2009-11-19

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has released a final rule on "Grants for Research Projects." The rule, which takes effect on December 10, amends the current regulations governing grants for research projects by revising the definition of principal investigator to permit more than one individual with appropriate level of authority and responsibility to be listed in the grant application.

The final rule allows multiple individuals to share responsibilities for the scientific and technical direction of the project when that more accurately reflects the management needs of the research project. It also emphasizes that each principal investigator is responsible and accountable to the applicant organization or, as appropriate, to a collaborating organization for the proper conduct of the project or program, including the submission of all required reports. The rule also permits the Secretary of Health and Human Services to evaluate, approve, and make more than one award pursuant to one or more applications and provides examples of situations when disaggregation of single application into multiple awards would improve scientific and administrative management.

NIH believes that this change in regulations will foster interdisciplinary and collaborative research and will improve management flexibility even when components of such programs are administered by different NIH awarding components.

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