Leesa,

The House Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations bill recommended that MRI funding be eliminated in FY 10 in light of the extra funding ARRA provided for the program in FY 09 (http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/CJS_Reductions_and_Eliminations_Table_Full_Committee-Revised-6-11-09.pdf). The Senate version (http://appropriations.senate.gov/news.cfm?method=news.view&id=2c975def-9d40-4dca-9502-7bdba5d5d17e) doesn't specifically target MRI, so the fate will be fought out in conference.

For the last several months, MRI program director Randy Phelps has given us the same message as you and Teresa, a cautious wait and see! We've recommended that our members prepare for the possible competition, as you have, but alert PIs that they could be faced with a choice between holding the proposal until FY 11 or revising it for submission to another funder if the FY 10 MRI competition doesn't take place.

Meg Cantwell
Program Consultant
Grants Resource Center
American Association of State Colleges and Universities
1307 New York Avenue NW, Fifth Floor
Washington, DC 20005
202.478.4709
xxxxxx@aascu.org <mailto:xxxxxx@aascu.org>

AASCU: The Leadership Association of 430 Public Colleges and Universities Delivering America's Promise

________________________________

From: Research Administration List on behalf of Brown, Leesa
Sent: Fri 10/30/2009 2:20 PM
To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org
Subject: [RESADM-L] NSF MRI January competition

Dear Esteemed Colleagues,

One of my faculty sent an e-mail to the NSF program officer for the MRI competition asking a question about the type of equipment she wants to include in her MRI application.  She is trying to get ahead of the game and start working on her narrative and quotes now rather than waiting until we get closer to the deadline.  NSF hasn't posted the MRI announcement and the OIA website indicates the next deadline is January 28, 2010 pending the availability of funds.  This is the response we received:

First I should say that pending the outcome of the NSF budget deliberations in Congress for FY2010, the fate of MRI in FY10 is uncertain. If there is a competition, there will be a new solicitation (describing eligibility requirements) and my best guess is that the deadline would be in early 2010. Currently there is no other information that is available.  Please monitor www.nsf.gov/od/oia/programs/mri for updates.

I cannot yet speak to the appropriateness of your proposed project until the parameters for the next MRI competition are finalized and announced in the new solicitation.

Has anyone heard about the possibility of not having a competition this winter?  I didn't attend the NSF update at SRA and didn't attend NCURA this year.  We have already had an internal competition to determine who would apply in January and I have been encouraging the 2 faculty members to start working on their proposals and vendor quotes now.

Any information would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Leesa Brown

Sponsored Research Officer

Seattle University

901 12th Ave

Seattle, WA  98122

(206) 296-6161

http://www.seattleu.edu/academics/grants

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