Volume 13, Number 10: April 4, 2007
FEDERAL NEWS
NIH Director's Bridge Awards
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is taking specific steps to buttress investigators whose R01 applications receive review scores near the institute or center nominal payline and who have limited additional support. The NIH Director's Bridge Award is designed to provide continued but limited funding for new and established grantees who have submitted a competing renewal grant application that describes a highly meritorious project. The continued funding will permit the principal investigator additional time to strengthen a resubmission application.
NIH Director's New Innovator Award Program
The new National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's New Innovator Award addresses two important NIH goals: stimulating highly innovative research, and supporting promising new investigators. New investigators may have exceptionally innovative research ideas, but not the required preliminary data to fare well in the traditional peer review system. The New Innovator Awards will support exceptionally creative new investigators who propose highly innovative approaches that have the potential to produce an unusually high impact.
New Grants.gov Solution Delayed until May
The implementation of the new Grants.gov system, which incorporates Adobe-based forms and Google search functionality, will be delayed until the first week in May in order to provide adequate testing time.
New NSF Policies and Procedures Guide Coming Soon
The National Science Foundation (NSF) will combine the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) and the Grant Policy Manual (GPM) this spring. The new NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide will provide in-depth instructions on NSF grant processes and requirements, and will be available on the website. Notices will be posted on the NSF Policy Office website, FastLane, and distributed by email via MyNSF.
HUD Seeks Peer Reviewers
The Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Office of University Partnerships (OUP) has announced the beginning of its FY07 funding cycle and issued a call for qualified individuals to review the applications submitted under these programs.
NIH SF424 Character Limit
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has published a noteworthy FAQ about the persistent warning that you have exceeded the number of characters allowed in fields in Box 19 on the SF424 Cover Component. Although the field cuts off at 60 characters, there is an anomaly in the PureEdge form that allows you to enter up to 75 characters. This causes processing delays, so please be sure to keep your entries to 60 characters.
- Judith Andersson, Office of Sponsored Research
AAAS Research and Development Federal Funding Updates
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has released a revision to their analysis of research and development funding in the fiscal year 2008 federal budget to reflect final fiscal year 2007 appropriations data, as well as changing fiscal year 2008 budget requests. AAAS has added many agency updates as well.
NSF Custom News Services
MyNSF offers a convenient way to keep up-to-date on National Science Foundation (NSF) program announcements, events, reports, newsletters, or other information in your areas of interest. Customize your alert by selecting subject areas, types of information, and even indicating your status (e.g., principle investigator). For more information and to register please visit the MyNSF website.