BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
8
JUNE
2014
Public Affairs
NIH Changes Grant
Submission Policy
On Thursday April 18, NIH released a notice
indicating that effective immediately, NIH
grantees, following an unsuccessful resubmission
(A1) application, may submit the same proposal
as a new (A0) application for the next appropriate
due date. The notice states that “NIH will not
assess the similarity of the science in the new (A0)
application to any previously reviewed submission
when accepting an application for review.”
On her blog,
Sally Rockey
, Deputy Director for
Extramural Research at NIH, explained that the
policy change is being made in response to com-
munity concern that meritorious research ideas
not eligible for resubmission were being lost with
the shrinking success rates at NIH over the past
few years and productive labs have had to change
focus in order to compete for NIH funding.
The new applications will be considered with-
out consideration of a previous submission and
without an introduction of how the grant has
responded to reviews prepared by the applicant.
There is no time limit on when the new applica-
tions may be submitted as long as it is after the
summary statement is received. The time limit
for A2 applications remains in effect. In addi-
tion, a grantee does not have to submit an A2 but
may choose to submit the same research as a new
grant if desired.
Appropriators Show Support
for NSF While Science
Committee Expresses
Concerns
With the annual appropriations process getting
underway in April, 21 Senators signed a letter sent
to the senior leadership of the Senate Appropria-
tions Committee endorsing a $7.5 billion budget
for the National Science Foundation (NSF) for
FY 2015. The following Senators signed the
letter:
Tammy Baldwin
(D-WI),
Cory Booker
(D-
NJ),
Barbara Boxer
(D-CA),
Benjamin Cardin
(D-
MD),
Christopher Coons
(D-DE),
Richard Durbin
(D-IL),
Kristen Gillibrand
(D-NY),
Tom Harkin
(D-IA),
Martin Heinrich
(D-NM),
Mazie Hirono
(D-HI),
Tim Kaine
(D-VA),
Carl Levin
(D-MI),
Joe Manchin III
(D-WV),
Edward Markey
(D-
MA),
Robert Menendez
(D-NJ),
Jay Rockefeller
(D-WV),
Brian Schatz
(D-HI),
Charles Schumer
(D-NY),
Mark Warner
(D-VA),
Elizabeth Warren
(D-MA), and
Ron Wyden
(D-OR).
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman
Barbara Mikulski
(D-MD) plans to move the ap-
propriations bill quickly through her committee
and to the Senate floor in June and July; the bill
funding NSF will be one of the first to be consid-
ered because it is usually not controversial.
On the House side, the House Commerce,
Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee
responsible for the NSF budget approved a spend-
ing bill that would provide $7.5 billion for the
Foundation in FY 2015 at the end of April. The
vote was not contentious. NSF’s current budget is
$7.17 billion. The Administration’s FY 2015 re-
quest is $7.25 billion, an increase of $83.1 million
or 1.2 percent.
At the same time, though, the House Science
Committee is considering legislation, the Fron-
tiers in Innovation, Science, and Technology Act
of 2014 (H.R. 4186), that would reauthorize NSF
through 2015. This bill is very contentious since
it calls into question how the NSF awards grants
and is accountable for the research it funds. In
response to the draft bill, the National Science
Board, which directs the NSF, released a state-
ment expressing concern that the bill “would
compromise NSF’s ability to fulfill its statutory
purpose,” create “significant new burdens on sci-
entists” and limit the NSF’s flexibility by setting
authorizations for individual
NSF director
ates.
The Senate is not currently working on a reautho-
rization bill. Thus, it does not seem likely that the
reauthorization will occur in the current Congress.
The House work is important to watch, though,
since it could lay the groundwork for action in
Congress in 2015.
