Tighter NIH Rules Need Even More Tightening

Francis Collins is considering re-tightening NIH's newly tightened rules on financial conflicts of interest, reports the Chronicle of Higher Education. A Chronicle article earlier this week reported on NIH administrator Thomas Insel, who was leading the process to revise those rules even as he was helping a tainted researcher, Charles Nemeroff, get a job at the University of Miami, and apply for more NIH grants. According to the Chronicle's Paul Basken, Collins says the new rules may need to be changed "to ensure that any penalties or sanctions against a researcher remain in effect if the researcher moves to another institution." Nemeroff was let go from his position at Emory University and that institution banned him from applying for NIH grants for two years, something which didn't carry over to his new job. Collins also says that NIH is reviewing its policies on who participates in panels that advise the agency on grant applications, something Nemeroff was also allowed to continue doing, Basken writes.