Info Dribbling Out for CIRM Directors Meeting Wednesday

Directors of the $3 billion California stem cell agency meet in only two days, but only just now are details beginning to emerge about what they plan to decide and why.

On Friday, the skimpy directors agenda was virtually barren of background information on the CIRM Web site. Some information for the public, businesses and researchers began to appear yesterday and more today.

Now up is a 10-page report supporting continuation of the triage process for grant applications, an $80 million proposal for early translational grants, a one-page status report on the CIRM budget (no evident problems), the routine CIRM annual audit and appointment of an administrative chairman for the group that makes the de facto decisions on CIRM grants.

CIRM staff has nominated John Sladek, professor of pediatric and neuroscience at the University of Colorado, as the administrative head of the Grants Working Group, on which he has served on for about two years.

Missing from the agenda is any background information on the proposed salary increase for Vice Chairman Art Torres, who has been paid $75,000 a year for half-time work. He has been in the position since last March.

Also missing:

• The chairman's report, which has never been available but which often contains important information
• Wording of proposed changes in how the grant reviewers operate
• Justification for new action on a $16 million disease team grant to Don Cleveland of the Ludwig Institute, Samuel Pfaff of Salk and Lawrence Goldstein of UC San Diego
• Background on the proposed modification of terms of the $230 million disease team round
• Wording and justification for a change in the conflict of interest appeals policy, which CIRM describes as a “correction”
• And the rationale for creation of a directors subcommittee on communications with the public, including the media.

Failure to post background material in time for interested parties, including businesses and researchers, to react with well-considered comment has plagued CIRM for some time. That, despite the California constitutional “guarantee” that the public has “the right of access to information concerning the conduct of the people's business.”

As the Sunlight Foundation of Washington, D.C., points out,

“Public oversight, civic participation and electoral engagement—the stuff of democratic accountability—all depend on a transparent, open government.

“Indeed, transparency and openness are the very foundations for public trust; without the former the latter cannot survive.”

The foundation also notes,

“Information cannot be considered public if it is available only inside a government building, during limited hours or for a fee. In the 21st century, information is properly described as 'public' only if it is available online, 24/7, for free, in some kind of reasonably parseable format. Almost all of our public sphere is now online, and our public information should be there, too.”

The CIRM directors meeting begins at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Stanford with an offsite teleconference location at the City of Hope in the Los Angeles area. The meeting will be audiocast on the Internet, but no public participation is possible through the Internet. However, it is possible to send comments via the Internet to CIRM officials using this email address: info@cirm.ca.gov. You can ask that email comments be read by staff during the public comment period, but there is no guarantee that will occur. Details of the audiocast and City of Hope address are available on the agenda. Sphere: Related Content

Art, Bill, Nadia and Stem Cell Billions

The vice chairman of the $3 billion California stem cell agency, Art Torres, today will return to his old roots as a campaigner when he hits the hustings on behalf of the wife of the state treasurer, Bill Lockyer.

Torres(at left), who is up for a pay increase at the CIRM board meeting next week, will be “pounding the pavement” in Hayward for Nadia Lockyer, who is running for a seat on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, according to an item on the Political Blotter.

Torres, former chairman of the state Democratic Party, and Bill Lockyer are friends and served together for many years in the California Legislature. Lockyer is also instrumental in matters of money for the stem cell agency. He is the person who presides over the sale and allocation of state bonds, which are virtually the only source of funding for CIRM.

Josh Richman wrote on the Political Blotter that Torres was quoted in a Nadia Lockyer news release as saying that he is proud to support her candidacy.

Torres also said,

“I have had the pleasure of knowing her ever since she was a young person who was intent on serving her community and making a difference. Over the years, Nadia has proven herself as a leader who has consistently fought to empower her community, and Alameda County will greatly benefit from her dedication, hard work, and enthusiasm.”

All politics is local – that's the way the old saying goes. In this case, it also reaches into the laboratories of the more than 300 researchers whose work is financed by the California stem cell agency -- not to mention the hundreds more expected to be funded in next several years, as well as their institutions and businesses. Sphere: Related Content

Changes Upcoming in $500 Million State Biotech Loan Program?

California biotech firms looking to dip into a new $500 million source of capital would be well-advised to sit in on a meeting next week of the state's stem cell agency.

A group of its directors – the Loan Task Force – meets next Wednesday at noon on the Stanford University campus to discuss the state of the unprecedented lending program and, more specifically, the loan terms. The session offers a golden opportunity to learn about the program, influence its direction and chat with key figures at the $3 billion funding agency.

