BILAT USA 4.0 invited the European research and research managers community to participate in a half-day workshop on US/NIH Funding Opportunities and Grants Management to Bonn, Germany on 18 March 2016. The principal aim of this efficient workshop was to enable participants to learn about open and current funding opportunities on the US side and to learn in particular from and discuss with the invited EU and US experts that deal with such grants on a daily basis.
The first workshop session was led by Vivian Holmes and promoted of US federal research funding opportunities for European researchers with specific focus on NIH. The key questions that were answered were: What is required to apply for an NIH fund? What is required to be a sub-recipient of an NIH fund? The use of different terminology in EU and US funding was one of the aspects mentioned. Vivian Holmes is Director of Sponsored Research Operations at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and former NCURA President.
Regina Notz from ETH Zürich was invited to complement Vivian’s presentation from an EU perspective. Her presentation evolved around case studies of managing US funds and best practice examples. Regina e.g. talked about the applicable regulations and whether those of the granting US authority comply with those of the “receiving” institution. Further, challenges in US grants management such as effort reporting, cost transfer, allowable / non-allowable costs or F&A costs were elaborated. Regina is engaged in research management and consultancy at her current position in the international grants office of ETH and University of Zurich, where she is in charge of advising researchers with US grants and providing support to set up institutional policies for these grants.
The workshop was well-visited and it was a great pleasure to see so many European scientists, researchers and research managers interested to get to know what the US funding landscape offers and how to tackle some challenges when having received or receiving an NIH grant. The event showed that there is a huge need for the constant sharing of information on this subject matter. Further similar events will be published on the project website: www.EuUsScienceTechnology.eu (currently under construction).
For more information, please contact Vera Kamman (vera.kammann@dlr.de) or Henriette Krimphoff (henriette.krimphoff@dlr.de).