AAMC Implores NIH to Reverse Policy Changes Regarding Foreign Subrecipients
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) is urging NIH to withdraw a recent “blanket policy change focused on foreign recipients regardless of the research being conducted” that the agency made to its Grant Policy Statement (GPS). Instead, NIH should “consider policy updates which utilize existing agency mechanisms and employ a risk-based framework for increased reporting.” In a letter sent earlier this month, AAMC said NIH’s May 19 changes create “new, potentially conflicting requirements.” For example, NIH is “implementing a requirement that all foreign subrecipients regularly send grant awardees documents, lab notebooks, and research records, some of which are not typically collected by or required by a prime recipient. This change does not automatically lead to improvements in research oversight without considering the identity of the subawardee or the characteristics of the research,” AAMC said. The requirement for “subrecipients to provide copies of lab notebooks is incongruous with existing NIH policy and would substantially increase burden on researchers without improving award oversight,” AAMC added.
Other changes do not “align with research security principles and will result in a negative impact on international scientific collaborations” and do not “consider international standards for data transfer, privacy, and confidentiality,” association officials said. AAMC argued that “increased reporting solely for foreign subrecipients also does not align with the three key priorities of research security and integrity developed by the government: protecting security and openness, creating policies that are minimally burdensome, and ensuring that policies do not fuel xenophobia or prejudice.”
