Inside Higher Ed: Gap in NIH Funding for Black and White Researchers

Reported today in Inside Higher Ed:

White applicants for grants from the National Institutes of Health were significantly likelier than black researchers to win funding, according to a Science magazine study published Thursday that sought (and struggled) to explain the reasons for the gap. The study found that about 16 percent of black applicants were successful in winning NIH grants, compared to about 29 percent of applications from white researchers and 25 percent of Asian researchers.

The entire article, “Study Finds (and Examines) Gap in NIH Funding for Black and White Researchers,” is open access.

Chronicle: Budget Straits Mean Grant-Success Rate Will Hit All-Time Low, NIH Warns

Reported yesterday in the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Budget cuts forced by Congress will probably mean that university medical researchers seeking federal funds will have their lowest success rate in history, National Institutes of Health officials told lawmakers on Wednesday.

Only about one in six grant applications to the NIH are expected to be approved, the agency’s director, Francis S. Collins, told a Senate appropriations subcommittee. The NIH awarded about 9,300 research grants last year, with an application success rate of about 20 percent, Dr. Collins said.

NINR Stats/2010

Recent federal budget cuts and proposed future cuts will have a cascading effect on what has already been a challenging season for nurse researchers. According to NINR’s stats for last year, few grant applications were approved. Word on the street is that all NIH funding mechanisms have pulled back for fear that three-year or five-year awards would not have the funds available to complete them.

Activity Code	Number of Applications Reviewed	Number of Applications Awarded	Success Rate3	Total Funding4
P01	3	0	0.0%	$0
R01	214	37	17.3%	$19,181,391
R03	33	3	9.1%	$266,738
R15	28	3	10.7%	$803,313
R21	161	15	9.3%	$3,229,076
Mechanism Total	439	58	13.2%	$23,480,518
F31	84	33	39.3%	$1,151,966
F32	1	1	100.0%	$54,854
K01	8	4	50.0%	$370,360
K23	9	5	55.6%	$604,660
K24	1	0	0.0%	$0
K99	8	4	50.0%	$320,232
R41	3	1	33.3%	$80,292
R42	1	0	0.0%	$0
R43	28	0	0.0%	$0
R44	10	3	30.0%	$748,425
T32	8	2	25.0%	$264,287
Mechanism Total	161	53	32.9%	$3,595,076
R24	0	0	0.0%	$114,000
Mechanism Total	0	0	0.0%	$114,000

Inside Higher Ed: New NSF Agenda, Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary

In news of interest to nurse researchers, according to today’s issue of Inside Higher Ed:

Seeking to move “beyond near-term funding cycles,” leaders of the National Science Foundation briefed sociologists here Sunday about plans to create a strategy to support the social sciences over the next decade.

Myron Gutmann, assistant director for the social, behavioral and economic sciences at the NSF, told those gathered for the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association that this is an “unparalleled time” in terms of interest across the sciences in working with social scientists on some of the top issues of the day.

. . . He stressed, in his remarks and in answers to questions, that the NSF is strongly committed, in its current grant programs and in the new agenda, to seeking out and supporting interdisciplinary projects — both among the social sciences and in projects linking the social sciences to other sciences. In some respects, this is going on even before the 10-year plan is developed.

. . . Gutmann also said he believes that universities remain slow — despite many statements they make to the contrary — to truly supporting interdisciplinary work. He said that many graduate programs are not teaching interdisciplinary approaches in graduate programs, and that many universities “are less than perfect” when it comes to rewarding interdisciplinary work in the tenure and promotion process.

The article, “New NSF Social Science Agenda,” is available on line.

NIH Grant App Changes

Major changes for NIH grant applicants! Shorter page limits, restructured forms,  new instructions, enhanced peer review. For application submissions due on or after January 25, 2010, the time is now to find out how –

http://enhancing-peer-review.nih.gov/restructured_applications.html

CNN: $5 Billion in New Fed ARRA Grants

According to a news item today on the CNN Web site:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Obama, in an effort to stimulate the economy and support critical research, will announce $5 billion in grants when he visits the National Institutes of Health on Wednesday, according to an administration official.

President Obama and Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will announce research grants Wednesday.

The money, which comes from Recovery Act funds, is aimed at supporting “12,000 critical research projects — and tens of thousands of jobs associated with them, ranging from teachers and lab technicians to database managers and scientists,” the official wrote in an e-mail.

Chronicle: Elsevier Unveils New Grant-Finding Service

Reported  in the Chronicle of Higher Education:

The scientific publisher Elsevier today started SciVal Funding, a Web-based search service to help American institutions locate grants, particularly collaborative and multidisciplinary ones. The service joins the company’s SciVal Spotlight, a strategy tool aimed at revealing university-research strengths and weaknesses — at a price, The Chronicle reported in June, that could climb to six figures, based on an institution’s size.

