National Research Initiative A Vital Competitive Grants Program in Food, Fiber, and Natural-Resources Research (2000) / Chapter Skim
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6 Organizational and Funding Issues
6 Organizational and Funding Issues
Pages 73-86
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From page 73... ...
that mechanisms are not well established to coordinate NRI research goals with those of complementary research organizations in the US Nepal lenient of Agriculture and in other federal agencies. Those findings suggest that organizational and funding Issues play an important role in the nature and content of changes that will be required to make the NRI a more effective part of the nation's research efforts in the food, fiber, and natural-resources area.
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A previous National Research Council report (NRC, 1989) presented four criteria to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of various options for locating an expanded competitive grants programs (the NRI)
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The committee believes strongly that unless extramural competitive research is given the same stature organizationally in USDA that formula-funded research and intramural research receive, it might remain difficult for the NRI program to achieve its mission. NRI GOVERNANCE Chief Scientist The scientific leadership for the NRI is provided by a chief scientist who functions as the director of the NRI.
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One, for example, was responsible for program areas within the Plant Systems Division and the Markets, Trade, and Rural Development Division, even though this director did not have substantive training in social science (in fact, the committee observed a general lack of social-science expertise among NRI staff in 1998~. Program directors provide scientific oversight of individual research programs and, with rotating panel managers recruited from the research community, are responsible for administering NRI review panels.
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Despite the intended increase in NRI funding from 1991 to 1995, appropriations remained at or near the $100 million level during that period (see table 6-2~. Special initiatives or "earmarks", such as the BARD Program in 1994 and 1995, cut into the NRI budget and effectively decreased the total funding available to the six original NRI divisions.
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Failure to obtain the originally proposed appropriations has stunted the development of the NRI and has challenged its effectiveness, potentially reducing the desired number of high-quality research grants with sufficient size and duration to achieve research goals. The practical result has been that a large pool of US scientists might not have been fully used in research directed to issues critical to the food, fiber, and natural-resources system.
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Continued underfunding of NRI research grants relative to those of other federal research agencies will tend to discourage new researchers outside the traditional food and fiber system from applying for NRI grants—one original goal of establishing the NRI (to "seek the widest possible participation of qualified scientists"~. It might also cause highly qualified scientists who have received NRI support to apply for research funds from other sources and possibly to redirect their research away from issues important to the food and fiber system.
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Although the increase from 14 to 19% reduces the gap between overhead rates on NRI grants and rates on grants awarded by other federal agencies, overhead rates for most academic and private-sector research institutions are significantly higher than the 19% limit currently allowed. Average overhead rates for NSF's Biology Directorate, for example, are approximately 45% of the modified total direct costs of the award- nearly double the NRI limit.
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· NRI research grants are much smaller and shorter than grants supporting similar types of research in NSF, NIH, and DOE. Continued underfunding of NRI research grants relative to those of other federal research agencies will tend to discourage new researchers outside the traditional food and fiber system from applying for NRI grants—one original goal of establishing the NRI.
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86 THE NATIONAL RESEARCHINITIATIVE FY 2000. There is no clear reason why the NRI is treated differently from other federal peer-reviewed research in this regard.
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