Researcher Alert: California Stem Cell Agency Tightening Budget Oversight on Grants

By Dr. Matthew Watson

Some of California's top stem cell
researchers are going to have to sharpen their spreadsheets if they
want to win money from the state's $3 billion stem cell agency.

The agency is moving to beef up
scrutiny of the high-profile, big-ticket grant applications
that it will consider during the next several years. The effort may well extend to all grant programs. The move also makes
it clear to researchers that the CIRM staff is in the driver's seat
when it comes to budgeting on research projects.

The plan was laid out this week in a memo to directors of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) by Ellen Feigal, the agency's senior vice
president for research and development. She said,

“Increasing the importance of
budgetary review will encourage applicants to propose rigorous,
realistic and vetted budgets, and will further our mission to be good
stewards of taxpayer dollars. These additions will not significantly
increase the workload burden on GWG members (grant reviewers) and
explicitly acknowledge that program goals, scientific plans, accurate budgeting and prudent spending are inextricably linked.”

The proposal comes before the CIRM
directors' Science Subcommittee next Monday and would alter the
closed-door grant review process in the following manner, according
to Feigal's memo.

• “To assist GWG review,
appropriate expertise on budget and financial matters (e.g., this
could be in the form of a specialist reviewer, or can also be
assigned to a GWG reviewer with the appropriate background and
expertise), will review applications for sound budgeting and provide
comments or questions to the GWG for consideration by the reviewers
before the reviewer’s final scores are entered.
• “If the financial/budgetary
matter potentially directly impacts on the design or feasibility of
conducting the project, the GWG may consider this issue in the
scoring; otherwise, budgetary and financial issues and questions will
not contribute to the scientific score.
• “As appropriate, review summaries
sent to the ICOC (the CIRM governing board) will identify scientific
as well as budget or other issues. To the extent endorsed by the
GWG, the review summaries will also identify potential resolution
should the ICOC approve a given award with budget issues.
• “CIRM officers should be provided
explicit discretion to consider the budget comments, as well as
budget or other issues. To the extent endorsed by the GWG, the
review summaries will also identify potential resolution should the
ICOC approve a given award with budget issues.”

Feigal's memo clearly indicates that
CIRM staff has experienced push-back from recalcitrant researchers
when efforts have been made to bring costs under control. She noted that
the agency's staff examines a research project's budget during the
“prefunding” review that follows board approval. However, Feigal
said, at that stage, “It is often challenging to make substantive
changes to the budget, based on appropriateness of study activities
and costs, given the ICOC approval at a given budget amount.”

The agency has already examined some
budgets prior to board approval. One grant review in a $200
million-plus round this summer, for example, declared that costs to
prepare regulation packages had “overlap” and were “excessive,”
along with costs dealing with manufacturing and per patient expenses.
That was for a high-scoring application by Antoni Ribas of UCLA, and
he was not alone.

In her memo, Feigal listed other cases
of budgetary shortcomings in recent applications:,

• “Budget does not align with the
program deliverables and milestones. For example, the budget
includes activities not relevant to project objective(s) or that are
out of scope.
•”Budget does not contain adequate
expenses for known costs. For example, an applicant may budget
$100,000 for a GMP manufacturing run of a biologic in which it is
generally accepted knowledge that the actual expenses are typically
much greater.
•“Budget item significantly exceeds
a known cost or seems excessive without adequate justification. For
example, an applicant may propose a surgical expense of $100,000 per
patient for a procedure with Medicare reimbursement set at $15,000.
•“Cost allocations are not done
properly. For example, an applicant is developing the same
therapeutic candidate for 3 indications, and is applying for CIRM
funding for 1 of the 3, but is charging CIRM for the cost of the
entire manufacturing run.”

Initially, the budgetary review would
be used in disease team, early translational, strategic partnership
rounds, and any new rounds “as deemed appropriate.” Feigal said,
however, that “all applications for CIRM awards should be
carefully examined for budgetary appropriateness.”

Our take: This seems to be a
well-advised move, albeit one that is not likely to find favor with
researchers accustomed to loose oversight. It moves budgetary review
to an earlier stage and gives the CIRM directors a chance to weigh in
on those matters prior to approval of grants, instead of creating a
sense of entitlement on the part of recipients that may pop up
following board approval of their applications. Indeed, the plan
makes such good sense that it raises the question why it was not in
place years ago.

A final note: Feigal's memo is an
excellent example of the type of information that clarifies issues
and helps CIRM directors make the best possible decisions. It
provides some history, good evidence for a change and an explanation
of benefits. Additionally, the memo is timely, having been posted on
the CIRM website sufficiently in advance of next week's meeting to give affected parties and others time to comment
and make constructive suggestions. The memo is also far superior to
the Power Point presentations that are often submitted to the board
minus any nuanced, written discussion of the issue at hand.

Next week's meeting will be based in
San Francisco but also has teleconference locations in Irvine (2), La
Jolla, Stanford, Pleasanton, Oakland and Los Angeles where the public
and researchers can participate. The specific addresses can be found on the agenda.

Source:
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