National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Abstract

I am pleased to provide an update on the policies and programs of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). This is an exciting time of many transitions for the federal government as a whole and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in particular. As these changes take form, I want to assure you of our unwavering commitment to support our community of heart, lung, and blood investigators and to the goals articulated in the NHLBI Strategic Plan. My goal in the present article is to discuss the NHLBI budget for the 2009 fiscal year (FY) (October 1, 2008, to September 30, 2009, FY 2009) and to describe new policies that we are implementing for early stage investigators and for revised grant applications. The NIH is operating under a continuing resolution (CR),1 which means that Congress has not provided the NIH with an appropriation for FY 2009. This requires us to operate at the same level of funding as we had in FY 2008. Because we are obligated to provide FY 2009 cost of living increases, the actual purchasing power of the FY 2008 appropriation is reduced in FY 2009. The CR authorizes us to fund noncompeting research grants at 90% of the previously committed levels until a FY 2009 appropriation is made. The CR expires March 6, 2009, but we must be prepared for the possibility that the CR amount will become the FY 2009 appropriation. Accordingly, the NHLBI is currently operating with a CR budget of $2.922 billion. Similar to FY 2008, noncompeting awards will be provided a 1% inflation rate. Detailed information can be found in the NHLBI FY 2009 Funding and Operating Guidelines.2 We …