From: Berg, Jeremy (NIH/NIGMS) [E]
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2008 3:54 PM
To: NIGMS Principal Investigators
Subject: Fiscal Year 2008 Financial Management Plan
Dear NIGMS Principal Investigator:
On January 28, NIH issued its Fiscal Policy for Grant Awards – FY 2008 (see http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-036.html). This policy addresses the support of noncompeting and competing research awards, new investigators, and established investigators who have little or no additional research support (also see http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-037.html).
The policy has several key features:
NIH received a 1 percent inflation allowance to NIH investments in research supported by research grants, whereas previously established commitments were based on a 3 percent inflation allowance.
Each institute and center has discretion to allocate the adjustment among its noncompeting research grants (modular and non-modular) to ensure compliance with the 1 percent inflation allowance provided in its FY 2008 committed level. Future-year commitments will be adjusted accordingly.
Noncompeting awards previously issued in FY 2008 at reduced levels will be revised to restore funds to the level indicated above (see http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-001.html).
The NIGMS approach in allocating these funds is to provide full support to commitments to modular grants. This requires a reduction in non-modular grant commitments of 2.9 percent. These adjustments also apply to noncompeting and administrative supplements to research grants affected by these reductions. All SBIR/STTR and research career (K) awards will be awarded at previously committed levels. Funding policies for NRSA awards are the same as in FY 2007 and can be found in the NIH Guide notice, Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Stipend and Other Budgetary Levels Effective for FY 2007 (see NOT-OD-07-057).
Based on our appropriation, this policy will allow NIGMS to make approximately 825 new and competing research project grants (RPGs) with a 1 percent increase in average grant size. This compares with 1116 RPGs last year. Based on current estimates for the number of applications that NIGMS will receive, this corresponds to a projected success rate of 22 percent, compared with 32 percent for last year.
The full NIGMS Fiscal Year 2008 Financial Management Plan can be found at http://www.nigms.nih.gov/About/Budget/FY2008Plan.htm.
The Fiscal Year 2009 President’s Budget was released on February 4 with proposed funding levels essentially the same as for the current fiscal year. This is the first step in the process of appropriating a budget for the next fiscal year. The NIGMS budget justification can be found at http://publications.nigms.nih.gov/cjs/2009/index.html.
As always, if you have questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact me directly at bergj@mail.nih.gov .
Jeremy M. Berg
Director
National Institute of General Medical Sciences
bergj@mail.nih.gov