Author: Roger Wood

On Feb 10th, the Small Business Association (US) published new guidelines in the Federal Register. 37 small business size standard for 34 industries and three sub-industries in the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) were increased. These changes take effect March 12, 2012. These changes were the result of a new comprehensive review of size standards, the first such update since the early 1980s. The small business industry associations are evaluating these changes. Obviously, such changes will impact the specific businesses that can be used in developing a small business plan.

The National Science Foundation (US)  published today a summary report for 2011. The report demonstrates that NSF awards dropped in number by 13.9% between FY 2010 and FY2 2011; there were 7% fewer proposals in FY 2011 relative to FY 2010 also . This was the second year of decline in number of NSF awards (2009 to 2010 decline was 11%). NSF’s funding rate for 2011 declined slightly, by 1%, relative to 2011.

The report provides additional details on the sources of NSF funding, the nature of NSF’s award portfolio (e.g., grants, cooperative agreements, contracts), the types of recipients, and the purposes of the awards (e.g., research and related, equipment and facilities, education). It also provides an overview of NSF’s progress toward meeting 2011 performance goals designed to help the Foundation achieve its three strategic goals identified in its 2011-2016 strategic plan, Empowering the Nation Through Discovery and Innovation. Director Subra Suresh’s OneNSF vision for the future is also described in the report.

In a briefing after the budget was announced, Science Insider reports on the specific “new grants management policies” that would support increasing the number of new awards.

In order to squeeze more grants out of the flat budget—the target is an 8% increase in new grants, to 672, for a total of 9415–NIH will put in place new grant management policies. Continuing grants will be cut 1% below the 2012 level, competing grants wouldn’t get inflationary increases in future years, and NIH will add a new layer of review for proposals from investigators who already have at least $1.5 million in funding.

Still, the success rate is projected to bump up only slightly from this year’s all-time low of 18% to 19%, NIH says. And although new grants will rise, the overall number of funded grants will actually drop by 56 to 35,888.

Today, the NIH announced the first of several Finding Opportunity Announcements (FOA) rolling out electronic submission for administrative supplements.

This FOA (PA-12-100) is available for prior approval requests to nearly all active grant awards (in accordance with Section 8.1.2.11 of the NIH Grants Policy Statement), however, there is no guarantee funds are available from the awarding IC or for any specific grant.  All applicants are encouraged to discuss potential requests with the awarding IC (either the parent award’s assigned Grants Management and Program Staff, or the contacts listed in Section VII of a specific Administrative Supplement FOA).  Additionally, prior to submission, applicants must review the awarding IC’s web site to ensure they meet the IC’s requirements.  A list of those web sites is available at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/admin_supp/index.htm.

This signals the beginning of NIH’s pilot project to accept many administrative supplement requests electronically either directly via the Commons or by submission via Grants.gov, which supports institutions using system-to-system.

Today, the President’s proposed 2013 Federal budget was presented to Congress and released to the public. In an effort to assist the public with access to the President’s budget request, the Government Printing Office has provided a web app, which can be accessed on smart phones and other devices. The web app is available here: http://m.gpo.gov/budget

Whether you review the budget on the mobile app, online via FDsys or you snag a paper copy, I think you’ll find there is no additional information to be had regarding this statement: “…proposes new grant management policies to increase the number of new research grants by 7 percent.” And, the budget Fact Sheet that I linked to in a previous post remains the best short summary of how the administration proposes to allocate funds across all agencies.

On February 8th, NIH published a request for input into the development of the Scientifc Strategic Plan for a proposed new Institute.

NIH proposes to create a new Institute, with the working name of the National Institute of Substance Use and Addiction Disorders,” through inclusion in the President’s Budget for fiscal year 2014.  A planning committee that includes scientific representatives from the potentially affected Institutes and Centers is developing a Scientific Strategic Plan for the proposed Institute with the primary goal of identifying new scientific opportunities that are not currently supported in the existing NIH research portfolios and public health initiatives on substance use, abuse, and addiction-related disorders.

