NIH Decreases Salary Cap

Notice of Salary Limitation on Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and Contracts
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Notice Number: NOT-OD-12-035

Key Dates
Release Date: January 20, 2012

Related Notice:
NOT-OD-12-034: Notice of Legislative Mandates in Effect for FY2012


Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH)


Purpose

This Notice provides information regarding the salary limitation for NIH grant and cooperative agreement awards and extramural research and development contract awards (referred to here as grants).

Every year since 1990 Congress has legislatively mandated a provision limiting the direct salary that an individual may receive under an NIH grant. For FY 2011, the Department of Defense and Full-year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011 (Public Law 112-10) continued implementation of Public Law 111-117: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010 which restricted the amount of direct salary to Executive Level I of the Federal Executive Pay scale; this information was published May 4, 2011 in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts (NOT-OD-11-073). No increase had been provided for Federal salaries.

For FY 2012 the Consolodated Appropriations Act, 2012 (Public Law 112-74) signed into law on December 23, 2011, restricts the amount of direct salary to Executive Level II of the Federal Executive Pay scale. The Executive Level II salary is $179,700.

For the purposes of the salary limitation, the terms "direct salary," "salary," and "institutional base salary" have the same meaning and are exclusive of fringe benefits and facilities and administrative (F&A) expenses, also referred to as indirect costs. An individual's institutional base salary is the annual compensation that the applicant organization pays for an individual's appointment, whether that individual's time is spent on research, teaching, patient care, or other activities. Base salary excludes any income that an individual may be permitted to earn outside of the duties to the applicant organization.

NIH grant/contract awards for applications/proposals that request direct salaries of individuals in excess of the applicable RATE per year will be adjusted in accordance with the legislative salary limitation and will include a notification such as the following: None of the funds in this award shall be used to pay the salary of an individual at a rate in excess of the applicable salary cap.

This is the first year that the salary limitation has been reduced; it is now restricted to Executive Level II of the Federal Pay Scale. Since this reduction was included in the law signed December 23, 2011, implementation of the lower level is effective with FY2012 awards where the initial Issue Date of the award is on/after 12/23/2011. For FY2012 awards issued on/before December 22, 2011 (competing and non-competing), the effective salary limitation remains at Executive Level 1, $199,700. Please see the salary cap summary and the time frames associated with salary caps at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/salcap_summary.htm.

EPA Grant Centers for Sustainable Molecular Design

Funding Opportunity Number: EPA-G2012-STAR-C1

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 66.509

Solicitation Opening Date: December 27, 2011
Solicitation Closing Date: April 25, 2012, 11:59:59 pm Eastern Time

Synopsis of Program:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications for an interdisciplinary center focusing on the sustainable molecular design of chemicals. The aim of the center will be to develop a set of parameters and strategies that will establish design criteria regarding the properties of chemicals that will lead to the development of intrinsically less hazardous substances when compared to those currently used in society. These newly acquired criteria and design principles will direct researchers towards the generation of novel chemicals that will minimize, and preferably eliminate, associated potential environmental and human health impacts that may occur during the life cycle of that chemical. The advent of these novel chemicals and their respective discovery of correlations between a chemical’s inherent properties and their adverse impacts require the development of improved methods for the design of next generation chemicals.

The Center will explore methods, establish knowledge bases, and develop guidance for eliminating and avoiding those attributes or properties of a chemical that most significantly influence their potential impacts. It is also anticipated the guidance for improved design and understanding of inherent chemical properties resulting from research supported under this Request for Applications (RFA) will enable continual improvements in the quality of life without detrimental impairment of public health or the ecosystem. Furthermore, the developed guidance and capability to reduce a substance’s ability to manifest hazard will result in substances which are in direct accordance with the principles of sustainability.

Note: The term “chemicals” broadly refers to any and all types of materials, including individual chemicals, compounds or mixtures of compounds, endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), and nanomaterials.

Award Information:
Anticipated Type of Award: Grant
Estimated Number of Awards: Up to approximately two (2) awards
Anticipated Funding Amount: Approximately $10 million total for all awards
Potential Funding per Award: Up to a total of $5 million, including direct and indirect costs, with a maximum duration of 4 years. Cost-sharing is not required. Proposals with budgets exceeding the total award limits will not be considered. http://www.epa.gov/ncer/rfa/2012/2012_star_molecular_design.html

EPA Grant: Centers for Material Life Cycle Safety

unding Opportunity Number: EPA-G2012-STAR-B1

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 66.509

Solicitation Opening Date: December 27, 2011
Solicitation Closing Date: April 25, 2012, 11:59:59 pm Eastern Time

SUMMARY OF PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS

Synopsis of Program:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications for an interdisciplinary center focused on the application of a life cycle perspective towards the development of materials. The aim of the center will be to develop methodologies and practices for materials design which applies a holistic perspective. This holistic approach to design, which considers all the stages of a material’s life cycle, provides an opportunity to produce materials which minimize, and preferably eliminate, any associated potential environmental and human health impacts that may occur during the life cycle.

