FY 2006 Funding Strategy for Research Grants

Non-Competing Continuation Grants
NIH will reduce all non-competing research project grant (RPG) awards by 2.35 percent [see below for NIH Financial Policy for Grant Awards website].

New, Renewal, and Revision Grants
The success rate for NINR is estimated to be approximately 18% in FY 2006. Council and program staff may selectively recommend the payment of grants out of priority score order based on Institute mission and priorities and to maintain a diverse and balanced portfolio.

We realize that the increasingly high overall average cost of NINR grants is largely attributable to the high percentage of clinical studies. NINR may make adjustments to individual grants to maintain the average cost of competing RPGs at the FY 2005 level, as directed by NIH policy. On average, this may result in a 10% decrease in requested direct cost.

Large Grants
Applications that exceed $350,000 in direct costs and are scored at the 25^th percentile or better will be taken to the National Advisory Council for Nursing Research for special consideration of the high budget.

NIH requires pre-approval for applications requesting direct costs of $500,000 or more in any year. The program director whose area of science incorporates the application should receive at least the following as part of the process to evaluate high budget applications:

The cover page
Abstract of the proposal
All of the budget pages and budget justification
Specific aims

Additional information on this NIH policy may be found at:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-05-004.html

NIH Financial Policy for Grant Awards - FY 2006 may be found at:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-025.html

NIH Extramural Financial Operations Website may be found at:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/financial/index.htm