The U.S. Census Bureau provides the latest data on school enrollment from several different surveys and, depending on your needs, one survey may be more suitable than another.

In addition, the Career Services Network and Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University offer current information on recruiting trends, including hiring outlook and starting salaries, among other topics.

The U.S. Census Bureau school enrollment data tables provide information by age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, family income, type of college, employment status, nativity, foreign-born parentage, attendance status (full or part time), type of school (public or private), and vocational course enrollment. They also delve into topics such as nursery school and kindergarten enrollment, the likelihood of being enrolled in an age appropriate grade, and the percentage of young adults enrolled in college. Historical tables are also provided.

To view the complete list of surveys, see the U.S. Census Bureau School Enrollment webpage.

The Career Services Network and Collegiate Employment Research Institute (CERI) at Michigan State University 2015-16 Recruiting Trends Report Briefs provide information drawn from 4,723 employers that seek college talent through their interactions with college career service offices. The data show improvement over the calendar year across all industry sectors. Of the respondents, 91% reported that they hired at least one new college graduate during the 2014-15 academic year. All but 3% of these respondents plan to hire new graduates again this year. Among those who did not hire last year, only 25% will not be hiring anyone this year. In addition, 84% (up two percentage points) described the new college labor market within their sector as good to excellent.

To view the complete list of report briefs, see the CERI 2015-16 Recruiting Trends Report Briefs webpage.

As part of the effort that began in April 2015, the National Science Foundation (NSF) is continuing to transition post-award notifications and requests from FastLane to Research.gov. Notification and request policies are outlined in the Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide; see the Award and Administration Guide (AAG) Chapter II.A.2.

On October 24, 2015, as the next step in this transition, the following two notifications and requests will be released in Research.gov and retired from FastLane:

• Grantee-Approved No-Cost Extension
• NSF-Approved No-Cost Extension

As of October 24, if you click on the notifications and requests link in FastLane, you will be redirected to login to Research.gov.

As a reminder, the following notifications and requests are also available in Research.gov:

• Additional categories of participant support costs other than those described in 2 CFR § 200.75 (such as incentives, gifts, souvenirs, t-shirts and/or memorabilia)
• Change in Person-Months Devoted to Project
• Changes in Objectives or Scope
• Conflicts of Interest
• Long-term Disengagement of the PI (Principal Investigator)/PD (Project Director) or co-PI/co-PD (Over Three Months)
• Pre-award Costs in Excess of 90 Days
• Reallocation of Funds Provided for Participant Support Costs
• Rearrangements/Alterations in excess of $25,000 (Construction)
• Salaries of Administrative or Clerical Staff
• Significant Changes/Delays or Events of Unusual Interest
• Significant Changes in Methods/Procedures
• Travel Costs for Dependents
• Withdrawal of PI/PD or co-PI/co-PD

All remaining notifications and requests will continue to reside in FastLane and will be migrated in the future. Awardees may view the status of all notifications and requests in both FastLane and Research.gov, regardless of where they were created and submitted.

Notifications and requests communicate changes in the scope, time, staff or budget of an NSF funded project. Depending on the type of change, awardee organizations must notify or request approval from NSF prior to taking action. Notifications and requests can be created and submitted by either the PIs and/or Sponsored Project Offices (SPOs), depending on the type of notification and/or request.  For a full listing of all NSF notifications and requests, please see the Award and Administration Guide (AAG), Exhibit II-1.

Please share this information with your colleagues. If you have any questions, contact the NSF Help Desk at 1-800-673-6188, or ithelpcentral@nsf.gov

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) periodically updates its application forms and instructions to accommodate changing policy, address new business needs, and reduce the amount of information it asks of PIs.

The upcoming revisions implement a number of policy changes impacting applications submitted in 2016. The changes will be made in two phases. You may want to pay particular attention to the following changes, effective for applications submitted on or after January 25, 2016:

• New application requirements and review language regarding enhanced rigor and reproducibility.
• Updates to the NIH policy on inclusion of children to lower the age designation for children to include those under 18 years old. (The current age designation for children includes all research subjects under 21 years old.)
• For training grants, information requirements will change and lower applicant burden.

For due dates of May 25, 2016 and beyond, NIH will require use of new application forms (FORMS-D). NIH will reissue fellowship, career development, training, and all parent funding opportunity announcements this spring, to ensure the announcements include instructions that match the form requirements. NIH will also make a variety of resources available this spring to help ensure you submit using the right forms.

If you have been using the Grants.gov downloadable forms and have not tried ASSIST yet, NIH (the electronic Research Administration or eRA) is working on enhancing the copy application feature to make it even easier to move your application (including attachments) from one form version to another. During the last round of grant applications, over 25% of the applicants switched from using downloadable forms to ASSIST. They successfully submitted their applications on the first try over 90% of the time compared with only 60% of the time for those still using the standard downloadable forms.

NIH will continue to release more communications regarding the new policies.

Excerpted from Open Mike posted on posted on October 29, 2015 by Mike Lauer