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Administration’s FY2018 Budget Would Restrict F&A, Contains Salary Cap

Two provisions of note in the President’s Budget released Tuesday:

Within the NIH section of the Major Savings and Reforms provision, the Budget includes an indirect cost rate for NIH grants that will be capped at 10 percent of total research. This approach would be applied to all types of grants with a rate higher than 10 percent currently and will achieve significant savings in 2018. It would also bring NIH’s reimbursement rate for indirect costs more in line with the reimbursement rate used by private foundations, such as the Gates Foundation, for biomedical research conducted at U.S. universities. In addition, the Budget proposes that NIH will streamline select Federal research requirements for grantees through targeted approaches. In tandem, the Budget supports burden reduction measures that will further reduce grant award recipient costs associated with research.

In the Budget’s Appendix document (on page 480 under general provisions), Section 202 proposes to lower the NIH allowable salary cap from the current Executive level II (2) to Executive level V (5). If the this recommendation is enacted, the cap will drop to $151,700, which is a 21% cut in currently supported salary levels.