• NIH Change in Application Receipt Dates for a Number of Research and Training Award Mechanisms
  http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-07-001.html

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• Percent Effort to Person Months FAQs and Calculator Now Available
  http://grants.nih.gov/grants/partners/0506Nexus.htm#Calculator

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• Reminder for Applicants Considering the Multiple PI Option
  http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-074.html

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• NIH Announces Change in Business Process: Replacing Principal Investigator Signature on Grant Applications, Progress Reports, and Prior Approval Requests with an Institutional Compliance Requirement- http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-054.html

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• NIH/AHRQ Announce Change in Business Process Concerning eRA Commons Verifications of Electronically Submitted Applications
  http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-055.html

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• NIH Announces Interim Changes to the PHS398 Application and Instructions
  http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-056.html

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• NIH Announces Changes to the SF424 (R&R) Instructions
  http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-057.html

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• NIH Announces Interim Changes to the PHS2590 Noncompeting Progress Report Forms and Instructions
  http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-058.html

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• Change in Time of Submission/Receipt of NIH Electronic Grant Applications to Grants.gov- Effective April 1, 2006, electronic grant applications must be successfully received no later than 5:00 p.m. local time by Grants.gov (http://www.grants.gov/) in order to be considered “on time.” This change applies to ALL electronic grant applications submitted to NIH through Grants.gov, including SBIR and STTR applications due April 1, 2006.

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• NIH Adjusts Timeline for Electronic Application Submission to Provide Additional Time Before the R01 Transition- After considering input from the applicant community, analyzing the results of the first few submission rounds, and examining the timing of key submission dates in relation to other NIH initiatives, NIH has adjusted the implementation timeline for electronic application submission to provide an additional four months (one submission round) before the transition of the NIH traditional research grant (R01) mechanism and all subsequent mechanisms. (more...)

Establishment of Multiple Principal Investigator Awards for the Support of Team Science Projects- In 2006 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will begin to implement a Federal-wide policy to allow formally more than one Principal Investigator (PI) on individual research awards. This presents a new and important opportunity for investigators seeking support for projects or activities that clearly require a “team science” approaches and which do not fit the single-PI model. (more...)

NIH Financial Policy for Grant Awards - FY 2006

The NIH appropriation for FY 2006 includes an across-the-board reduction to non-emergency, discretionary programs, which has a direct impact on NIH's budget. The NIH share of this adjustment is approximately $286 million. NIH has established the following financial polices consistent with this appropriation.
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-025.html

FY 2006 Salary Limitation on Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and Contracts
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-031.html

NIH Office of Extramural Research Announces the NIH Extramural Nexus Bimonthly Update- The NIH Extramural Nexus will be distributed six times annually and will provide the biomedical research community with updates on NIH extramural research programs, activities, and policies. To subscribe, send a plain text email to Listserv@list.nih.gov with "Subscribe EXTRAMURALNEXUS" in the message body. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-032.html

New FY 2006 Salary Cap- For FY 2006 awards, the Executive Level I salary cap will be $183,500, an increase from the FY 2005 salary cap of $175,700.
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/salcap_summary.htm

Change in Submission Dates for Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) Program http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-05-080.html  

NIH has decided to shorten the time from submission to award and to change the submission dates for each cycle to one month later. This will give applicants one additional month to prepare the application. Beginning in 2006, the new annual submission dates are: February 25; June 25; and October 25. Note: AIDS-related AREA application annual submission dates remain as follows: May 1, September 1, and January 2.

NIH Announces Plans to Eliminate Mailing of Paper Notifications: Summary Statements & Peer Review Outcome Letters
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-05-075.html

• Summary Statements: Beginning October 1, 2005, NIH will no longer send hard copies of the Summary Statements to Principal Investigators (PIs) and Individual Fellows Applicants. Summary Statements are accessible electronically to PIs and Fellows in the eRA Commons within approximately 8 weeks of the Scientific Review Group (SRG) meeting.

• Review Outcome “Mailers”: Beginning February 1, 2006, the NIH will no longer send hard copies of the notification letter (also known as a “mailer”) to PIs and Fellows regarding the review outcome of an application by the SRG. When the SRG rosters and meeting dates become available, they may be accessed through http://www.csr.nih.gov/Committees/rosterindex.asp (Center for Scientific Review [CSR] reviews) or http://era.nih.gov/roster/ (Institute/Center reviews).  Scores will be posted in the eRA Commons approximately 5 working days after the SRG meeting.

Guidelines for Inclusion of Clinical Practice Compensation in Institutional Base Salary Charged to NIH Grants and Contracts

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-05-061.html

New Closeout Feature in the eRA Commons

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-05-051.html

Mandatory use of New Instructions and Forms for PHS 398 (DHHS Public Health Service Grant Application) and PHS 2590(DHHS Public Health Service Non-Competing Grant Progress Report)

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-05-043.html

NIH Policy on Sharing of Model Organisms for Biomedical Research

To further extend NIH resource sharing policies, all investigators submitting an NIH application or contract proposal beginning with the October1, 2004 receipt date, are expected to include in the application/proposal a description of a specific plan for sharing and distributing unique model organism research resources generated using NIH funding so that other researchers can benefit from these resources, OR state appropriate reasons for why such sharing is restricted or not possible. Unlike the NIH Data Sharing Policy, the submission of a model organism sharing plan is NOT subject to a cost threshold of $500,000 or more in direct costs in any one year, and is expected to be included in all applications where the development of model organisms is anticipated. (The NIH Final Statement on Data Sharing is available at 
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-03-032.html)

NIH Roadmap Briefing - Webcast In September 2003, NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., laid out a series of far-reaching initiatives known collectively as the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. A briefing providing details of these new initiatives was held in Washington D.C. on February 27th, 2004. If you were unable to attend the meeting, the entire webcast is available on the NIH web site:
http://www.capconcorp.com/roadmap/webcast.asp