Announcements - Cloned

January 07, 2019

Dear Colleagues:

As of this time, the partial government shutdown continues and it is uncertain when it will be resolved. This announcement serves to provide guidance on the management of sponsored projects funded by those federal agencies impacted by the shutdown.  This includes NASA, NSF, Commerce (including NIST and NOAA), FDA, EPA, the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities.

None of HHS (including NIH, CDC, CMS, HRSA, SAMHSA and AHRQ), DOD, VA, DOE and the DE is impacted by the shutdown.

Communications

Contact with…

December 22, 2018

Dear Colleagues:

As many of you already know, the partial shutdown of the federal government went into effect at midnight last night.  The shutdown primarily affects those agencies that have not been funded through the end of federal fiscal year (FFY) 2019, including NSF, NASA and EPA and the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, State and Transportation.  With the exception of the NSF, the affected agencies have not yet issued guidance on how the shutdown will impact their grant and contract…

Today NIH released the new Parent Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) for the R01 and R21 funding mechanisms dedicated to Basic Experimental Studies Involving Humans. These studies fall within the NIH definition of a clinical trial and also meet the definition of basic research. Read the NIH Open Mike blog for more information.

These new Parent FOAs, along with all other Parent FOAs, can be found in the NIH Parent Announcements.

In addition, similar FOAs were released for all the Parent Career Development Award (K-series) FOAs. However, those are only available in the November 30, 2018…

Official NIH Notice: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-19-036.html

NIH just released the stipend levels for fiscal year (FY) 2019 (October 1, 2018 – September 30^th, 2019) Kirschstein-NRSA awards for predoctoral, and postdoctoral trainees and fellows. The link above includes all of the details. I know many of you preparing training grants and fellowship applications right now. You can use these new stipend and expense levels in your proposals and progress reports, effective immediately.

To note, the predoctoral stipend increased to $24,816 (FY19), up from $24,324 (FY18)…

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has released its latest version of their Grants Policy Statement (NIHGPS, rev Oct 2018). It is applicable to all NIH grants and cooperative agreements with budget periods beginning October 1^st, 2018. It supersedes the previous version (NIHGPS, rev Oct 2017).  You can read the full announcement here:

https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-19-021.html

The HTML and PDF versions of the NIHGPS can be found at https://grants.nih.gov/policy/nihgps/index.htm.

NIH updates the NIHGPS every October to incorporate policy announcements that…

The Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library (HSL) and Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) are pleased to introduce you to a new tool: PIVOT, which allows instantaneous access to the funding opportunities that are right for you. 

Start using PIVOT at: https://pivot.proquest.com/ and sign up for an account using your Columbia University email address. 

PIVOT strengths:

• Editorially curated up-to-date funding opportunities span all disciplines and project types, from health and medicine to humanities, law and education, worth an estimated $49 billion.
• A proprietary…

Attention NIH Investigators and Administrators,

I wanted to highlight some resources that are available for addressing rigor and reproducibility in your grant applications. In a July Open Mike blog post, NIH highlighted several resources that are readily available. These resources, plus many more, have been compiled in an easy-to-navigate online repository as part of the Research and Data Integrity (ReaDI) Program here at Columbia. You may already be aware of the ReaDI Program and the resources that are available to Columbia researchers, but if you want to know more, the ReaDI Program is hosting…

NIH announced last week that they are retiring the Inclusion Management System (IMS) and replacing it with a new Human Subjects System (HSS) as of June 9^th, 2018. Per the NIH HSS website, “The HSS system is a shared system that enables grant recipients to electronically report and update their data on human subjects and clinical trials to NIH; and for NIH agency staff to monitor and manage the data.”

The information you provide in the new PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information form in proposals, and in the Research Performance Progress Reports (RPPRs), automatically populate…

Official NIH Notice: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-18-175.html

NIH released the stipend levels for fiscal year (FY) 2018 (October 1, 2017 – September 30, 2018) Kirschstein-NRSA awards for predoctoral, and postdoctoral trainees and fellows. The link above includes all of the details. You can use these new stipend and expense levels in your proposals and progress reports, effective immediately.

To note, the predoctoral stipend increased to $24,324 (FY18), up from $23,844 (FY17). However, the Training Related Expenses and Institutional Allowances for predoctoral trainees…

This is to provide an update on the status of the release of the FY18 Department of Defense (DoD) Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) funding opportunities and program pre-announcements.  You can subscribe to be alerted on the release of specific CDMRP funding opportunities by selecting your area of interest at https://ebrap.org/eBRAP/programSubscription/Subscribe.htm.

As of today, the only FY18 extramural opportunities available are the Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP), which is currently accepting applications for six award mechanisms throughout May 2018.

NIH issued guidance on the use of a new NIH salary cap, to increase from $187,000 to $189,600.  See https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-18-137.html.  The effective date of this increase is January 7^th, 2018.

NIH has not received the final Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 appropriation and is operating under a continuing resolution through March 23^rd, 2018 (see NOT-OD-18-136 also a very important notice).  However, NIH issued this guidance until a budget is passed.

In summary, this is how the $189,600 salary cap can be applied:

• NIH proposal budgets may be submitted…

Last week, an announcement came out from NIH & AHRQ that stated “beginning in early FY 2020, NIH and AHRQ intend to require the use of the xTRACT system in the eRA Commons to prepare the required data tables for certain types of training grant applications.”

You can read the full announcement here: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-18-133.html

Here is the important part:

“Beginning with RPPRs due on or after October 1, 2019 and applications submitted for due dates on or after January 25, 2020, NIH and AHRQ anticipate that they will mandate that required…

The National Science Foundation (NSF) issued a revised Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) that will take effect for proposals submitted on, or due on or after, January 29^th, 2018.  A listing of significant changes from the PAPPG 2017 version can be found here.

I highly recommend watching the NSF webinar, which took place on December 8, 2017. It provides an explanation of the significant changes, making it very easy to understand them. It also provides a preview of NSF’s Proposal Submission Modernization initiative. NSF has been working toward moving proposal…

Want to learn about the new NIH PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information Form, now required in FORMS-E? We'll be conducting informal webinars to help you become familiar with the form in preparation for NIH applications due on or after January 25th, 2018.

These sessions are open to both faculty and grants administrators wanting to learn more about the form. It doesn’t matter if you use ASSIST or PD in InfoEd to participate in these calls.

Here are the dates. You can register with your UNI and password within each link, and you’ll receive confirmation via email with the ZOOM…

NIH will make the Project Outcomes Section of all Interim and Final RPPRs submitted on or after October 1, 2017 available to the general public via the NIH RePORTER. See notice NOT-OD-18-103.

You should also read Mike Lauer’s Blog, Why Project Outcomes Matter in your Interim and Final RPPR, which provides helpful tips on writing this section for the general public.

Per the notice, this allows recipients of NIH funds “to provide the general public with a concise summary of the cumulative outcomes or findings of the project (analogous to the Project Summary/Abstract section of the competing…