This proposal flows from a recommendation by the Scientific Management Review Board in September 2010 that included a recommendation that all addiction-related research throughout the NIH be consolidated under this new Institute and that the National Institute on Drug Abuse and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism be dissolved and that their non-addiction research portfolios be redistributed as appropriate to other Institutes and Centers.

This RFI is soliciting input on the scientific opportunities and public health needs that should be included in the Scientific Strategic Plan. They are not currently seeking input on the recommendation to create the new institute itself. Comments may be submitted here: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfi_files/nih_nisuad/add.cfm through May 11, 2012.

NIH plans to host a series of public outreach meetings on the draft Strategic Plan in the Fall 2012. Watch here for more information.

On Dec 16th, Rep. Darrell Issa introduced legislation (H.R. 3699) that would end the experiment in public access that has been ongoing at the NIH since implementing PL 110-161 (<a href="” target=”_blank”>Jan 11, 2008 NIH Guide notice). Essentially, the NIH policy in place requires that publications flowing from research funded by the NIH be publicly available within 12 months of their publication date.

Rep Michael Doyle and Sen John Cornyn each submitted bills on Feb 9, 2012 (H.R. 4004 and S. 2096 respectively) that would expand the existing law applicable to NIH to other Federal agencies and reduce the time to public posting to six months.

Similar opposing bills on public access policy have been submitted previously and so far, have come to naught. In response to the introduction of H.R. 3699, Michael Eisen wrote an op ed in the New York Times and a call to boycott the scientific publisher Elsevier was initiated. The Association of American Publishers endorsed HR. 3699, while a number of university presses (members of the AAP) have publicly distanced themselves from the legislation as has the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Nature Publishing Group.

The President’s budget request to Congress for FY 2013 will be released shortly and the formal discussions will ensue. The White House released a fact sheet on the budget in advance of the full budget release next week. >

Included in the fact sheet is this proposal:

Level funding for biomedical research at NIH ($30.7 billion); and to get more out of the money, proposes new grant management policies to increase the number of new research grants by 7 percent.

Wondering what new grant management policies refers to? It is reasonable to speculate on at least some of what’s included in the thinking behind this statement. Reducing the salary cap for HHS awards is a step in this direction. NIH’s recent notice to flatline future awards is another. There might be changes flowing from the Research Business Models Working Group’s A21 Task Force that could potentially help “get more out of the money.” I’m sure we’ll be hearing more on this front over the coming weeks and months as the budget gets negotiated between the White House and Congress.

On Feb 7th, the US Department of Health and Human Services announced that in FY 2012, $50 million in current research support will be re-directed to focus on Alzheimer’s disease and that the President’s FY2013 budget request will include an additional $80 million for NIH targeted at Alzheimer’s research.

This increase in research funding is part of the President’s National Alzheimer’s Disease Plan, established in response to the 2011 National Alzheimer’s Project Act. The combined FY12 and requested FY13 $130 million in Alzheimer’s research represents a 25% increase in federal support over current levels.

I wrote recently about the efforts – especially within the US Federal government – to encourage teleworking. There are a few federal agencies that have excelled at establishing teleworking as an option for large numbers of their staff including the Agriculture Department, Patent and Trademark Office and General Services Administration, both of which have documented significant savings in office space costs as a result. Other agencies have struggled with defining positions eligible for teleworking or with sufficiently encouraging employees to explore the option as noted by Representativess Gerald Connolly and John Sarbanes in a letter to the Director of the Office of Personnel Management.

 Implementing and expanding teleworking is good business, good for the environment, and good for employees – its saves money for employers and employees alike, establishes procedures for business continuity in the face of potential problems, and enhances employee productivity and morale. It does require effective management, and it isn’t appropriate for every position. The Telework Exchange, a public-private partnership focused on demonstrating the tangible value of telework, is sponsoring the second annual Telework Week – March 5-9, 2012. The Telework Exchange offers a variety of resources to assist managers and employees demonstrate the value and understand the intricacies of teleworking.