Sally Rockey, the deputy director for extramural research at the US National Institutes of Health, will be leaving her post in mid-September, the agency says.
After leaving NIH, Rockey will be taking up the helm of the recently created Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, which will focus on national and international agricultural issues.
In a statement, NIH Director Francis Collins notes that Rockey spent 19 years with the US Department of Agriculture before joining NIH. "[T]his looks like an ideal fit [for Rockey]," he says, adding that he will "greatly miss her wisdom, courage, and creativity as we tackle the knotty issues associated with extramural grant funding."
Since early 2011, Rockey has also maintained a blog covering extramural funding issues at NIH, ranging from examining the age distribution of PIs to exploring application success rates and the effect of the sequester.
"Writing this blog has been a centerpiece of my tenure as Director of the Office of Extramural Research, and I thank you for reading and participating in the conversation here at Rock Talk and helping us to throw open the doors to what is, at times, the mystery of the NIH decision-making process," she writes in a post there announcing her departure.