NIH Sets FY 2007 Fiscal Policy, Salary Cap

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) released its fiscal year (FY) 2007 operational plan regarding the number of funded research project grants (RPGs), funding levels for existing grants, and funding priorities for the coming year. For FY 2007, NIH will fund approximately 9,600 new and competing RPGs, continue to fund non-competing grants at last year’s funding levels without adjusting for inflation, and encourage institutes and centers (ICs) to support first time grantees applying for their first renewal so as to limit attrition and laboratory closures. In addition, the FY 2007 salary cap was set, by executive order, at $186,600.

According to an NIH press release, “Faced with a markedly increased number of applications and applicants for grant support at a time of flat budgets with no inflationary adjustments, NIH is taking immediate proactive steps in FY 2007 to manage its portfolio of investments in biomedical research.” The agency’s top priority is to keep the number of new funded investigators relatively constant from year to year. Therefore, though funding remains flat, the agency will fund the same number of new and competing grants as in FY 2006.

While the agency is limited in its ability to adjust for inflation when awarding non-competing grant funding, ICs will use their own discretion—based on “scientific and programmatic imperatives”—in supplementing non-competing grants that were scheduled to receive additional funding support in FY 2007. However, since most federal agencies, including NIH, are currently funded under a continuing resolution until February 15, 2007, non-competing grants will be funded at a level less than that indicated on the most recent notice of award. Funding is expected to be provided at 80 percent of the previously committed level. According to NIH policy, “NIH will consider upward adjustments to these levels after the final appropriation is enacted, but expects institutions to monitor their expenditures carefully during this period.”

NIH lists its second priority for the year as taking specific care to support first-time grant recipients applying for their first renewal if their scores are close to the nominal payline. This policy is well-timed, as many in academic medicine are concerned about physician-scientist attrition rates and periods in the pipeline when researchers are most vulnerable to dropping out. The agency’s last priority also attempts to prevent attrition, by insuring that “established grantees with insufficient other support and who receive review scores near the nominal payline of the relevant IC be given appropriate consideration, with the goal of not losing outstanding laboratories.”

As mentioned above, President George W. Bush set the FY 2007 Executive Level One salary level for federal employees at $186,600. By legislation, the salary cap for NIH-supported investigators is set to the Executive One salary level. The salary cap only pertains to direct salary and does not affect support for fringe benefits and facilities and administrative expenses.

(from the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine)