Important Information if you currently have an AHRQ ARRA Grant

AHRQ released a notice today clarifying the use of ARRA funds. The most important items to note are the following:

1. The awards were NOT issued under expanded authority. If you don't know what this means, it is time to have a conversation with your research administrator.


2. From the notice: "AHRQ is notifying its ARRA grant recipients that AHRQ’s original policy of generally not intending to allow no cost extensions for Recovery Act grants is modified as follows: AHRQ does not anticipate that any AHRQ ARRA grant with a project period end date of September 29, 2013, qualifies for consideration of submission of a waiver by the Director of AHRQ or HHS to OMB to extend beyond the original project period end date. AHRQ does not intend to allow any no cost extensions for Recovery Act grants with project period end dates of September 29, 2013. "

In other words, these grants were designed to create jobs and accelerate the pace of new and exciting research. If you are dragging your feet on spending the money, start doing it now or plan on giving it back. If you received a grant and can't do what you originally said you were going to do, it is time to have a talk with AHRQ and see if you should return the funds.

Life after ARRA funding

This article on Bloomberg.com underscores the importance of planning for your research beyond ARRA funding. If you were lucky enough to obtain funding through the stimulus act, you know that it was designed to jump-start the economy, and that the grants could not be renewed. With many ARRA-funded projects coming close to ending, it is important to consider where your future funding will come from.

We all should have seen this coming. The Recovery Act/Stimulus Act/ARRA/Whatever you want to call it was only supposed to be a temporary fix, to keep research and innovation going until the economy rose out of its depression. Unfortunately, almost 2 years into the Recovery Act, the economic outlook, while improving, is still quite gloomy. Who will be there to step in and replace the money when the ARRA funding runs out? NIH will not have its permanent budget increased. Many of those temporary ARRA-funded jobs created by the stimulus will disappear, and more Americans will be out of work.

Rather than pray for a second wave of ARRA funding, it is time to be proactive. If you have already been working on an idea, consider devoting more time to a proposal and submitting for the October deadline. Or begin to work on your writing and gather preliminary data so that you can submit in February. My hunch is that next year's June and October deadlines will be full of people who are nearing the end of their ARRA funding who are trying to get their projects funded via other mechanisms, so there may be some advantage to being ahead of the curve.

Incidentally, I am happy to see that Matt State at Yale has had such tremendous success in obtaining funding for his laboratory. He is a brilliant researcher who has contributed extensively to the field of neurogenetics and, specifically, to research on genetics and autism. It is nice to see that the stimulus money has helped this type of important work.

ARRA Grants Can Get No-Cost Extensions Too

Did you know that your American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant may be eligible for a no-cost extension? When the original application announcements were released, some contained wording that caused many to believe that ARRA grant money had to be spent within the awarded time frame, and that no-cost extensions would not be permitted. However, this is not the case for all ARRA-funded projects. Check your notice of award to see if it is permitted for your particular project. Read more about NIH's statement here.