Amid controversy, NIH backs down on grant limits

On June 8, Francis Collins posted on The NIH Director about the Grant Support Index (GSI), the method that was used to determine the advantage limiting NIH grants over a researcher's career had for beginning and mid-level researchers, as well as taxpayers, and the fact that "significant concerns" about the GSI's methodology have been expressed -- enough so that the NIH is now backing off that plan, and has come up with a new one called the Next Generation Researchers Initiative. While this plan also "place[s] greater emphasis on current NIH funding programs aimed at early-stage and mid-career investigators", some researchers feel it's not enough, and that the initial plan was perhaps abandoned because it was "shoved down quickly by a bunch of senior folks," as Gary S. McDowell states in The Chronicle of Higher Education. We'll have to wait and see how this all plays out for all our researchers, regardless of seniority.

NIH new investigator regional conference

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is hosting four Institute Directors from the National Institutes of Health (specifically, NCI, NIDDK, NHLBI and NIMH) on March 14th for a conference designed to assist new investigators with writing successful proposals. You must register by February 14th if you are interested. For more information and the registration form, click here.