new R01s for which there is reasonable expectation of significant progress within the two years that can be committed at this time will be funded. Negotiations will take place with PIs to develop 2-year plans.
- Supplements: Administrative supplements will be made to expand research within broad themes for grants already supported. Themes may be things like equipment, training, summer student support, etc. The primary driver of these decisions will be scientific opportunity, impact on public health, etc. This will not be done formulaically (i.e., there will not be an identical % increase to all grants).
- NIH Challenge grants: This is a new programs and details will be available later. As with all other categories, these will be subject to Peer Review. The expectation is that progress can be made within 2 years of funding. Each NIH institute and center will be able to identify areas of interest for receiving applications. Probably $100-$200M range for this program, but subject to change. RFA forthcoming.
Overall, NIH has a commitment to funding the best science possible with this ERA stimulus, relying heavily on the peer review system. They will be looking for broadest impact for their investment. Reporting requirements are expected to be greater than usual for NIH, including additional items, such as number of jobs created or retained with these funds.
In response to questions, we also learned the following:
- Multiple year funding will not be made in a lump sum.
- Funds should be expended within the period of the grant. DO NOT ASK to carry forward any funds.
- The RFA for the Challenge Grant program will attempt to put the least amount of burden on the applicant.
- For applications already on the table, will need to scale back to 2 years of funds. In making decisions about fundable projects, the example was given that it will not work to fund up until the last patient has been recruited for a clinical trial, and then stop.
- Details on construction funding have yet to be determined.
- Details on cost sharing have yet to be determined.
- None of the stimulus funding will be used to restore funding to grants that have been cut.
- There might be an opportunity for supplements to CTSA programs, but these would have to go through normal channels. The details will be available soon.
I hope to be able to provide more details as time goes on, and for my part, I will be working with the leadership of the campus to develop campus priorities for certain types of funding, e.g., construction.
Sue Bryant
Vice Chancellor for Research
