FY2012 Fiscal Operations Plan

October 1 – October 4, 2011
The NIH operated under a Continuing Resolution (CR) PL 112-33, at the limit set by the debt limit law (PL 112-25) enacted in August.

October 4 – November 18, 2011
This CR continued government operations at the FY2011 level minus 1.5%. The NIH issued non-competing research grant awards at a level below that indicated on them most recent Notice of Award (generally up to 90% of the previously committed level. Upward adjustments will be considered after a FY2012 appropriation is enacted, but institutions are expected to monitor their expenditures carefully during this period. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-12-004.

November 19 – December 16, 2011
The third CR continues government operations at the FY2011 level minus 1.5%. The NIH will continue operations as described above. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-12-017.html

December 17, 2011
A one-day CR.

December 18 –December 23, 2011
Operations continue as before.

December 24, 2011—September 30, 2012
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012 (.L. 112-74) provided the NIH with funding of $30,689,000,000, which is $299M above the FY2011 level (+0.97%). The NEI appropriation was $702,512,162, a $1.69M increase (+0.24%) from the FY2011 level.

Overview of NEI Extramural Funding Operations:

Non-competing Awards
Continuing projects will be funded following the published implementation details at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-12-036.html NEI will issue all awards at the FY2011 awarded level, less any one time expenses (such as equipment). Annual inflationary increments will be no longer be provided. Any awards issued during the period of the Continuing Resolutions will be revised upward to be congruent with this policy.

Competing Awards
Research Project Grants (RPG): This category includes the R01, R15, R21, and DP2 grant mechanisms. NEI expects to fund a total of 305 projects (compared with 278 in FY2011, a 9.7% increase). The average total cost of these awards will be $409,456, compared with $417,703 in FY2011, a decrease of 2%. No annual inflationary increment will be provided in future years. The NEI will continue its policies of maintaining an RPG portfolio average length of 4.0 years and of supporting new investigators on R01 equivalent awards at a success rate equivalent to that of established investigators submitting new R01 equivalent applications. See http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-09-013.html and http://grants.nih.gov/archive/grants/new_investigators/index.htm.

Other Grant Mechanisms: NEI anticipates that the numbers of Small Business, Center Core Grant, Career Development, training awards, translational, and cooperative clinical research awards will remain relatively constant compared with the FY2011 levels.