To: GRRs
President Obama released the details of his FY 2014 budget on Wednesday. Here are some of the highlights related to NIH.
Note: All comparisons in the president’s budget are to FY 2012 enacted levels because the FY 2013 spending bills were not completed until late March.
The NIH program level for FY 2014 is $31.331 billion, an increase of $471 million (1.5 percent) over the FY 2012 program level of $30.860 billion. The program level includes $31.094 billion from the Labor-HHS appropriations subcommittee, $79 million from the Interior appropriations subcommittee to NIEHS, and $150 million in mandatory appropriations for Type 1 diabetes research.
NIH estimates that it will spend $16.9 billion (54 percent of its total budget) to support a total of 36,610 research project grants (RPGs) in FY 2014, an increase of $382 million and 351 grants over than FY 2012. Within this total, NIH estimates it will support 10,269 new and competing renewal RPGs, an increase of 1,283 grants over FY 2012.
In total, the average cost of a new and competing RPG in FY 2014 is expected to be about $456,000. However, excluding the large cohort of expensive HIV/AIDS clinical trials that are due to cycle into competing status or be initiated in FY 2014, the NIH-wide average cost of a new and competing RPG in FY 2014 is estimated to be about $420,000, or approximately the same as in FY 2012.
The statutory set-aside for the Small Business Innovation Research grant and contract program is scheduled to rise from 2.6 percent in FY 2012 to 2.8 percent in FY 2014, and from 0.35 percent to 0.4 percent for the Small Business Technology Transfer program.
Programs emphasized within the budget include: the BRAIN Initiative; opportunities and challenges associated with big data; translational science; and recruiting and retaining diverse scientific talent and creativity.
For research training, the FY 2014 budget requests $776 million to support training 16,197 research scientists through the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards program. The budget proposes a 2 percent stipend increase for predoctoral research trainees and an average 4 percent increase for postdoctoral trainees. The total number of positions would decline by 108.
For research centers, the budget proposes $2.846 billion, a decrease of $194.5 million from FY 2012. The number of research centers would be decreased by 73 to 1,380.
For the Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program within NIGMS, the budget includes $225.438 million in FY 2014, $50.519 million below the FY 2012 level.
The budget provides a total of $165.0 million for the National Children’s Study, which is $28.1 million less than the $193.1 million allocated for FY 2012.
The budget retains limit on extramural salaries at Executive Level II.
The budget limits the PHS evaluation transfer to no more than 3 percent.
Additional information is available on pages 38-43 of the HHS Budget in Brief document.
An overview of the FY 2014 president’s budget for NIH and links to individual institute and center Congressional Justifications (CJs) are available on the NIH Office of Budget website.