NIH’s effective $20,000 lowering of the salary cap for principal investigators and officials will have the effect of driving researchers toward potentially higher-paying jobs in industry, according to a majority of voters on a recent GEN poll. About 57.1% of respondents agreed with Jameson & Company, a CPA firm, that this decision “will have a major effect on University NIH Grants, R01s, and SBIR/STTR and the direct salary received from these awards;” 34.9% of voters did not think there would be a migration of scientists to industry, while 7.9% were undecided.
Lowering the salary cap was directed by the passage of H.R. 2055 last December. The legislation substitutes Executive Level 2, which commands an annual salary of $179,700, for Executive Level I, which paid up to $199,700.