The Center will focus on the design and development of materials that apply sustainability principles for chemistry and engineering across all stages of the material’s life cycle. This holistic approach to material design and development will direct researchers to avoid and eliminate the contributions within a life cycle that most significantly influence their potential impacts. Additionally, the guidance for a holistic life cycle design and understanding resulting from research supported under this Request for Applications (RFA) will enable continual improvements in the quality of life without detrimental impairment of public health or the ecosystem. Furthermore, the developed capability to reduce hazard will result in materials which are in direct accordance with the principles of sustainability.

Note: The term “materials” broadly refers to any and all types of chemicals, including individual chemicals, compounds, mixtures of compounds, or products. Such examples of materials include a discreet molecule, a polymer, a nanomaterial or a biochemical.

Award Information:
Anticipated Type of Award: Grant
Estimated Number of Awards: Up to approximately two (2) awards
Anticipated Funding Amount: Approximately $10 million total for all awards
Potential Funding per Award: Up to a total of $5 million, including direct and indirect costs, with a maximum duration of 4 years. Cost-sharing is not required. Proposals with budgets exceeding the total award limits will not be considered.

Eligibility Information:
Public nonprofit institutions/organizations (includes public institutions of higher education and hospitals) and private nonprofit institutions/organizations (includes private institutions of higher education and hospitals) located in the U.S., state and local governments, Federally Recognized Indian Tribal Governments, and U.S. territories or possessions are eligible to apply. See full announcement for more details.

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GRANT Act Calls for Greater Transparency

From the NACUBO:


H.R. 3433, the “Grant Reform and New Transparency Act of 2011,” or GRANT Act, was introduced by Rep. James Lankford (R-OK) on November 16, and was passed by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform the next day. The legislation would require publication of full federal grant proposal, including research proposals, on a public website, and public disclosure of the names of peer reviewers. Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) is an original cosponsor.

Sponsors of the GRANT Act introduced the legislation to increase transparency and accountability in federal grants. However, a number of concerns have been raised by research associations and members of Congress on the potential negative impacts of the legislation. The GRANT Act would apply a one-size-fits-all system of accountability on all federal grants, and does not take research grants into special consideration.

Last week, Representatives Rush Holt (D-NJ) and David Price (D-NC) circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter to their House colleagues asking them to co-sign a letter urging changes to the measure. In the letter, Holt and Price point out that making grant proposals publicly available “would undermine the applicant and their institution’s right to their intellectual property,” and the provision requiring public disclosure of the names of peer reviewers would “hinder the ability of scientists to evaluate the credibility of research findings. more

NSF Releases Report on Peer Review

January 10, 2012

The National Science Board (NSB) has released a report on the National Science Foundation's merit review criteria. The NSB report, National Science Foundation's Merit Review Criteria: Review and Revisions, is the culmination of a thorough review by the NSB Task Force on Merit Review to determine if the merit review criteria used by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to evaluate all proposals remain appropriate. NSF reviews two criterion, intellectual merit and broader impacts, for every proposal the agency receives.

In the report, the NSB did not recommend changing the two criteria, but it did recommend that NSF better define the two criteria for the benefit of the science community. In addition, the report contains three principles governing NSF's approach to utilizing these criteria and guidance addressing several issues associated with their implementation.

"NSF is now charged to implement the enhanced merit review criteria, which affects every aspect of NSF's business," said Ray M. Bowen, NSB chairman, in the memorandum to the report.

The NSB task force was put in place in February 2010, with a charge to examine the two merit review criteria and their effectiveness in achieving the goals for NSF research support of science, engineering and education. Based on the task force's analyses, the NSB concluded that the two current merit review criteria of intellectual merit and broader impacts remain appropriate for evaluating NSF proposals, though with revisions. The revisions to the criteria are described in the report.

Substantive input from a wide variety of stakeholder groups, internal and external to NSF, helped guide the work of the task force, which resulted in several thousand individuals providing feedback.

NSF's two-criterion merit review system was instituted in 1997. As part of the system, reviewers and proposers are asked to address or identify elements under these categories:

What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity?

What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity?

NSF plans to develop a detailed implementation plan that will lead to the inclusion of the revised criteria in the next version of NSF's Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide and the Proposal & Award Manual.

The National Science Board is the 25-member policymaking body for the National Science Foundation and advisory body to the President and Congress on science and engineering issues. For more information on the National Science Board and its current Members, visit the NSB website.

-NSF-

Astra Zeneca Funding for Cardiovascular Health

Connections for Cardiovascular Health^SM

Recently, the AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation launched the Connections for Cardiovascular Health program with the mission of improving cardiovascular health within the United States and its territories.

