National Institutes of Health will devote most of its $ 8.2 billion to research the economic stimulus bill for requests of grant funding it has already received and to complement existing grants. A smaller amount of approximately $ 100 million to $ 0 will go to new grant applications it receives in the coming months.
Speaking Wednesday afternoon in Washington, DC, to a packed auditorium of representatives of universities and associations, Acting Director Raynard Kington said NIH would soon issue a request for applications for new grants "challenge" of up 'to $ 500,000 per year for 2 years. These grants will challenge for research on certain areas of science or public health think that NIH can make significant progress within 2 years. NIH will create an abbreviated application process for these grants, peer-reviewed, but did not say which areas will be targeted.
Because the NIH must spend stimulus money in these 2 years, he is under pressure to start sending money to the beneficiaries as soon as possible. Therefore, Kington said, it will not issue a massive call for new applications. Instead, it will mainly seek to add money to existing grants and fund grant requests it has received and reviewed by peers.
All grants 2 years resulting from the stimulus package will come with the unusually rigorous reporting requirements, Kington said, including reporting the number of jobs created or maintained. He has repeatedly said that the NIH would be "embarrassed" if the institutions do not spend money or increase their local economies. He expects the beneficiaries to "hire people and make purchases and advance science," he said.
Because the goal of the stimulus bill is to improve the economy of the nation, Kington said NIH would also be sensitive to the geographic distribution of subsidies it gives.
Kington gave few details about NIH plans, but said more details would be available soon.
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