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NATIONAL NEWS
Feds Seeking Advice on Plans for Multiple PI Policy
The federal government is in the planning stages of a new policy to recognize multiple principal investigators on proposals and awards and is asking the research community for advice. The Office of Science and Technology Policy has designed a plan with six core elements and associated questions and is requesting input and comments by September 16, 2005.
Proposed Elements of Agency Implementation Plans
(1) Statement of what constitutes a PI: The current expectation is to allow institutions to propose as a PI any investigator whom they judge to have the appropriate level of authority and responsibility related to the proper conduct of the study and submission of required reports to the agencies. All PIs would be named in the award. The term "Co-Principal Investigator," as currently used by some agencies, would no longer be used.
(2) Designation of Contact PI: To facilitate communication, the institution would be required to identify a Contact PI, to whom agency program officials will direct all communications related to scientific, technical, and budgetary aspects of the project. By recognizing a person as a Contact PI, a federal agency would not itself confer any special privileges on that person or any additional responsibilities, other than ensuring that all PIs receive information that the agency transmits. While the designation of the Contact PI is at the discretion of the proposing institution, he or she would normally be from that institution. If an institution does not propose a Contact PI, then the funding agency will use the first listed PI as the default for that role.
(3) Application instructions for listing more than one PI: Each agency would specify how its standard application procedures would be modified to reflect the overall policy accommodating multiple PIs. This may include instructions for describing, within the research plan, the specific areas of responsibility for each PI and how the team will function.
(4) PIs at different institutions: A multidisciplinary team's PIs often are
from different institutions and, when only a single institution is involved,
the PIs are frequently from separate academic departments. One element of
each federal agency's implementation is recognition of multiple PIs from different
institutions. Each agency would specify a method for recognizing multiple
PIs that is consistent with the overall policy and that works for the types
of business arrangements that the agency uses to support multidisciplinary
research, for example, making one award to a single lead institution with
subawards to other institutions, or making separate awards to PIs at collaborating
institution.
(5) Access to award and review information: Agencies that grant access to award information to the PI likely would broaden that access to all named PIs. Agencies that share peer review information with the PI for a proposal also are considering whether to broaden that access to all named PIs.
(6) Access to public data systems: Each agency will describe the data system(s) that will list PIs and, if the public may directly access those systems, how to access them. The current proposal is to have all PIs named on the award statement listed in the agency data system.
The Request for Information Leading to Research Awards is published in the July 18, 2005, Federal Register.
NIH Also Seeks Input
The National Institutes of Health is congruently seeking input to help plan for implementation of multiple PIs on awards, and comments to NIH are also due September 16. NIH plans to adopt or create grant application forms with sections for more than one PI. Each of the listed PIs will be expected to share responsibility for directing the project or activity.
NIH is requesting input on issues and policies that may be of special interest to the health-related research community. These include: allocation of funds to individual PIs, the impact of multiple-PI projects on NIH departmental ranking tables, and the use of linked awards when PIs are located at different institutions.
The NIH Request for Information is available in the June 29 NIH Guide at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-05-055.html.
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