Council News Vol. 7, no. 2

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MODULAR GRANTS GET THE GREEN LIGHT

By winter, NIH expects to
be awarding modular research grants, helping to
cut back on budget processing and ultimately
end programmatic reductions to grant budgets.
For the first modular grants,
budgets will be awarded in
increments of $25,000 to a maximum of $250,000. Instead of
requesting detailed, categorical
budgets, applicants will request
direct costs in the $25,000 modules. NIH will use the modular
approach for most research
project grants.
Modular grants simplify budget
requests, taking NIH out of the
role of verifying costs and practices. For example, grantees will

continue to identify personnel
but will not send in salary and
fringe benefit costs.
Annual inflationary adjustments
will be gone, though grantees
can ask for additional modules if
there are programmatic changes.
NIH institutes are not bound to
use the $25,000 increment when
determining award levels and
will still be able to negotiate
awards for less money than the
amount recommended by the
study section or Council.
The move toward modular was
endorsed by independent auditors Ernst and Young as moving
NIH into more of an assistance
Modular Grants-continued on
page 20

PAs OLDER THAN
THREE YEARS TO
RETIRE
NIH is adopting new
policies on expiring
program announcements.
First, all future PAs will stay
alive for three years (unless the
announcement states otherwise).
Second, all PAs older than three
years will be terminated. Institutes wishing to keep older PAs
active will issue new ones.
NIAID has only two active PAs
more than three years old and is
deciding whether to reissue
them. Any such changes will be
announced in the NIH Guide for
Grants and Contracts around the
time this newsletter is published.

APPLY FOR A REENTRY SUPPLEMENT
People coming back to research after a
hiatus can apply for a reentry
supplement, money that lets the recipient
tag on to an existing (i.e.,
someone else's) grant. [

His1
Applicants can request $40,000 a year
for salary and benefits and another sup
$10,000 for travel for three years. For bee
more information, see the announce- and
ment at http://www.nih.gov/
grants/guide/notice-files/not98 -079.html in the June 4 Guide.
In the past, NIAID has awarded grant
supplements for a range of people, including those
with disabilities, minorities, and people returning

tor
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to work from family responsibilities. Historically,
supplements have been fairly easy to get, and the
program is user-friendly, with minimal paper work.
Call your program
officer for more
ically, information; go to
ements have our programs and
airly easy to get, staff list at http://
www.niaid.rnh.
ie program is gov/ncn/newsup.
riendly pdf, or e-mail Dr.
Milton Hernandez,
acting director of
the Office of Research on Minority and Women's Health, at
[email protected], or call him at 301/496-8697.