May 09, 2013

NIH Publishes Fiscal Policy for FY 2013

The National Institutes of Health has issued NIH Fiscal Policy for Grant Awards – FY 2013 (NOT-OD-13-064), that provides guidance for the remainder of fiscal year 2013 (through September 30, 2013).

Sally Rockey, NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research, published a Rock Talk blog post, Funding Operations for FY2013, that summarizes the new notice.

Key points from the Rock Talk post:
  • NIH will continue many of the same policies established in FY 2012, including National Research Service Awards (NRSA) stipend levels, salary limits, and other legislative mandates in effect for FY 2012.
  • Some non-competing continuation awards were already made at reduced levels (as described in an earlier blog post.) These reductions may be partially restored, but NIH institutes and centers (ICs) likely will be required to issue all non-competing awards at levels below the FY 2013 commitment indicated on the notice of grant award.
  • NIH will make fewer competing awards.
  • The policy set forth in FY 2012, which discontinued inflationary increases for future year commitments, remains in place, but adjustments for special needs will be considered.
  • NIH will continue the targeted support of new investigators, aiming for a success rate on new (type 1) R01 equivalent grants comparable to that of established investigators.
In related news, NIH Director Francis Collins is using Twitter to ask “how the #sequester is affecting your biomedical research right now,” using hashtag #NIHSequesterImpact.

More information on sequestration is available on the SPO web site: Impact of Federal Budget Sequestration on Sponsored Projects.