Volume 11, number 10: april 1, 2005

FEDERAL NEWS

NSF Proposed Strategies to Improve Funding Success Rates

For fiscal year 2006, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the goal of raising success rates of funded grant proposals despite static budget increases. According to testimony from NSF Director Arden Bement at the House Science Committee’s Research Subcommittee’s hearing on March 9, 2005, current success rates for solicited proposals have been as low as 10 percent, a drop from 33 percent in 2000. The proposed plan looks to halt the decline of success rates, while maintaining grant size and duration.

NSF proposes to employ new strategies in hopes of funding high quality projects without creating excessive time burdens to researchers and NSF staff. First, NSF plans to cut back on the number of proposals received by shaping solicitations to be more clear about what will be funded. Secondly, the number of solicitations offered will be reduced, making key interest areas of NSF a priority. Bement also noted that in some cases, “instead of giving all the awards in one year we're extending it over two years.” Finally, NSF plans to investigate phasing out funding to some centers in an effort to redirect funds to projects “in the frontier” of research. READ MORE (pdf)

NIH Creates New Office to Coordinate Agency Research Agenda

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is creating the Office of Portfolio Analysis and Strategic Initiatives (OPASI) to streamline the process for scientific initiatives, particularly interdisciplinary research, and address holes in the NIH research portfolio. According to NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, OPASI will enable NIH to “…focus additional attention on creating better institutional tools to analyze, assess, and manage the NIH-wide research portfolio and to provide better information to support priority-setting decisions in areas of common interest to all Institutes and Centers.” READ MORE

Enhancements to NSF FastLane

In keeping with the agency’s redesign of its web presence, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has made some improvements to the FastLane system for grant applications. Some of the new features are:

enhanced Proposal File Update Module to allow changes in proposal data and addition of files
new Letter of Intent Module
increased control of submitted proposals (allow PI transfers, changes in PI/Co-PI, and insertion of new files)
updated spreadsheet upload process
redesigned financial login
proposal return to PI from sponsored program office
organizational permissions report
automatic setting of reporting period by NSF
online posted reviewers comments
CD on demand for reviewers

FastLane has also streamlined its navigation and improved the search and sort functions. NSF plans several other enhancements to FastLane to improve the system and to ease the integration with Grants.gov. READ MORE

NIH Releases Updated Instructions to the PHS 398

Updated instructions to the Public Health Service 398 application are now available. Since the November 2004 release of the new version of the form, the instructions have been updated to reflect changes in policy and provide better clarity. Not all updates are published in the National Institutes of Health Guide, but all are noted on the web site.

Updates of note since the initial November 2004 release include:

additional acceptable fonts;
clarified Appendix material;
minor formatting revisions to improve usability;
significant revisions to the Human Subjects Research Supplement;
new ordering of items in the Human Subjects Research section of the Research Plan;

NIH Reevaluates Eligibility Criteria for Minority Programs

On March 3, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has expanded the eligibility criteria of several of its diversity-oriented grant programs to make them more inclusive. Although NIH will still offer a limited number of programs designed for under-represented minorities, the agency is moving towards opening its diversity programs to a broader pool of applicants, including disadvantaged or disabled researchers of any race. The NIH has already instituted these changes in some of its programs and intends to make similar alterations in the eligibility criteria of other programs when its current grant cycles expire.

Grants.gov Hosts Webcast on Services

Grants.gov, the government portal for federal funding opportunities, hosted its first web cast to introduce interested researchers and administrators to the features and highlights of the Grants.gov site. Those interested in seeing the replay of the presentation or a summary of the questions and comments with the responses may now view them online.

Due to high demand, Grants.gov is planning an encore web cast in April. The program will include an extended question and answer session with the Grants.gov speakers. READ MORE

Final Rules for Select Agents and Toxins Published

The Centers for Disease Control has published its final rule concerning the possession, use and transfer of select agents and toxins. It will be effective on April 18, 2005, and will supercede all proceeding rules.

The Department of Agriculture also issued its corresponding final rule on the possession, use and transfer of biological agents and toxins meant to protect animal and plant health and products. Certain amendments to the lists of agents and toxins went into effect on March 10, 2005, but the remaining provisions of this final rule go into effect on April 18, 2005.

NTP Roadmap for the Future Announced

The National Toxicology Program (NTP) announces the availability of the “National Toxicology Program for the 21st Century: A Roadmap for the Future.” The NTP Roadmap identifies the challenges and opportunities confronting the program today and discusses their future directions in three main areas:

refining traditional toxicology assays;
developing rapid, mechanism-based predictive screens for environmentally induced diseases; and
improving the overall utility of NTP products for public health decisions.

In addition to guiding NTP’s in-house research studies, these directions will impact the cooperative and collaborative research agreements offered by the agency. Presentation of NTP’s vision and roadmap will be a focus of a May symposium in Washington, D.C. READ MORE

NASA Extends Deadline and Offers Pre-Proposal Conference for Interdisciplinary Exploration Science Funding

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has posted an amendment to its "Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences" that establishes April 26, 2005, as the new due date for Notices of Intent to Propose (NOIs) for Interdisciplinary Exploration Science (IES). NASA made this change to allow interested researchers to attend the web cast Pre-proposal Conference and Workshop for IES on April 19, in Washington, D.C., prior to the NOI due date. Instructions for viewing the web cast will be posted with the IES program solicitation no later than one week prior to the conference.

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