Volume 13, number 7: January 10, 2007
FEDERAL NEWS
Federal Research Funding Update from AAAS
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) released a Research and Development (R&D) Funding Update on December 14. At the opening of the 110 th Congress in January, only the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security's FY2007 budgets have been reauthorized. Most federal agencies have been operating under a series of Continuing Resolutions since the beginning of the fiscal year.
The AAAS update offers analysis of the R&D funding appropriations thus far, and projections for the remainder of the fiscal year.
NIH Fiscal Policy for Grant Awards – FY 2007
In mid-December, with the funding reauthorization bill still not passed, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released guidelines on their financial policy for the rest of FY2007. Operating under a Continuing Resolution with a flat budget from FY2006, NIH will not be making inflationary adjustments, and will be adjusting the number of Research Project Grants awarded. NIH remains committed to buttressing core areas of vulnerability, such as the ability of new investigators to compete for support in these difficult financial times, and protecting the NIH investment in well established investigators with little or no other significant support.
NSF Implementation of Grants.gov in FY 2007
The National Science Foundation (NSF) will publish application packages for all of its funding opportunities on Grants.gov this year, up from 79% in FY06. However, it will continue to require submission via Grants.gov for only a limited number of opportunities, and collaborative proposals with submissions from multiple organizations will still require submission via FastLane.
More information is available in NSF Grants.gov Application Guide: A Guide for the Preparation and Submission of NSF Applications via Grants.gov.
NEH and IMLS Join in Digital Partnership
The National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Museum and Library Services announced last fall that the organizations would dedicate $1.5 million to Advancing Knowledge: The IMLS/NEH Digital Partnership . Through this new partnership, NEH and IMLS will help teachers, scholars, museums, and libraries take advantage of developing technology. Successful projects funded through this partnership will explore new ways to share, examine, and interpret humanities collections in a digital environment, and develop new uses and audiences for existing digital resources.
Grant guidelines for the new program are now available. Applications are due March 27, 2007 .
ACLS Report on Cyberinfrastructure for the Humanities and Social Sciences
The American Council of Learned Societies' Commission on Cyberinfrastructure for the Humanities and Social Sciences released their final report, “Our Cultural Commonwealth,” in mid-December. Appointed in 2004 and supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the commission was charged with recommending “how the humanities and social sciences could develop online research environments that would empower scholars and students.”
New NIH Salary Cap
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have announced the interim guidelines for salaries under grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements. The new salary cap of $186,600 was effective January 1, 2007.
Humanities Advocacy Day 2007
Register to attend the Humanities Advocacy Day in Washington , D.C. on March 26-27. This annual event promotes federal support for research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities.