LibGuides: Grants & You: Fall 2025: News &amp; Updates

NIH

New Policy Requiring Disclosure of Other Support

ATSU PIs/PDs conducting federally funded research will soon have a new virtual training requirement. NIH recently announced a new policy mandate (NOT-OD-25-133) for all recipient institutions to implement training, in addition to maintaining a written and enforceable policy, on requirements for the disclosure of other support to ensure senior/key personnel fully understand their responsibility to disclose all resources made available in support of and/or related to their research endeavors. The purpose is to ensure compliance with federal regulations concerning transparency, research integrity, and protection of US research from foreign government influence.

Research, Grants & Scholarly Innovations (RGSI) has developed a University policy for consideration by the General Orders Review Committee and is working to ensure institutional compliance by the federal October 1, 2025 deadline.

The policy will apply to all individuals at ATSU who are designated as senior/key personnel on active or proposed federally funded research projects, including, but not limited to, National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, Department of Education, etc.

Sponsored Programs will work closely with impacted researchers to provide access to training and to support the submission of accurate and complete Other Support Information to funding agencies on behalf of ATSU. Upon receiving notification of the new Disclosure of Other Support general order, ATSU investigators engaged in or planning to pursue federally funded research should familiarize themselves with the policy and reach out to Sponsored Programs for assistance (preaward@atsu.edu).

NIH

NIH Extramural Nexus Quick Hits

Highlighted Topics

The recently announced NIH Highlighted Topics is a new centralized and simplified resource that informs the research community about particular areas of science of interest to NIH. Visiting this resource early and often when conceptualizing your research ideas will help ensure you are aware of some of NIH’s latest scientific interests. Highlighted Topics also aims to help facilitate innovation and discovery through a strong focus on more investigator initiated driven research.

Updates to NIH Inclusion Policy

Be sure to review the updated Revision: NIH Policy and Guidelines on the Inclusion of Women and Minorities as Subjects in Clinical Research (NOT-OD-25-131) when preparing inclusion plans for your applications or data for progress reports.

The policy, effective August 16, 2025 for both new and ongoing clinical research projects, remains substantially unchanged in that:

Women and members of racial and/or ethnic minority groups must be included in all clinical research studies unless there is a compelling rationale for their exclusion.
NIH-defined Phase 3 trials require valid analyses.
Applicable Phase 3 clinical trials must report results of valid analyses at ClinicalTrials.gov.

Revisions focus on terminology updates to align with HHS Sex-Based Definitions and Executive Order 14168. Inclusion plans and data reporting must consider and report on sex, race and/or ethnicity, and age.

Reorganizing Information

Information on NIH’s scientific data sharing policies and data repositories can now be found on the NIH Grants & Funding site – nearer the other information you need to start an application or manage an award.

NIH

Find NIH Funding Opportunities & Notices

In an effort to simplify the application process, NIH will no longer post NOFOs in the NIH Guide; grants.gov will serve as NIH’s single official source for grant and cooperative agreement funding opportunities. The NIH Guide will continue to post policy and informational notices. Going forward:

All NIH NOFOs (expired and active) will remain searchable on Grants.gov using their Classic search or their new Simpler search.
NOFOs will no longer be included in the weekly NIH Guide Table of Contents subscription emails. You can use Grants.gov subscription services to receive notifications of new NIH funding opportunities.
NIH will continue to provide tools in the Funding section of NIH Grants & Funding to identify potential funding categories, topics, and opportunities you may be interested in.

NIH

NIH Policy on AI Use in NIH Research Applications

NIH views all research applications as original ideas. Recently, it announced a new policy on AI use. Effective for the September 25, 2025, receipt date or beyond:

NIH will not consider applications that are either substantially developed by AI, or contain sections substantially developed by AI, to be original ideas of applicants.
NIH will also only accept up to 6 new, renewal, resubmission, or revision applications from an individual PD/PI or Multiple Principal Investigator for all council rounds in a calendar year. For more details on applicability, investigator roles, and impacted application types, please see these new FAQs.

Investigators should be aware that AI can infuse problematic language into proposals, including text from another's work or fabricated citations, and use it at their own risk. If AI use is detected post award, NIH may refer the matter to the Office of Research Integrity to determine potential research misconduct, among other actions.

Increasingly, funders are developing policies on the use of AI. Sponsored Programs is monitoring these changes and is happy to provide guidance to PIs/PDs with regard to safe ways to incorporate AI in proposal development. Please contact us at preaward@atsu.edu to discuss any concerns you may have.

NIH

Updates to NIH's Funding Priorities

NIH recently updated its key priorities in an effort to advance biomedical research while addressing critical health challenges, improving research integrity, and modernizing the scientific enterprise. This reset sharpens NIH's focus on health issues that affect Americans, including chronic childhood diseases and nutrition, while prioritizing next-generation tools such as artificial intelligence, alternative testing models, and real-world data platforms.

NIH has identified 12 key priority areas:

Training Future Biomedical Scientists: Continue to support the training of future physicians and scientists, focusing on merit-based, legally compliant programs to maintain American leadership in biomedical research.
Replication & Reproducibility: Support research that produces robust, reproducible outcomes and encourage replication studies and publication of negative findings.
Real-World Data Platform: Create a secure national data infrastructure to integrate and link data from various sources, supporting advanced computational analysis and providing resources for investigators across research areas, including chronic diseases and neurodevelopmental disorders.
Artificial Intelligence: Develop an AI Strategic Plan to enhance transparency, establish replication standards, and speed translation of AI discoveries in biomedical research.
Nutrition: Explore the link between poor diets and chronic conditions, with a focus on maternal and infant dietary exposures and long-term studies on conditions like obesity and insulin resistance in children.
Understanding Autism: Support initiatives to better understand the causes and care needs of people with autism to create new data resources to improve health outcomes.
Alternative Testing Models: Establish an Office of Research Innovation, Validation, and Application to facilitate development and validation of human-biology-based testing methods to complement traditional animal models and reduce reliance on animal testing.
Promoting Research with Scientifically Valid Outcomes: Support research that improves the health of all Americans, ensuring that study designs are based on scientifically valid factors and not ideologies that promote disparate treatment.
Solution-Oriented Approaches for Health Disparities: Shift focus from simply documenting health disparities to actively testing and implementing evidence-based interventions to reduce them.
Improving Oversight of Foreign Research: Enhance oversight of funds sent to foreign research institutions to ensure scientific justification and benefit to Americans.
Evidence-Based Health Care for Transgender Youth: Prioritize research that identifies and treats the potential harms of certain therapies and procedures for gender dysphoria in minors, shifting away from research that supports puberty suppression, hormone therapy, or surgical intervention.
Implementing Advances in HIV/AIDS Research: Focus on implementation science to improve the uptake and access of existing medical and behavioral interventions to help eradicate HIV infection in the US.

You can read more here. If you have questions or would like to discuss how your current or planned research aligns with these priorities, please reach out to Sponsored Programs at preaward@atsu.edu.