Tag: biomedical research proposals

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NIH Investigator-Based Support Begins!

Just a quick update of note today, which is also a call to action:

Immediately following the joint announcement by Drs. Collins and Rockey yesterday of the NIH’s new investigator-based funding, NIGMS issued an RFI for an investigator-based pilot funding program. (I discussed this new funding model in yesterday’s post.) Similar announcements from NIH centers and programs will follow, and I would encourage all researchers interested in seeing this funding model succeed to take the time to respond to these RFIs. As I explained in yesterday’s blog, the NIH clearly recognizes the challenges being faced by researchers–especially new investigators–in the current funding climate and is working to make changes to improve the environment. The strategic researcher will take the time to learn about–and shape through responding to RFIs–these new opportunities as quickly as possible.

I will re-tweet these opportunities as they become available. My Twitter handle is @JKNByram, and my Twitter feed is available on this blog page, kellybyram.wordpress.com.  You are invited to follow me for timely updates.

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More Changes to Funding at NIH to Benefit Researchers

Shrinking pools of research funding, lower success rates, and increasing resource scarcity at research institutions strain most researchers, but new researchers have had a particularly difficult time securing funding of late and many have left the field as a result. The NIH has signaled awareness of these pressures, announcing in April changes to the biosketch form that benefit new researchers and the replacement of the onerous “one resubmission” rule with a more relaxed policy.

Today, Dr. Sally Rockey and Dr. Francis Collins announced that the NIH would allow its centers and programs to offer longer, sustained funding to researchers in the model of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s (HHMI) “people, not projects” funding model. Continue reading “More Changes to Funding at NIH to Benefit Researchers”