This program awards Foundation grants of $150,000 and more annually to US-based, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations or similar nonprofit organizations engaged in charitable work at the community level in the United States in support of the program’s mission.

To Qualify

To qualify for a Foundation grant, nonprofit organizations based in the United States must be engaged in charitable work (at the community level or otherwise) that addresses the Foundation’s Connections for Cardiovascular Health mission and meets key criteria, such as:

• Addressing cardiovascular health issues within the Unites States and its territories
• Recognizing and working to address an unmet need related to cardiovascular health in the community
• Responding to the urgency around addressing cardiovascular health issues including cardiovascular disease or conditions contributing to cardiovascular disease
• Improving patients’ lives in connection with the services provided

For additional criteria, please click here.

Foundation grants will be provided to innovative initiatives that are focused on clearly defined and measurable results and processess. The recipient organization must be able to demonstrate sustainability of the initiative after the Foundation grant funds are expended and must be able to demonstrate ongoing activity in helping to improve cardiovascular health.

Prostate Cancer Foundation Invites Applications for Challenge Grants

Request for Applications: Prostate Cancer Foundation announces the PCF-Honorable A. David Mazzone Special Challenge Award Research Program 2012.

These two-year awards will provide a total of $1 million per team. Challenge Awards support large-scale research projects. Proposals must be from teams of at least 3 highly experienced investigators capable of providing unique scientific expertise to the solution of a significant problem in prostate cancer research. A team may be assembled from one institution, or several institutions, from across the globe. These awards focus on funding Treatment Sciences: Investigations of new ideas in man or laboratory support of a high impact clinical investigation.

Deadline: www.pcfscience.org will accept applications during February 15 - March 16, 2012.

Legislation Seeks to Roll Back Open Access Initiatives

http://the-scientist.com/2012/01/09/anti-open-access-rises-again/

From the Scientist, January 9, 2012

US Representatives Darrel Issa (R-CA) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) introduced a bill into the House of Representatives in mid-December that would roll back the National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy, which mandates that any published research that was funded by the federal science agency be submitted to the publically accessible digital archive PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication in journals. The bill, H.R. 3699, would also make it illegal for other federal agencies to adopt similar open-access policies.

The legislation, referred to as the Research Works Act, is being applauded by the Association of American Publishers, a book publishing industry trade organization that claims the NIH policy and others like it undercut the scientific publishing business, which seldom receives federal funds. “At a time when job retention, US exports, scholarly excellence, scientific integrity, and digital copyright protection are all priorities, the Research Works Act ensures the sustainability of this industry,” said Tom Allen, president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers in a statement.

But taxpayer advocacy groups, such as the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, oppose the bill and are encouraging members of the public to do the same. “Supporters of public access need to speak out against this proposed legislation,” the Alliance wrote in a statement urging opposition of the bill. “Your support for public access to the published results of the research we pay for is critical – and appreciated!”

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NH Legislature Grant Competition

The New Hampshire Legislature created the NHIRC in 1991 to increase collaboration, technology development and innovation between New Hampshire businesses & universities. Businesses propose projects in collaboration with researchers, typically at Dartmouth or the University of New Hampshire. Companies then match their project awards to fund the research which often leads to new production methods, new products and new companies.

Request for Proposals

January 6, 2012 solicitation

Project Period: May 1, 2012 – June 30, 2013

The NHIRC is seeking proposals for partnership projects between New Hampshire companies and academic institutions. The NHIRC’s mission is to foster innovation in companies so they may be more competitive by developing new products or processes. Applications are particularly encouraged in the following areas: Biomedical/Biotechnology; Engineering; Information Technology; Life Science; Materials Science; Manufacturing, excluding clinical studies.

Key Deadlines:

Letter of Intent (required)	January 27, 2012
Final Proposals	March 23, 2012

New F&A Rates for Dartmouth

Please reference the OSP website for information on the new Facilities and Administrative Cost rates. Please use the new rates for all competing grant applications.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~osp/resources/profile-fa.html

Sontag Foundation Brain Tumor Research

Sontag Foundation Accepting Applications for
$600,000 Career Development/Brain Tumor Research Awards

Application deadline: Noon, Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Please share this announcement with outstanding early career scientists who meet the eligibility criteria.

The Sontag Foundation's Distinguished Scientist Award is a four- year, $600,000 career development/brain tumor research grant.
Eligible applicants must be within the first three years of their first independent faculty appointment at a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) academic, research, or medical institution within the United States or an equivalent institution in Canada. Proposed project must demonstrate potential to generate new knowledge relating to causes, cure or treatment of primary brain tumors/brain cancer.

The Sontag Foundation anticipates awarding three grants in 2012.

Full eligibility criteria and required forms are available at
http://www.sontagfoundation.org/Display.aspx?id=42
BEFORE forwarding any questions, please consult FAQ at
http://www.sontagfoundation.org/Display.aspx?id=42