2011 NIH Budget Reductions

Now that it’s late May, we finally have some knowledge about the funding levels for NIH grants for FY2011. The bad news is that grant budgets are being reduced for this current year. The good news is that it’s not as awful as we thought it would be.

With the exception of the National Cancer Institute, all non-competing renewals  will have a budget reduction to 1% below FY2010. Specifically:

• Non-modular research grants will be reduced to 1 percent below the FY 2010 award level.
• Modular grants will be reduced to 1 percent below the FY 2010 level and may be reduced by an inflationary adjustment level set by each Institute or Center.
• These revised levels will serve as the base year for future commitments.

For the National Cancer Institute, the target is 3% below FY2010:

• Both modular and non-modular research grants will be reduced to 3 percent below the FY 2010 award level.
• Future year commitments will be adjusted for inflation based on this revised level.

The question for each institute is how to balance funds for new grants with their existing commitments, so different centers and institutes may thus approach the budget reductions differently.

For more information, see the Notice.