Monday, February 9, 2015

Something is happening with my R01

I don't think I ever posted on the fact that I resubmitted my R01 and got the EXACT same very close score.  Well, this resubmitted grant has not been funded either.  The PO was also not overly supportive of doing anything for me in the way of nomination for select pay.  He did however say that he would throw my grant in the pile, but that select pay was a long shot.  The council met three weeks ago and I never heard anything from my PO, so I assumed it was a lost cause.  As a matter of fact, I worked for the past month to rewrite the grant and resubmitted it just a couple days ago (as an A0)  for review in the next cycle.  Then today I got a request for Just-In-Time information for this old grant, and the "SNAP Indicator Code" on ERA Commons changed to Y (which is what it is on my funded applications as opposed to being blank for all of my unfunded applications).  I have no idea what this really means, and I've heard nothing from my PO, but I think it's a good sign.  Maybe select pay.  Maybe an R56 bridge award.  Maybe false hope and nothing at all.  This is such a roller coaster, but I'm feeling really hopeful that SOMETHING is happening!

Update:  I got an email from my PO that my grant is being considered for an R56 bridge award.  A new grant appeared in my ERA commons grant list with an R56 number and the same title as my R01.  The status of this grant is "pending" and has been that way for two days now.  This is fantastic and seems like it's moving in the right direction, but the uncertainty and mystery is really driving me crazy.  The words "pending" and "considered for" do not provide any certainty of funding and I also have no idea how long it could take for the powers that be to decide on this or to get the paperwork done.  In my department we've had two people receive these grants in the past.  One got a year's worth of funding and the other got two years of funding.  But I've also heard of getting one year of funding at half the budget, so I'm not really even sure what to be hoping for.  The other thing I've learned from asking around about R56 grants is that if you get an R01 during the R56 funding period, the NIH will either take back whatever you've not spent from the R56, or they will cut funding from the first year of the R01. 

Update again:  Today there was a status update that says "award prepared."  Still no Notice of Award and the overall status still says "pending," but this seems really promising!