The $787 billion dollar stimulus bill allocates $21.5 billion dollars for federal research and development, and mandates that it be invested within two years. Institutions of higher education are being asked to help stimulate the economy through research and education endeavors at an unprecedented level of funding.

What does this mean for the research community at Emory? It means increased levels of funding in a short time frame, resulting in very short notice for proposal submission, just-in-time information, compliance information and increased reporting responsibilities. This is a very exciting, challenging time and we intend to make the most of the opportunity given to us by being responsive and as prepared as possible to meet the need.

The OMB issued an initial implementation document to the federal agencies on how the stimulus money should be spent. Section 5 offers guidance on Grants and Cooperative Agreements and section 6 offers guidance on Contracts.

The Council on Governmental Relations (COGR) summarized the guidance on Grants and Cooperative Agreements as such:

Page 32 of the OMB guidance addresses grants and cooperative agreements, noting that although the Recovery Act calls on agencies to spend the funding as quickly as possible, "this statement, by itself, does not constitute a sufficient justification to support award of a federal grant on a non-competitive basis." 

Agencies are expected "to follow the same laws, principles, procedures, and practices in awarding discretionary grants with Recovery Act funds as they do with other funds," and to promote competition "to the maximum extent practicable." It adds, "Agencies may want to consider the appropriateness of limited competitions among existing high-performing projects versus full and open competitions and formula allocations."

Grand Opportunities "Go" Grants will support high-support high-impact ideas that lend themselves to short-term, non-renewable funding: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-OD-09-004.html

NIGMS "Go" Grants should respond to the NIGMS topic list: http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Research/GrandOpportunityAreas.htm

Biomedical Research Core Centers to Enhance Research Resources is intended to help institutions hire tenure-track faculty: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-OD-09-005.html

NOT-OD-09-058 Competitive Revision Applications - will use g.g. if the active NIH project was funded under a program that has tranisitioned to electronic submission

NOT-OD-09-056 Administrative Supplement - paper submission

NOT-OD-09-060 Summer Research Experience - paper submission NIH National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) website: http://www.ncrr.nih.gov/about_us/ncrr_updates/index.asp

RFA-RR--09-007 Recovery Act Limited Competition: Core Facility Renovation, Repair, and Improvement

RFA-RR-09-008 Recover Act Limited Competition: Extramural Research Facilities Improvement Program

PAR-09-118 Recovery Act Limited Competition: High-End Instrumentation Grant Program

NOT-RR-09-008 Addition of Recovery Funds to the Shared Instrumentation Grant Program

NIH Challenge Grants in Health and Science Research
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/challenge _award
Specific Challenge Grant Instructions for Completing the Application Package

National Institutes of Health: http://grants.nih.gov/recovery

Standard Terms and Conditions: ARRA of 2009 http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/NIH_HHS_ARRA_Award_Terms.pdf

NIH Review Criteria, Scoring System, and Suspension of Appeals Process
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-09-054.html

Key points from the notice as well as a general breakdown of where how the NSF Recovery Act funds will be distributed is below:

NSF currently has many highly rated proposals that it has not been able to fund.  For this reason, NSF is planning to use the majority of the $2 billion available in Research and Related Activities for proposals that are already in house and will be reviewed and/or awarded prior to September 30, 2009. 

All grants issued with Recovery Act funds will be standard grants with durations of up to 5 years.

Funding of new Principal Investigators and high-risk, high-return research will be top priorities.

With the exception of the MRI, ARI and Science Masters programs, the majority of proposals eligible for Recovery Act funding include those that are already in house at NSF and will be reviewed and/or awarded prior to September 30, 2009. 

NSF also will consider proposals declined on or after October 1, 2008.  The reversal of the decision to decline must be based on both the high quality of the reviews received on the initial submission and the lack of available funding at the time the original decision was made.  The cognizant program officer will contact the institution when a reversal is being considered by NSF.

NSF will post a solicitation this spring for the Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI). The Foundation currently anticipates that no other solicitations will be posted that are solely in response to the Recovery Act.

Awardees will be informed that they are expected to expend funds in a timely manner on allowable award costs and that NSF will be monitoring awards for expenditures.  If, after 12 months, no allowable expenditures have taken place, NSF may consider reducing or terminating the award and reallocating the funds.

Department of Defense: http://www.defenselink.mil/recovery

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