Archive of srs updates

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**Please Note**
The information in this section is part of our archive of SRS Updates. It is provided for reference only and may be outdated.

We keep these records available to support transparency and historical reference. If you’re unsure about any information, it’s best to confirm with the sponsor or SRS.

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NSF 23-519: Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program Submission Window Cancelled

This was announced July 1, 2025 on  the NSF website.  NSF 23-519: Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) | NSF – National Science Foundation

Important Information and Revision Notes

The previously announced October 15 – November 14, 2025 submission window has been cancelled. Any proposals submitted in response to this window will be returned without review.

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program will be holding a short webcast to present its plans for FY 2026. This event will be held on Thursday, July 10, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. EDT and will last no more than 1/2 hour.

Zoom meeting had concluded.

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Updated NIH Processes for No-Cost Extensions

NOT-OD-25-110

May 7, 2025

This notice alerts the extramural community that NIH has temporarily disabled the No-Cost Extension functionality in eRA Commons. The Director of NIH has directed NIH staff to review all existing grants and cooperative agreements to ensure that NIH awards do not fund off-mission activities or projects. Therefore, temporarily disabling the NCE functionality in eRA Commons will allow NIH staff to review and assess all NCE requests to confirm that the activities proposed during the extension align with the NIH mission and agency priorities.

At this time, all requests for NCEs must be submitted as a prior approval request in eRA Commons, for NIH review and approval. Requests for activities that do not align with the NIH mission and agency priorities will not be approved.

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Notice of Updated Effective Date for the 2024 NIH Public Access Policy

NOT-OD-25-101

April 30, 2025

NIH’s default position is maximum transparency regarding research and research findings. To achieve these goals, the NIH Public Access Policy requires Author Accepted Manuscripts accepted for publication in a journal, on or after July1, 2025, to be submitted to PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication, for public availability without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication. The Policy will continue to apply to any Author Accepted Manuscript accepted for publication in a journal that is the result of funding by NIH in whole or in part through a grant or cooperative agreement, including training grants, a contract, an Other Transaction, NIH intramural research, or the official work of an NIH employee. Author Accepted Manuscripts meeting this qualification and with acceptance dates on or after July 1, 2025, are subject to the Policy.

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Updates on NSF Priorities

April 18, 2025

Sethuraman Panchanathan , Director, U.S. National Science Foundation

Updates on NSF Priorities | NSF – National Science Foundation

NSF’s broadening participation activities, including activities undertaken in fulfillment of the Broader Impacts criterion, and research on broadening participation, must aim to create opportunities for all Americans everywhere.

These efforts should not preference some groups at the expense of others, or directly/indirectly exclude individuals or groups. Research projects with more narrow impact limited to subgroups of people based on protected class or characteristics do not effectuate NSF priorities.

Investigators should prioritize the first six broader impacts goals as defined by the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010:

(1) Increasing the economic competitiveness of the United States.

(2) Advancing of the health and welfare of the American public.

(3) Supporting the national defense of the United States.

(4) Enhancing partnerships between academia and industry in the United States.

(5) Developing an American STEM workforce that is globally competitive through improved pre-kindergarten through grade 12 STEM education and teacher development, and improved undergraduate STEM education and instruction.

(6) Improving public scientific literacy and engagement with science and technology in the United States.

(7) Expanding participation of women and individuals from underrepresented groups in STEM – Investigators wishing to address goal seven must ensure that all outreach, recruitment, or participatory activities in NSF projects are open and available to all Americans.

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Postponing the Date for NIH Common Forms Implementation for Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support

To further support a successful transition to the Common Forms, NIH is postponing the May 25, 2025 implementation for all applications and Research Performance Progress Reports (RPPRs). NIH will issue future Guide Notices outlining the new effective date and additional implementation details as they are finalized. NIH applicants and recipients must continue to use the current NIH Biosketch and Other Support format pages for applications, Just-in-Time (JIT) and RPPRs.

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NIH Update on Genomic Data Sharing

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) updated its Genomic Data Sharing (GDS) Policy to align with evolving practices in data management, particularly concerning controlled-access large-scale human and non-human genomic data.

The updates, apply specifically to 20 controlled-access data repositories listed here, and focus on two main areas: modernizing security standards for data protection for Approved Users and setting minimum access requirements for Developers.  

