Dear Colleagues,
I was in Washington, D.C., last week to meet with policymakers in Congress and at federal research agencies. This was the first opportunity UCSF has had to talk directly with senior NIH leaders since the election. I have several important updates:
Terminations and Reinstatements: I was told that the NIH is diligently working to reinstate awards. This is, of course, wonderful news! This is an involved administrative process for the NIH staff, so the reinstatements are coming out slowly. We are seeing evidence of this here at UCSF, with nearly 50% of our primary award terminations now reinstated.
Delays in Notices of Awards (NOAs): NIH leadership stated that their top priority is releasing pending NOAs to investigators. This is very encouraging. However, the process is complicated, and it has become more challenging with reduced staffing and new White House mandates. NIH’s recommendation is to contact your Program Officer (PO) for information on the status of pending NOAs. Please copy your OSR Staff representative in the communication.
Multi-year Funded Awards: For research program grants like R01s, the NIH is transitioning from a year-to-year allocation to a “forward-funded,” multi-year allocation for a portion of new awards. For example, a four-year R01 for $500,000/year would historically require $500,000 from the NIH budget each year of the award. The new “forward-funded” approach would require $2,000,000 in the awarding year only. The concern with this policy change is that, for a few years of transition, it will reduce the total funding available for new awards. This will result in either a significant reduction in existing award funding or a significant reduction in new awards. PIs will start to see multi-year NOAs arriving; UCSF is working closely with NIH and other stakeholders to limit the impact of this transition on funding levels and existing award commitments.
Please expect more updates in the upcoming ReSearch ReSource in the week of July 21 and continue to contact [email protected] with questions. Thank you for your partnership as we navigate these new changes.
Yours,
Hal
Harold R. Collard, MD, MS
Vice Chancellor for Research
Professor of Medicine and Health Policy