April 17, 2014

NIH and AHRQ Announce Change in Resubmission Policy

The National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality have issued NIH and AHRQ Announce Updated Policy for Application Submission (NOT-OD-14-074), changing the policy on resubmission of grant applications.

The NIH Guide notice states, “Effective immediately, for application due dates after April 16, 2014, following an unsuccessful resubmission (A1) application, applicants may submit the same idea as a new (A0) application for the next appropriate due date. The NIH and AHRQ will not assess the similarity of the science in the new (A0) application to any previously reviewed submission when accepting an application for review.”

Dr. Sally Rockey’s Rock Talk blog post, A Change in Our Resubmission Policy, provides background and additional information.

Update: On April 22, NIH published Clarifications to the NIH and AHRQ Policy for Application Submission (NOT-OD-14-082) and revised the Frequently Asked Questions: Resubmissions of NIH Applications.

April 16, 2014

FDP Publishes Faculty Workload Survey Report

The Federal Demonstration Partnership has published the 2012 Faculty Workload Survey Research Report. In 2012, the FDP conducted a survey of principal investigators of federally funded projects to determine the impact of federal regulations and requirements on research. The FDP received responses from 13,453 PIs (a 26% response rate) from 111 FDP member institutions.

The new report states that overall, “PIs reported that almost half of their available research time for federal projects had to be allocated to project-related requirements instead of the content of their research projects. PIs estimated that an average of 42% of their research time associated with federally funded projects was spent on meeting requirements rather than conducting active research.” The 2012 results are similar to those found in the 2005 FDP Faculty Workload Survey, “suggesting little change since the original survey was conducted.”

See the 105-page Report and the FDP Faculty Standing Committee documents for detailed analysis and background.

April 04, 2014

NIH Expands RPPR for Non-SNAP Progress Reports on April 25

The National Institutes of Health will open the use of the federal-wide progress reporting form, the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR), for all Type 5 non-SNAP (Streamlined Non-competing Award Process) progress reports on April 25, 2014. NIH expects to require use of the RPPR for non-SNAP progress reports in October 2014. See NIH Notice NOT-OD-14-064 for details.

April 02, 2014

DARPA Launches Biological Technologies Office

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced the creation of a new Biological Technologies Office to explore the intersection of biology and the physical sciences. The BTO goals are to “harness the power of biological systems by applying the rigorous tools of engineering and related disciplines, and to design next-generation technologies that are inspired by insights gained from the life sciences.” The initial BTO portfolio includes programs transferred from the Defense Sciences and Microsystems Technology Offices, but will also include new opportunities.

April 01, 2014

France A. Córdova Sworn in as NSF Director

France A. Córdova was sworn in March 31, 2014 as the director of the National Science Foundation for a six-year term.

Córdova is president emerita of Purdue University, where she served as president from 2007 to 2012. Among many other prestigious positions, Dr. Córdova was the UC Riverside chancellor and distinguished professor of physics and astronomy from 2002 to 2007, and she was the vice chancellor for research and professor of physics at UC Santa Barbara from 1996 to 2002.

More information is available in the NSF press release.