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.

Central Location to Learn of NIH New Initiative and Policies

NIH: Implementation of New Initiatives and Policies: This page serves as a central location where you can learn more about the status of changes impacting NIH grants process and plans for implementing new initiatives and policies. https://grants.nih.gov/policy-and-compliance/implementation-of-new-initiatives-and-policies

Guidance on Salary Limitation for Grants and Cooperative Agreements FY 2025

NIH NOT-OD-25-085, released April 3, 2025.

As a reminder, effective October1, 2024, this mandate applies to both direct salaries (individuals working directly on NIH projects) and indirect salaries (executive salaries in various uncapped cost pools). The mandate appears in the annual appropriation act that provides authority for NIH to incur obligations for a given Fiscal Year (FY). HHS/NIH has not received an FY 2025 appropriation and is operating under a Continuing Resolution, the “Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 (Public Law 119-4)”, that applies the terms and conditions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 restricts the amount of direct salary to Executive Level II of the Federal Executive pay scale. The Office of Personnel Management recently released new salary levels for the Executive Pay Scale. Effective January 1, 2025, the salary limitation for Executive Level II is $225,700.

For active awards, including awards that have been issued in FY 2025 (continuation and new) that were restricted to Executive Level II, if adequate funds are available, and if the salary cap increase is consistent with the institutional base salary, recipients may rebudget funds to accommodate the current Executive Level II salary level.

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 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.

New Videos Available at AnSRS4U Express

AnSRS4U Express are short 5-to-7-minute videos on various research topics.   These videos are designed to give you the necessary information in a brief time frame.   Some recent topics that have been added to the TAMU Sponsored Research Services (SRS) webpage are as follows:  

  • Acknowledgement of Federal Funding
  • Is it a Gift or a Grant
  • Incoming Principal Investigator / Sponsored Project Transfers
  • Principal Investigator Departures / Project Transfers
  • Cost Transfers

These are located on the SRS website under the Resources tab at AnSRS4U Express – Sponsored Research Services (tamu.edu)

NSF Requirement for a Safe and Inclusive Work Environment

Effective January 30, 2023, with the implementation of the NSF 23-1 PAPPG, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has a new requirement which states that there must be a plan for a safe and inclusive work environment created and distributed to each participant, in advance of departure for an off-campus research activity. Off-campus or off-site research is defined by NSF for this requirement as “data/information/samples being collected off-campus or off-site, such as fieldwork or research activities on vessels and aircraft.”

At the time of proposal submission for each proposal that proposes to conduct research off-campus or off site, the Authorized Organizational Representative must complete a certification that the organization has a plan in place for that proposal.   Thus, prior to the submission of the proposal, Sponsored Research Services (SRS) will require the PI to certify that a plan has been created.  

Several solicitations from the Directorates for Biological Sciences (BIO) and Geological Sciences (GEO) will soon require the submission of a Safe and Inclusive Work Environments Plan that will be considered as part of the Broader Impacts criteria during the review process.

As a reminder, this 2-page supplementary document must address the following four sections:

  1. a brief description of the field setting and unique challenges for the team;  
  2. the steps the proposing organization will take to nurture an inclusive off-campus or off-site working environment, including processes to establish shared team definitions of roles, responsibilities, and culture, e.g., codes of conduct, trainings, mentor/mentee mechanisms and field support that might include regular check-ins, and/or developmental events;   
  3. communication processes within the off-site team and to the organization(s) that minimize singular points within the communication pathway (e.g., there should not be a single person overseeing access to a single satellite phone); and   
  4. the organizational mechanisms that will be used for reporting, responding to, and resolving issues of harassment if they arise. 

SRS has created an optional template that a PI can choose to use as a starting point for the plan.  It is available here.

Cayuse Learning Session Announcement

Cayuse Proposals is a tool that is designed for administrators and/or researchers to use for the preparation of proposals. Some researchers have requested training in order to access the system, upload documents, and in some instances, assist with preparation of their proposals. In response to these requests informational sessions for researchers will be offered.  As always, SRS Proposal Administrators will continue to provide full proposal preparation services. 

Please view the prerecorded session here.

SRS Archive

The information in our archive of SRS updates are 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.

The historical information are available here.