As I noted in a prior post, the Cycle I NIH Grant awards (submitted in Feb-Mar, Reviewed Jun-July, Council Aug) with a first possible funding date of December 1 hardly ever are funded on time. This is due to Congress never passing a budget for the Fiscal Year that starts in October on time. The Congress sometimes goes into a stop-gap measure, like Continuing Resolution, which theoretically permits Federal agencies to spend along the parameters of the past year’s budget. I find that NIH ICs of my greatest interest are highly conservative and never* fund new grants in December. The ICs that I follow almost inevitably wait until late Jan when Congress returns from their winter recess to see if they will do something more permanent.
New Cycle I grants then start trickling out in Feb, again, typically.
This year one of my favorite ICs, namely NIDA, has only just issued new Cycle I grants** this week, they hit RePORTER today.
March friggin 9th.
Six new R01 awards. Three K01, three K99s, one R15, one “planning grant” and three SBIR.
Even this is just a trickle, compared to what they should be funding for one of their major Cycles. I anticipate there will be a lot more coming out over the next couple of weeks so that they can (hopefully?) clear the decks for the Cycle II awards that are supposed to fund April 1.
I pity all those poor PIs out their waiting, just waiting, for their awards to fund. I cannot imagine why NIDA chooses to do this instead of at least trickling out the best score awards and the stuff they KNOW they are going to fund, way back in December***.
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*Statistically undifferentiable from never
**You can tell by clicking on the individual awards and you’ll see that they (R01s anyway) end Nov 30 or Dec 31 for the initial round of funding. These are Cycle I, not upjumped Cycle II.
***Some ICs do tend to fund a few new awards in December, no matter what the status of Congress’ activity on a budget.
Grad students are hilarious
March 9, 2016
Scene: Laboratory of Hibernation Studies
PI: “We need to discuss your thesis plans…what have you come up with so far?”
Grad Student: “Bears”
PI: “What? Dude, we have a sweet ground squirrel model all ready to go. What do you want to use it for?”
GS: “I want to start up a bear lab. It’ll be great.”
PI: -Dead Stare-
GS: “Bears! Hibernation! …..get it?”
……
GS: “Meanie”
Rescue: A Blog Meme
March 9, 2016
Back when science blogging was still vibrant, bloggers would launch a challenge query and tag some other folks to answer. I’m tagging dr24hrs, Gerty-Z, docbecca and iBAM on this one.
(I just saw something like this on Fb or somewhere, btw. I didn’t invent it.)
The question is, from the teevee (or movies) you’ve been watching recently, name the top five characters you’d want coming to rescue you from a bad situation.
Mine are:
5. Sergeant Antigone Bezzerides
Yours? Feel free to answer on your blog if you have one, and drop a link. If not, use the comments.
DrugMonkey 