NIH has increased the use of forward-funded, multiyear research grants that require obligating funds in advance. This approach reduces the amount of money available in the current fiscal year for new scientific studies and for paying researchers. With NIH’s large budget flowing largely through extramural grants to universities and independent research institutes, fewer available dollars can increase competition among applicants. Congress previously limited NIH’s ability to obligate more for multiyear grants than in the prior year, but NIH is seeking removal of the cap. NIH’s 2027 request proposes forward funding all competing research project grant awards to improve budget flexibility by avoiding encumbering large portions of each year’s appropriation for continuing projects. Concerns include fewer grants for new ideas and planning difficulties for graduate programs.
"The National Institutes of Health, a huge funder of universities' biomedical research, has stepped up its controversial practice of obligating funds up front for research grants that are usually funded over multiple years, the Association of American Medical Colleges says in a new report. This practice leaves less money in the current fiscal year to fund new scientific studies and pay researchers, increasing the competition among grant applicants for a smaller pot of dollars."
"Congress banned NIH from obligating more money this year than last toward "multiyear grants"-also called "forward-funded grants"-by slipping that cap into an appropriations act. But the agency is asking lawmakers to let it remove the cap next year. Its 2027 budget request proposes forward funding "all competing research project grant (RPG) awards," which the agency says "will increase NIH budget flexibility by no longer encumbering large portions of each year's appropriation for the continuation of research projects that were initiated in previous years.""
"The concern is that a very rapid shift to using multiyear funding or forward funding for the vast majority-or all-research grants decreases precipitously the number of grants you can fund ... and new ideas that happen. She likened it to spending a $400,000 budget in one year forward funding one project instead of funding four separate $100,000 projects."
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