This year's one and only NIH grant seminar

The National Institutes of Health will present a grant seminar June 25-27 in Baltimore. The session will cover the application and review process as well as federal policies. It's the only seminar NIH will give all year.

COFAR: It will affect you

The Council on Financial Assistance Reform (COFAR) is a federal task force that has combined more than a dozen sets of grant rules into a single document called Uniform Guidance. Some provisions will make the life of grant writers easier. For example, funding announcement will have to be released 60 days before the deadline in most cases. The grant administration community is less pleased with some other provisions, though.

No surprises: NIH award rates down

The National Institutes of Health has released  award data for 2013. It won't come as a surprise to investigators that the success rate for proposals inched down from 17.6 percent in 2012 to 16.8 percent in 2013. The size of awards also decreased.