Indirect costs and the "skinny" federal budget

Among the proposed cuts to federal grant funders, the NIH's budget is anticipated to be reduced by 18%, some of which could come out of indirect costs to universities, hospitals and other research institutions. Indirect costs are sometimes mistakenly thought of as "extra money" for a grant-holding institution rather than the reimbursement of expenses associated with doing research. Direct costs usually do not include essential items such as salaries for safety, compliance and grant management personnel, building upkeep, and utilities. These are all real costs to the research institution and must be paid for out of the indirect costs.

These misperceptions about indirect costs prompted COGR, the Council on Governmental Relations, an association of research institutions, to publish a three-page Talking Points document discussing what indirect costs are, how they are calculated, and how cutting indirect costs could affect research institutions like Fordham University. You can download it here: COGR Talking Points. Please feel free to share it.

Thoughts on the rules changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act and how it may affect smaller universities

David A. Armstrong, the president of Thomas More College in Kentucky, provides his opinion on the proposed increase to the federal salary threshold from the current $23,660 (which is lower than New York State's requirement) to $50,440. Read "Potentially Dire Impacts" on Inside Higher Ed's website.

Reminder: Changes in NIH and NSF procedures in effect 1/25/16

On the NSF side of things: The new 2016 Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) is now in effect. You can find it here.

Any unsolicited proposals sent in response to the GPG need to reflect this change on the cover sheet -- in the "Program Announcement/Solicitation/Program Description Number" box, make sure to use NSF 16-1. Solicited proposals should of course continue to use the number provided in the program announcement or description.

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On the NIH side of things: Many changes! All are listed in NIH notice number NOT-OD-16-058, here is a summary:
• information about rigor and transparency in research must be included in applications;
• the vertebrate animals section has been simplified;
• the definition of "child" has been changed from a threshold of 21 to 18 years of age;
• Forms Version C application packages have been updated and the new versions should now be used;
• Instructions for Version C packages have been updated and should be followed.

These changes are just phase I for the time period January 25 through May 24. Notices regarding phase II, starting May 25, will be released shortly.

Many NIH changes to know about

The National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality announce a number of updates:

• Notice 16-004 provides summary information on changes to proposal forms, policies and instructions taking effect in 2016. Changes will take place in two phases, Phase 1 for applications due on or after January 25 but before May 25, and Phase 2 for applications due May 25 and after. Tables included in this notice indicate subsequent notices that detail further some of these changes, some of which are listed below.
• Notice 16-005 describes new post-award forms and instructions.
• Notice 16-006 describes the simplification of the Vertebrate Animals section of NIH proposals.
• Notice 16-008 announces a new form to use for requesting assignment to a specific awarding component and study section (or requesting it not be assigned somewhere), list of reviewers who may have a conflict, and special expertise that may be required to properly review your proposal.
• Notice 16-009 provides information about acceptable font sizes and suggests specific fonts, but provides more flexibility than previously.
• Notice 16-010 explains the change in the definition of "child" as being 18 and under instead of 21, and why.

New NSF guidelines effective January 25, 2016

NSF has posted the new proposal preparation and award management guide for those proposals submitted or due on or after January 25, 2016. There are a number of significant changes including the implementation of NSF's Public Access Policy for publications resulting from NSF funding and changes to the Biographical Sketch format. Be sure to review the full Significant Changes and Clarifications page.

NSF Proposal & Award Policies and Procedures Guide

NSF announces public access policy plans

On March 18, 2015, the National Science Foundation announced its plan to provide greater public access to the results of its funded research, "Today's Data, Tomorrow's Discoveries". This will be officially announced in April 2015 and is slated to go into effect in January 2016.

Much of the plan is a re-commitment to data management and the availability of funds to support publication and presentation of data to the public, but the new component is the publications policy: Within a year of publication, either the version of record or the final accepted manuscript in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, and papers in juried conference proceedings, must be deposited into a publicly-accessible database.

This move is not without precedent among Federal sponsors as the NIH has had such a policy in place for years.

NIH increases salary cap as of 1/11/15

The Executive Level II salary level, at $181,500 for FY2014, is increasing to $183,300 effective 1/11/15. Note that this amount is based on a 12-month salary; for faculty members, if your academic base salary is at or exceeds $137,475, you must use this capped rate when calculating salary requests on NIH grant applications.

See the full notice here: NOT-OD-15-049.

Federal grantees - prepare for possible belt tightening

As the sequestration decision deadline of March 1st approaches, those of you with Federal sponsors may want to start thinking about the possibility that your next year's budget could be cut. An Office of Management and Budget memo dated January 14th to the heads of executive departments and agencies provides guidelines to follow in the event that sequestration goes into effect; among other tips is "review grants and contracts to determine where cost savings may be achieved in a manner that is consistent with the applicable terms and conditions."

You can read the whole memo here.

New Financial Conflict of Interest Policy

Effective August 24th, 2012, the Public Health Service (which funds a number of Fordham faculty members) has adopted a new financial conflict of interest in research policy. As required, Fordham has created its own policy based on the federal regulations and posted it on the OSP website. Please review the policy and direct any questions to Kris Wolff, Manager of OSP at x4086. Thank you!