Articles

• 1999 Federal Budget: Last-Minute Bonanza for Research
• Plan Ahead for Proposal Deadlines During Winter Holidays 
• Agency News

Funding Program Announcements

Contract and Grant Awards in September and October
 

In the fiscal year 1999 budget process, last-minute infusions of billions of dollars allowed for increases for nearly all categories of discretionary spending. In the final week of negotiations, Congress and President Clinton approved billions of dollars in spending which circumvented the spending caps that were supposed to limit FY 1999 appropriations. 
Three weeks into fiscal year, Clinton signed into law an omnibus appropriations bill, a massive compilation of eight out of the 13 annual appropriations and other legislation. The omnibus bill and the five appropriations bills that were enacted separately provide unprecedented funding levels for federal R&D, totalling over $80 billion for the first time in history. Every major R&D funding agency except NASA and the Department of Commerce won increases well ahead of the expected 2.0 percent inflation rate. The National Institutes of Health received the largest dollar increase in history.
For more information see, A Preview Report for Congressional Action on Research and Development in the FY 1999 Budget, from the Association for the Advancement of Science, http://www.aaas.org/spp/dspp/rd/fy99.htm. The Association of American Universities also provides detailed federal budget analysis at http://www.Tulane.EDU/~aau/FY99Budget.html.

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This year’s annual winter shutdown will close the campus from Thursday, December 24, through Sunday, January 3. Proposals with deadlines during the shutdown should arrive at SPO by Monday, December 7. Proposals due at agencies in early January should be at SPO well before December 24.
The last week in November is one of the busiest weeks of the year at SPO because of the many programs with December 1 as a proposal deadline. Since the Thanksgiving holiday falls during that week, proposals with deadlines from Thursday, November 26 through Tuesday, December 1 should be at SPO by Tuesday, November 24.

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The National Institutes of Health issued a new NIH Grants Policy Statement (NIHGPS), effective for all NIH grants and cooperative agreements with budget periods beginning on or after October 1, 1998, superseding the Public Health Service (PHS) Grants Policy Statement (October 22 NIH Guide). The NIHGPS is formatted differently than the PHS Grants Policy Statement, but most of the content changes are technical amendments rather than policy changes. The URL is http://www.nih.gov/grants/policy/policy.htm#gps.

NIH just issued the revised PHS 398 and PHS 2590 grant application forms (November 12 NIH Guide). For the January/February 1999 application receipt dates, use of the revised forms is encouraged. The new forms must be used for receipt dates of May 10, 1999 and thereafter. The NIH Web page for forms is http://www.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/phs398.html.

The Department of Education is implementing new regulations for interim and final performance evaluations of all Office of Educational Research and Improvement grants and contracts, effective November 27, 1998. The evaluations, required by Congress, will be performed by peer review panels. The October 27 Federal Register announcement is on DOED’s Web site: http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/proprule/index.html.

The Environmental Protection Agency has streamlined procedures for most grants of $100,000 or less, including simpler proposal submission and reporting requirements and pre-award costs permitted without prior agency approval. The new procedures are on the EPA Grants Information Web site: http://www.epa.gov/ogd/grants.htm.

DOED published the Direct Grant Programs and Fellowship Programs Notice in the November 3, 1998 Federal Register. The notice lists programs expected to be offered FY 1999, with actual or estimated deadlines and estimated funding.

The Department of Energy Office of Energy Research has been renamed the Office of Science (http://www.er.doe.gov). The Office of Science FY 1999 solicitation is available, with a total of $400 million in funding expected.

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research moved to a new address and new phone numbers, listed on the AFOSR Web site: www.afosr.af.mil. The AFOSR proposal cover sheet was revised. If proposals are submitted with the new sheet, certifications are not required. The AFOSR Proposer’s Guide is under “Doing Business with AFOSR” on the agency Web site. AFOSR’s new 1999 Program Announcement is available and linked under “Research Opportunities” on the Web.

The National Science Foundation’s new Fiscal Year 1999 Guide to Programs (NSF 99-4) is available on the Web at http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?nsf994. NSF is no longer providing a printed version of the Guide.

The NSF Program for Gender Equity in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology is the new name for the former Program for Women and Girls. The new program announcement is at http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?nsf9925.

After the February 1, 1999 deadline, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development will accept applications for Career Transition Awards (K22) only once per year: October 1 for new applications and November 1 for amended applications.

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