In a move designed to stretch budget dollars and spread the research wealth, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) announced last week that starting next year, it will impose a one-grant-at-a-time policy on investigators with substantial, long-term, unrestricted grants.  In other words, if you already have one, you can’t get another one until the first one had ended.

What’s “substantial”?  The definition is $400,000 or more per year, not including salary and overhead.  What’s “long-term”?  Two years or longer.  What’s “unrestricted”?  Not tied to a specific project and available for research on a broad topic of the principal investigator’s choice.

NIGMS Deputy Director Judith Greenberg is reported by ScienceInsider to estimate that at least 22 investigators hold two or more grants, and that the new limitation could free up approximately $6 million for 25 to 30 grants to new investigators.