Researchers accessing human genomic data from these 20 NIH controlled access repositories must attest the institutional systems they use to store or access the data meet the requirements of NIST SP 800-171 regardless of whether the research project involving the genomic data is sponsored or funded by NIH. *The attestation process may look slightly different across the 20 NIH controlled access repositories. The policy applies to new and renewal users.

Please consult your local departmental IT representative to determine if your data storage systems meet the NIST 800-171 requirements and to discuss how best to manage the controlled data you will be using.

For additional questions regarding this policy, contact the NIH GDS office.

You may also contact the TAMU Director of Research Data.

NIH Resources

• NIH Overview of the NIH Security Best Practices for Users of Controlled-Access Data – Webinar
• NIH Security Best Practices for Controlled-Access Data and Repositories
• NIH NOT-OD-24-157 Implementation Update for Data Management and Access Practices Under the Genomic Data Sharing Policy
• Genomic Data Sharing Policy FAQ – Section M. NIH Security Best Practices

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NIH Simplified Peer Review Framework

NIH is simplifying peer review for most research project grants (RPGs) for application due dates of January 25, 2025 or later in order to address the complexity of the peer review process and the potential for reputational bias to affect peer review outcomes.

The Simplified Framework for NIH Peer Review Criteria retains the five regulatory criteria (Significance, Investigators, Innovation, Approach, Environment) but reorganizes them into three factors — two will receive numerical criterion scores and one will be evaluated for sufficiency.

All three factors will be considered in arriving at the Overall Impact score. The reframing of the criteria serves to focus reviewers on three central questions reviewers should be evaluating: How important is the proposed research, how rigorous and feasible are the methods, and whether the investigators and institution have the expertise/resources necessary to carry out the project.

· Factor 1: Importance of the Research (Significance, Innovation), scored 1-9

· Factor 2: Rigor and Feasibility (Approach), scored 1-9

· Factor 3: Expertise and Resources (Investigator, Environment), to be evaluated as either sufficient for the proposed research or not (in which case reviewers must provide an explanation)

The change to having peer reviewers assess the adequacy of investigator expertise and institutional resources as a binary choice is designed to have reviewers evaluate Investigator and Environment with respect to the work proposed. It is intended to reduce the potential for general scientific reputation to have an undue influence.

NIH’s Adoption of Common Forms for Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support by May 25, 2025

NIH Notice NOT-OD-24-163

May 25, 2025 may seem a long way off but NIH wants to give researchers an early notice of this coming change so that they will have time to prepare.

· NIH will require the use of Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae (SciENcv) to complete Common Forms (i.e., Biographical Sketch, Current and Pending (Other) Support) and the NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement to produce digitally certified PDF(s) for use in application submission.

· NIH will require all Senior/Key Personnel to enter their ORCID ID into SciENcv in the Persistent Identifier (PID) section of the Common Forms.

· NIH will require all Senior/Key Personnel to link their ORCID ID to their eRA Commons Personal Profile.

NIH currently plans to continue collecting three required agency specific data elements (i.e., Personal Statement, Contributions to Science, and Honors) to assess qualifications. These data elements will be collected separately from the Common Forms on a new NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement.

If the application due date is on or before May 24, 2025, you must continue using the current NIH Biosketch and Other Support format pages for applications, Just-in-Time (JIT) and RPPRs.

NIH – Coming Soon: FORMS-I

Effective for applications submitted for due dates on or after January 25, 2025.

FORMS-I will incorporate updates related to multiple NIH initiatives:

• Improvements to the NIH Fellowship Application and Review Process.

• Updates to NRSA Training Grant Applications.

• Adoption of the Common Forms for Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support for submission of applications and RPPRs by May 2025.

FORMS-I application guide and forms packages will be available in Fall 2024.

Planned Reporting DMS Plan Activities in RPPR

On May 9, 2024, NOT-OD-24-123 informed the extramural community of planned changes to the RPPR to address the NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy.

NIH will require progress reports (RPPR) to address NIH DMS activities, including updates on data sharing, repositories, and unique identifiers for data that have been shared.

The updated NIH RPPR Instruction Guide will be posted to the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) page, and NIH plans to implement the new DMS reporting questions for RPPRs submitted on or after October 1, 2024.

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