NIH Guidance on Salary Limitation for Grants and Cooperative Agreements FY 2021
Notice Number: NOT-OD-21-057
Was Issued by NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH) and release today, January 29, 2021
Purpose
This Notice provides information regarding the salary limitation for NIH grant and cooperative agreement awards and extramural research and development contract awards.
Since 1990, Congress has legislatively mandated a limitation on direct salary for individuals under NIH awards. The mandate appears in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Public Law 116-260), signed into law on December 27, 2020, which provides authority for NIH to incur obligations for Fiscal Year 2021.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 restricts the amount of direct salary to Executive Level II of the Federal Executive pay scale. The Office of Personnel Management recently released new salary levels for the Executive Pay Scale. Effective January 3, 2021, the salary limitation for Executive Level II is $199,300.
For issued awards that were restricted to Executive Level II (see historical record of salary cap link below), including competing awards already issued in FY2021, if adequate funds are available in active awards, and if the salary cap increase is consistent with the institutional base salary, recipients may rebudget funds to accommodate the current Executive Level II salary level.