At this year’s NCURA annual meeting, Michelle Bulls, Director of NIH’s Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration (OPERA), provided a policy update on budgeting and cost of living increases on the NIH salary cap. This update included an explanation that Universities are allowed to include escalators on capped salaries.  The rationale behind the allowance is that if the salary is inflated and the cap increases in a year following the year that the grant is awarded, the need to get a prior approval request to change budgets is eliminated.

In the past Emory has guided campus to not include an inflation of the DHHS salary cap in NIH grant proposals which include detailed budgets. However, based on the guidance above from NIH, Emory is adjusting our guidance on the matter to allow for such proposed increases. Please note that with any budget request, inclusion of such an increase is no guarantee that it will be awarded by NIH.

For more information regarding NIH’s policy, please visit: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-14-052.html.