NAEVR/AEVR Updates
What’s Next for FY2021 Appropriations? Submitted 4/13/20
The Alliances hope that each of you is safe during these challenging times of the Covid-19 virus.
As you would expect, the pandemic is driving most of the Congressional agenda, with three supplemental funding packages passed to-date that include funding for Covid-19 vaccine development and related activities at the NIH and the CDC. Although Congressional leaders are signaling an eventual return to regular order appropriations activities for the twelve fiscal year 2021 spending bills, how that gets accomplished in terms of time and process (paper or Internet Committee meetings and markups?) remains to be seen.
As rumors of a potential full-year Continuing Resolution that funds FY2021 at the FY2020 level take hold, the research community is emphasizing to Congressional leaders about the need for supplemental funding now for science-related agencies to support grantee ramp-down/ramp-up and lab maintenance activities, as well as requesting that Congress exempt key research and health programs from the FY2021 spending caps agreed to in 2019 should regular order appropriations occur. NAEVR has joined as a signatory on these important letters.
During the past month, NAEVR and AEVR have continued to advocate and educate about vision research, as appropriate. On March 20, NAEVR submitted written testimony to the hearing file of the House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee about the need for increased, robust NIH and National Eye Institute funding increases, which had been requested during Congressional office visits in both a February 7 ARVO Advocacy Day and a February 26 American Glaucoma Society Advocacy Day. Click on the following link to read NAEVR’s testimony.
The week of March 9, which was World Glaucoma Week 2020, AEVR authored a blogpost on Research!America’s Web site recognizing the importance of glaucoma research. That article linked to the latest edition of Research!America’s Vision and Blindness fact sheet, which was prepared with AEVR’s assistance. This edition of the fact sheet reflects the third update of this important resource since it was initially released in 2004. Click on the following link to access the blog post and fact sheet.
As we all deal with social distancing and stay-at-home orders, NAEVR/AEVR will continue to investigate Web-based opportunities to keep the membership apprised of the latest events and potential funding opportunities.
NAEVR/AEVR Release Winter/Spring 2020 Contributor Report
Read about NAEVR and AEVR activities pre-COVID-19 pandemic regarding Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 appropriations advocacy, as well as activities during the pandemic—especially in working with medical research advocacy colleagues to seek supplemental funding for federal scientific agency grantees for ramp-down/ramp-up and lab maintenance activities. Note that, although a hard copy of the Report is being mailed out to past recipients, many of you are working off-site, so I do encourage you to click into the following link.
NAEVR and ARVO Announce Defense Vision Research Opportunities Webinar
As the front-page box in the Contributor Report notes, NAEVR is joining with ARVO in presenting a May 19 (at 1:00 pm Eastern) Webinar version of NAEVR’s annual Defense-related Vision Research Opportunities session that it holds at the ARVO Annual Meeting. The Webinar features Q. Tian Wang, PhD, Program Manager for the Department of Defense’s Vision Research Program (VRP), who will discuss the VRP’s history, processes, and upcoming Fiscal Year 2020 Program Announcement that includes research priorities, funding mechanisms, the application process, and dollar amounts for each type of award from the total $20 million in funding provided by Congress. She will also discuss other funding opportunities within the DOD and take questions, time permitting.