New NIH Director, New Priorities

Francis S. Collins, physician and geneticist, has reported for duty at the National Institutes of Health as its new director .  According to the Chronicle of Higher Education he brings with him new priorities:

On Monday, he listed for his staff five goals for his tenure as director, including ensuring a “stable and predictable” supply of federal research dollars. . .

Dr. Collins also proposed placing a greater emphasis on the use of advanced technologies in fighting diseases, improving the rate of success in translating scientific discoveries into commercially available medicines and therapies, expanding the involvement of NIH experts in the Congressional debate over the future of American health coverage, and taking a bigger role in helping with international health concerns.

He also suggested that the NIH pay more attention to lowering the average age at which researchers receive their first grants, which is now around 42.

And he spoke about the need to overcome the “herd mentality” in the grants-review process that too often leads the NIH to approve a safer research proposal over a riskier alternative that has a higher likelihood of failure but a bigger payoff if it succeeds. . . .

Dr. Collins left the NIH last year and founded the BioLogos Foundation, which describes itself as seeking common ground between science and religion. Without being prompted, he said he quit the group and promised the science-faith issue “will not interfere with my judgments” as NIH director.

Chronicle: NIH Is Deluged With 21,000 Grant Applications for Stimulus Funds

According to a report in today’s Chronicle of Higher Education:

The National Institutes of Health has received about 21,000 applications for its main category of grants through the federal economic-stimulus measure, both thrilling and overwhelming agency reviewers responsible for evaluating the proposals and distributing the money.

“The response has been extraordinary,” Antonio Scarpa, director of the NIH’s Center for Scientific Review, said at an agency conference here on Monday.

The numbers are causing concern for the present, as each application requires an average of three reviewers working 12 hours apiece, Dr. Scarpa told agency representatives. And the numbers are a source of concern for the future, as about 99 percent of applications will be denied, and many of those could be resubmitted later, he said.

“This is not sustainable,” he told the meeting of the NIH’s Peer Review Advisory Committee.

The article is on line for subscribers.

Grants: NINR Updates

The National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) would like to bring to your attention three new Notices from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announcing the availability of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding for Competitive Revisions (formerly Competitive Supplements), Administrative Supplements, and Administrative Supplements for Summer Research Experiences.

Please take note of the deadlines to submit applications. For more information on all of these announcements, please visit the NINR ARRA page: www.ninr.nih.gov/Recovery/Home.htm. We will continue to update this page as more information becomes available.

Competitive Revisions

NOT-OD-09-058: “NIH Announces the Availability of Recovery Act Funds for Competitive Revision Applications”

Purpose
Under this announcement, NIH provides the opportunity for investigators and United State s institutions/organizations with active NIH-supported research project grants (including SBIR and STTR) to submit Competitive Revision applications (formerly termed competitive supplements) to support a significant expansion of the scope or research protocol of approved and funded projects.

Application Due Date: April 21, 2009

For detailed information on applying for Competitive Revisions from NINR, including lists of eligible mechanisms and topic areas of interest:
http://www.ninr.nih.gov/Recovery/comp_revs
.

Administrative Supplements

NOT-OD-09-056: “NIH Announces the Availability of Recovery Act Funds for Administrative Supplements”

Purpose
Under this announcement, NINR seeks applications for Administrative supplements to existing awards to support the purchase of equipment and/or scientific instrumentation. Applications for a supplement must include a justification for the proposed purchase(s), including a clear description of how the purchase(s) will further the research supported by the parent award.

Due Date for Applying to NINR: June 1, 2009

For detailed information on applying for Administrative Supplements from NINR, including eligibility requirements:
http://www.ninr.nih.gov/Recovery/admin_supps
.

Administrative Supplements for Summer Research Experiences

NOT-OD-09-060: “NIH Announces the Availability of Recovery Act Funds for Administrative Supplements Providing Summer Research Experiences for Students and Science Educators”

Purpose
NIH announces the opportunity for investigators and United States institutions/organizations with active NIH Research Grants to request administrative supplements to provide summer research experiences for the purpose of promoting job creation, economic development, and accelerating the pace and achievement of scientific research. These supplements will also encourage students to seriously pursue research careers in the health related sciences, as well as provide elementary, middle school, and high school teachers, community college faculty, and faculty from non-research intensive institutions with short term research experiences in NIH-funded laboratories.

Due Date for Applying to NINR: May 1, 2009

For detailed information on applying for Administrative Supplements for Summer Research Experiences from NINR, including eligibility requirements:
http://www.ninr.nih.gov/Recovery/admin_supps_summer