The NIH has announced several changes recently that the UTMB research community needs to know.  These changes are summarized here.

Executive Salary Cap Change
Effective January 5, 2020, the NIH Executive Salary Cap was raised to $197,300.  This is up $5,000 from the previous salary cap and is valid through September 30, 2020.

2020 NIH Grants Policy Statement
The NIH Grants Policy Statement (NIHGPS) makes available, in a single document, the policy requirements that serve as the terms and conditions of NIH grant awards.  Each year this document is revised.  

Updated Guidance for Videos Submitted as NIH Application Materials
Changes Include:
Effective immediately, post-submission videos do not need to be embedded in .pdf files.  Acceptable formats for videos are .mp4, .mov, .avi and .wmv.

What will not Change:
Videos may still be submitted as post-submission materials and not embedded in or linked from the application materials unless expressly instructed to do so in the funding opportunity announcement instructions.

If multiple videos are submitted for the same application, the aggregate length must not exceed 2 minutes for single-project applications and 5 minutes for multi-component applications.

The file size limit remains at 25 MB.

Updates for the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts
On January 24, 2020, the NIH has updated their official publication of notices of grant policies, guidelines and funding opportunities.  The updates include the following:

• Updated underlying technology for faster, more precise search results
• Adjusted filters to support NIH’s increased use of Notices of Special Interest (NOT-OD-19-107)
  • The term “FOA” has been replaced with “Funding Opportunities” in many filter labels
  • Notices of Special Interest (NOSIs) are displayed when searching both “Funding Opportunities” and “Notices”
  • The “Type of Funding Opportunities” filter is expanded to include “Notice of Special Interest”
  • Search results updated to
    • Allow multiple activity codes to be associated with a single NOSI
    • Identify a NOSI as allowing clinical trials if any of the FOAs associated with the NOSI allows clinical trials

• Grouped “Organizations” filter by agency for easier identification of posting components.

eRA Module Cloud Migration

On Friday, April 17 to 8 p.m. ET on Monday, April 20 the eRA system will be unavailable due to the migration of  the modules and data to the Amazon Web Services. This effort will affect all the eRA modules (eRA Commons, ASSIST, IAR, iEdison, etc.) and all informational websites (era.nih.gov, etc.). Any affected due dates will be extended and the 2-day viewing window for successfully submitted applications will be adjusted to provide the full two days. 

These migration dates were carefully selected to reduce the impact on the research community. Standard submission due dates, continuous submission, small business due dates, review meetings, etc. were examined, and April 17 to April 20 is the single best time for this migration.  F Series Fellowships  are due on April 8^th and Conference Grants/Cooperative Agreements (R13 & U13)  re due on April 12^th .