NIH FY 2007 Fiscal Policy for Grant Awards

From: Berg, Jeremy (NIH/NIGMS) [E]
Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2006 8:04 AM
To: NIGMS Grantees
Subject: NIH FY 2007 Fiscal Policy for Grant Awards

Dear Colleague:

On December 15, NIH issued its Fiscal Policy for Grant Awards – FY 2007 (see http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-07-030.html). This policy has been developed to allow NIH to support a sufficient number of new and competing research project grant awards to mitigate the effects of the absence of inflationary increases in the NIH budget on new investigators and established investigators with little or no other support. The policy has several key features:

NIH is operating under a continuing resolution with a budget set at the FY 2006 level. This continuing resolution is in effect until February 15, 2007. Under this resolution, non-competing awards will be made at a level of 80% of the previously committed level. Such awards should be considered as “placeholders” that will be adjusted upward once the size of the overall NIH budget for all of FY 2007 is clear, as discussed below.

Congressional leadership has indicated that a continuing resolution is likely to be extended for all of FY 2007. Under this scenario, NIH will be funded at or near FY 2006 levels. Under these circumstances, non-competing renewal awards will not be adjusted for inflation. Thus, for a non-modular award with an inflationary increase provided in the budget, no increase will be given. For a modular award, the award will be decreased by 3% since it is assumed that an inflationary increase has been built into the budget. Thus, a non-modular award will likely be made at the FY 2006 level, while a modular award will likely be made at 97% of the FY 2006 level. Note that these adjustments affect the award base, so they will also impact future years of the award.

These policies affect research project grants. Research training grants and fellowship awards will not be affected. Policies for other award mechanisms will be developed by each NIH institute and center. For the latest information on NIGMS FY 2007 financial management policies, see /About/Budget/pages/FY2007Plan.aspx.

As always, if you have questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact me at bergj@mail.nih.gov.

Jeremy M. Berg
Director
National Institute of General Medical Sciences
bergj@mail.nih.gov