Archive for January 2011


Training Strategic Plan Draft Posted for Public Comment

Monday, Jan 31, 2011 10:33 AM EST by Jeremy Berg | 2 Comments

In March 2010, I announced that we were in the process of developing a strategic plan for research training, and I asked for your input. We heard from more than 300 stakeholders, who included university faculty and administrators, graduate students and postdocs, representatives from professional societies and individuals from government and industry. We also received [...]

Filed under: Career Development, Director’s Messages, Training/Fellowships, Workforce Development and Diversity
Permalink: https://loop.nigms.nih.gov/index.php/2011/01/31/training-strategic-plan-draft-posted-for-public-comment/

The Funding Decision Process

Friday, Jan 28, 2011 3:45 PM EST by Jeremy Berg | 8 Comments

I recently described the role that an advisory council plays as the second level of peer review for applications submitted to NIH. One thing that neither advisory councils nor study sections do, however, is make funding decisions. How, then, are these decisions made? In this post, I’ll describe the process we use at NIGMS. The [...]

Filed under: Director’s Messages
Permalink: https://loop.nigms.nih.gov/index.php/2011/01/28/the-funding-decision-process/

New Blog from NIH Extramural Research Chief

Tuesday, Jan 25, 2011 4:49 PM EST by Paul Sheehy | 2 Comments

The Feedback Loop has gotten attention for its contributions to increasing communication between the scientific community and NIGMS staff. Now, the NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research, Sally Rockey, has launched a new blog, called Rock Talk. It will be a forum for discussing NIH funding policies and processes and how they affect the extramural [...]

Filed under: News, Research Administration, Resources
Permalink: https://loop.nigms.nih.gov/index.php/2011/01/25/new-blog-from-nih-extramural-research-chief/

Comment on Proposed NIH Organizational Changes via New Feedback Site

Wednesday, Jan 19, 2011 1:53 PM EST by Jeremy Berg | 2 Comments

NIH recently launched a new site for communication with the scientific community, http://feedback.nih.gov/. The site has already been quite active, since it requests input on a proposed National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) and a proposed institute focused on substance use, abuse and addiction research. Of particular interest may be a recent post on [...]

Filed under: Director’s Messages, News, Resources
Permalink: https://loop.nigms.nih.gov/index.php/2011/01/19/comment-on-proposed-nih-organizational-changes-via-new-feedback-site/

The Advisory Council’s Critical Roles

Wednesday, Jan 19, 2011 1:50 PM EST by Jeremy Berg | 5 Comments

Later this month, the National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council will hold the first of its three meetings in 2011. While many applicants, grantees and reviewers are familiar with the roles and processes of study sections, fewer know how an advisory council works. In this post, I’ll provide an overview of its many critical roles. [...]

Filed under: Director’s Messages, Meetings/Events
Permalink: https://loop.nigms.nih.gov/index.php/2011/01/19/the-advisory-councils-critical-roles/

PSI Tools for Your Lab

Wednesday, Jan 12, 2011 8:49 AM EST by Ward Smith | 0 Comments

Over the course of its 10-year existence, the Protein Structure Initiative has supported the development of new technologies and methods that improve the throughput of protein structure determination. Many of them apply to the production of purified proteins for functional and structural studies, and you don’t need access to major research centers to use them. [...]

Filed under: Meetings/Events, Resources, Structural Biology
Permalink: https://loop.nigms.nih.gov/index.php/2011/01/12/psi-tools-for-your-lab/

Fiscal Year 2010 R01 Funding Outcomes and Estimates for Fiscal Year 2011

Friday, Jan 7, 2011 9:43 AM EST by Jeremy Berg | 17 Comments

Fiscal Year 2010 ended on September 30, 2010. We have now analyzed the overall results for R01 grants, shown in Figures 1-3. Figure 1. Competing R01 applications reviewed (open rectangles) and funded (solid bars) in Fiscal Year 2010. Figure 2. NIGMS competing R01 funding curves for Fiscal Years 2006-2010. The thicker curve (black) corresponds to [...]

Filed under: Director’s Messages, Funding Trends
Permalink: https://loop.nigms.nih.gov/index.php/2011/01/07/fiscal-year-2010-r01-funding-outcomes-and-estimates-for-fiscal-year-2011/

Register for 25th Annual NIGMS AIDS-Related Structural Biology Meeting

Wednesday, Jan 5, 2011 9:12 AM EST by Joe Gindhart | 0 Comments

Registration is now open for the 25th Annual Meeting of the Groups Studying the Structures of AIDS-Related Systems and Their Application to Targeted Drug Design. The meeting will take place March 28-30, 2011, on the NIH campus in Bethesda. Plenary sessions will cover the HIV life cycle, host-pathogen interactions, imaging, latency, viral host recognition and [...]

Filed under: Meetings/Events
Permalink: https://loop.nigms.nih.gov/index.php/2011/01/05/register-for-25th-annual-nigms-aids-related-structural-biology-meeting/