September 7, 2001
To: |
IC Directors |
From: |
Director, Executive Secretariat |
Subject: |
IC Directors' Meeting Highlights
— August 16, 2001 |
I. Report of the NIH Restructuring Committee
Dr. Leshner explained that the restructuring
is a serious exercise not only for HHS, but for OMB and the Bush Administration.
The over-arching principle of the NIH committee was to accomplish the
OMB and HHS goals in ways that would enhance NIH core activities and
the success of our mission. Dr. Leshner distributed copies of his overheads.
He did not include the subcommittee reports, but he will provide them
to anyone who would like them.
There are five Administration initiatives:
- strategic management of human capital
- expanding E-government
- competitive sourcing (A-76)
- improving financial performance
- budget and performance integration
The NIH committee spent most of its time on the
first initiative, especially human resources management. The contextual
principles for HR management are to centralize HR policy, oversight,
technical review, and accountability while retaining a high level
of program support. The proposed HR structure consists of three tiers.
The first tier consists of a single servicing personnel office (SPO)
for NIH. Tier two consists of staff performing generic HR services
not tied to specific program areas; these people would report to the
SPO. Tier three consists of staff with program knowledge and close
relationships with program staff; these people would continue to report
to IC management.
A number of implementation issues need to be resolved,
such as physical location and work assignments of staff, customer
input into performance evaluation of tiers 1 and 2, the technical
series for tier 3, and the timing of a staged implementation. Dr.
Leshner said the next step is to form an implementation group, on
which Executive Officers from diverse ICs should be heavily represented.
Dr. Leshner then briefly summarized the committee's
work on the other aspects of strategic management of human capital
and on the remaining Administration initiatives. Both public affairs
and legislative affairs are already centralized at NIH. We need to
clarify the roles of IC staff in both areas and review existing policies
and practices to ensure consistency and quality control. NIH already
leads the Department in E-government, but the committee did make a
number of recommendations to improve this area even further. The competitive
sourcing (A-78) initiative was handled by a separate committee led
by Mr. Wheeles. The committee recommends improving NIH financial performance
through automation, restructuring, and management oversight. Finally,
in the area of budget and performance integration, the group recommended
continuing to implement GPRA and pursuing service delivery accountability
by having the FARB manage central resources and ORS and the CC use
activity-based management for their areas.
Dr. Leshner said the committee has stopped editing
the report. He does need to know immediately if there are still technical
issues that must be resolved. The report will accompany the NIH FY03
budget. Mr. Graeff added that we are still waiting to hear from HHS
on their restructuring ideas.
Dr. Fauci, who was a member of the committee,
added that a critical issue of concern under human capital was the
relationship between tier 2 and tier 3, including the physical location
of tier 3 employees. Dr. Leshner noted that staff who classify positions,
develop individual recruitment packages, etc. need to be within the
ICs. This is entirely consistent with the Anderson Report. He added
that we must be perfectly clear that we are not recommending a shadow
personnel system. Dr. Klausner said it will be important to measure
how the new system works and to develop data on the time to recruit,
cost of each recruitment, etc. Dr. Leshner agreed that these topics
all need to be addressed by the implementation group. He noted the
amazing differences among the ICs and said the implementation group
will need to analyze each IC individually.
Ms. Thomas noted that NIH has many legislative
mandates on general communication about health and science as well
as some very specific requirements. Dr. Kirschstein clarified that
HHS has limited the restructuring effort to interactions with the
press; OS does not appear to be concerned about science communication
in general.
Dr. Lindberg expressed concerns about including
recommendations regarding programs that haven't been evaluated. Dr.
Leshner said he would remove those references. Dr. Kirschstein said
the group will discuss restructuring at the Leadership Forum.
II. Information Items
Mr. James Capretta, Program Associate
Director, Human Resources Programs, OMB, will address the Leadership
Forum Tuesday night.
Dr. Kirschstein described the last two weeks as
tumultuous. She termed the stem cell issue very complex and described
the Secretary's press conference at NIH. Dr. Skirboll discussed the
next steps and reviewed the President's eligibility criteria for the
cell lines. She clarified that the human embryonic cell lines arose
from more than 60 individual blastocysts, but the lines are in various
stages of development. Patenting and licensing issues will now be
of major importance. Dr. Skirboll and her staff are working to get
the cell lines in a registry quickly. Dr. Kirschstein clarified that
this will be a rolling, Web-based registry. Dr. Judith Greenberg of
NIGMS will work with OSP on setting up the registry.
Dr. Freire addressed stem cell licensing and patenting
issues. The key patents on stem cells are held by WARF and licensed
to WiCell. Both the derivation of and the actual cells are covered
by the patents. NCRR supported the research, which gives NIH some
rights. Two years after the primate patents were issued, the Patent
and Trademark Office issued an identical patent for humans. Geron
funded that work and has the license. The key to both is that even
if other groups derive stem cells another way, stem cells with all
the same characteristics are covered under the WARF patents. Dr. Freire
said that NIH must now work with the patent holder to agree on terms
of access to the cells so they can be provided to intramural researchers.
NIH will thus negotiate an agreement for the intramural scientists
that can serve as a model that can be used by other NIH-funded investigators,
if they so choose.
Dr. Kirschstein has promised the Secretary and
the White House that we will compare the usefulness of adult stem
cell lines from various sources with human embryonic stem cell lines.
Dr. Fauci pointed out that IC Directors need to assure the Administration
that NIH will continue to support all forms of stem cell research.
Dr. Kirschstein said that as soon as the registry has been established
and patent issues resolved, intramural scientists can begin to request
stem cells for their research. Investigators will have to inform their
IC Directors which lines they plan to use. OER will work out procedures
for extramural grantees who want to use the registry. Dr. Skirboll
will ensure that all information related to the registry is on one
Web site.
Dr. Kirschstein continued the meeting with principals
only, to discuss the FY03 budget.
Karen Pelham O'Steen
cc: OD Staff
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