NIH Establishes Multiple PI Awards

Yesterday, NIH announced their proposal for allowing Multiple PI's on
individual research awards, beginning with the May-June grant application
cycle. They have created a Multiple PI website to address FAQ about the
awards (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/multi_pi/overview.htm#background).

They have addressed many of the concerns submitted by FASEB
(http://opa.faseb.org/pdf/Multiple%20PI%20-%20FASEB%20final.pdf)
including: clearly defining PI; discussing minimum percent effort
requirement (there isn't one); requiring a leadership plan to clearly
allocate responsibilities; clarifying application and new investigator
guidelines; and allowing flexible budget options, which would enable co-PI's
to share a responsibility for a budget, have individual control over parts
of the budget, or link two awards between institutions. They also address
the questions of why they did not integrate this new mechanism with the
existing Program Project Grants - in short, "Limiting the multiple-PI option
to large, multiple-project grants could miss
important research opportunities."

<http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-036.html>.

Establishment of Multiple Principal Investigator Awards for the Support of
Team Science Projects
Notice Number: NOT-OD-06-036

Key Dates
Release Date: February 7, 2006

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH), (http://www.nih.gov)

In 2006 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will begin to implement a
Federal-wide policy to allow formally more than one Principal Investigator
(PI) on individual research awards. This presents a new and important
opportunity for investigators seeking support for projects or activities
that clearly require a "team science" approaches and which do not fit the
single-PI model. The multiple-PI model is intended to supplement, and not to
replace, the traditional single PI model. The overarching goal is to
encourage collaboration among equals when that is the most appropriate way
to address a scientific problem. Although the number of applications
submitted with more than one PI is expected to be relatively small compared
with those that continue to use the traditional single-PI format, we know
that the impact on multidisciplinary efforts may be great.
The NIH will make the multiple-PI option available for applications
submitted in response to a selected group of Requests for Applications
(RFAs) and Program Announcements (PAs) with May-June 2006 receipt dates. It
is likely that additional initiatives will be selected to pilot this
activity for receipt dates in the October time frame. Based on experience
from these pilot initiatives, it is expected that the multiple-PI option
will become available for most investigator-initiated research grant
mechanisms submitted for January 2007 and later application receipt dates.
The NIH will announce those specific RFAs and PA selected to pilot the
multi-PI option as well as future plans for expansion to other mechanisms in
the NIH Guide to Grants and Contracts at
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/index.html#search.

A Multiple Principal Investigator website
(http://grants.nih.gov/grants/multi_pi/) has been created to provide general
information on the new policy. This includes: background and features of
the multiple-PI policy; major issues to be considered in its implementation;
PI roles and responsibilities; distribution of credit; allocation of funds;
and awards to more than one institution. Much of this information is
located in the "Frequently Asked Questions"
(FAQ) section of the web site. Many of the questions listed in the FAQ
section are based on communications received in response to Requests for
Information (RFI) published by the NIH and by the Office of Science and
Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President. Results from these
RFIs are also available at the Multiple Principal Investigator web site.
There has been additional outreach to the scientific community through a
recently published article in "NIH Extramural Nexus,"
(http://grants2.nih.gov/grants/nexus.htm) the NIH's bimonthly extramural
update that is available free to all who request it.

Many procedures for implementation of the policy to recognize formally
multiple PIs on individual research awards are still in the planning stages,
and the NIH looks forward to continued input from the scientific community.
All potential applicants are encouraged to access the NIH Guide for Grants
and Contracts for official notice(s).

Inquiries
For additional information please visit the Multiple Principal Investigator
website at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/multi_pi/ and feel free to send
email to multi_PI@mail.nih.gov.

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