The loan program is clearly in its formative stages. CIRM only approved its first loan --- $20 million loan to Novocell, Inc., of San Diego – a little more than a month ago.

Curiously, while CIRM has embarked on an effort to become more friendly to the biotech industry, it has provided little public information about the specifics to be discussed next week. That's the sort of stuff, however, that is needed to draw busy executives to the task force meeting to provide valuable input on the program and to encourage them to seek funding.

With three business days left before the task force meeting, the agenda states only that the panel will hear a presentation and discuss loan terms.

In order to provide more information to businesses, the public and other interested parties, the California Stem Cell Report yesterday queried Duane Roth, chairman of the task force and vice chairman of the stem cell agency, about next week's meeting.

Roth, a San Diego businessman, told us that the meeting will include a review of the initial loan policy and terms in light of feedback from potential applicants. He indicated that the session will focus on items that need further review or adjustment. Those specifics and any others identified at the meeting would come back to the task force and then the full CIRM board for action on later dates. It is fair to say that significant changes could be in the works.

The biotech loan program is significantly different than ordinary commercial lending. It specifically targets firms that otherwise could not raise cash or secure conventional financing. The idea is provide help to firms that are in what is known as the financial “valley of death.”

For more on the biotech loan program, click on the label “biotech loans” at the end of this article. You can find a list of members of loan task force here. Sphere: Related Content

CIRM Approves $300,000 More for Tech Help, Including Grant Management

The Governance Subcommittee of the California stem cell agency yesterday approved spending an additional $300,000 for technology assistance as it wrestles with its $1.2 million – and growing – grants management system.

A $100,000 increase was okayed for Turner Consulting Group of Washington, D.C., and a $200,000 extension for 25by7 of Santa Monica, Ca., according to a CIRM spokesman. Turner began work August 2008 on the grants management system under a $120,000 contract. Increases were approved last February and September. With the latest increase, the value of the two-year contract now stands at $350,000. Turner's contract is scheduled to end next June but may well be extended.

25by7's original $175,000 contract for network, server and desktop support began one year ago. Under the action yesterday, the contract was extended for one year, bringing its two year total to $375,000.

CIRM expects to seek additional information technology help next year.

The directors subcommittee also heard a report on the system designed to oversee $3 billion in grants and loans. It was first public accounting of how much has been spent on the grant management system, which CIRM has described as "a risk." No details were available concerning directors' comments. Sphere: Related Content

Coming Up at CIRM: Grant Triage and More Cash for Training, Translational Research

Directors of the California stem cell agency will meet Dec. 9-10 to consider a pay increase for one of its two vice chairmen and to give away more money for training at state and community colleges.

The agenda for the meeting at Stanford University was posted yesterday on the CIRM Web site. As usual, only the sketchiest information is currently available on the matters to be considered, but more is expected to posted over the next few days.

CIRM did not specify the amount of the increase proposed for Art Torres, who has served as a vice chairman for eight months. Currently he receives a $75,000 salary for what is supposed to be a half-time job. Our impression, however, is that he putting in considerably more effort than that.

Torres, former head of the state Democratic Party and longtime state legislator, brings to the board political know-how and connections along with state government expertise that are found nowhere else at CIRM.

Duane Roth, a San Diego businessman, is the other CIRM vice chairman. He has declined a salary.

The board is expected to act on additional grants in the “Bridges” training program. The board last January put off funding some applications in the so-called tier two category because of CIRM's financial difficulties, which are now resolved through June 2011.

Grant applicants may be interested in an item dealing with conflict of interest appeals on applications. The board is scheduled to make an unspecified “correction” concerning such appeals.

Of special interest to applicants is a CIRM staff recommendation to continue the triage or pre-application process on grants. The procedure was used on the disease team round and involves initial staff and outside reviewer screening of brief grant proposals. Only those applicants who make that cut may apply for grants.

Also on tap is approval of a round of “early translational” grants and creation of a board of directors “Subcommittee on Communications with the California Public” and a “Task Force on Public Media.” The task force would be derived from the communications subcommittee.

If you have comments for the directors on these proposals, you can send them directly to CIRM at mking@cirm.ca.gov. If you would like to comment on them for the benefit of readers of the California Stem Cell Report, you may do so by clicking on the word “comments” at the end of this item. Anonymous comments are permitted. Sphere: Related Content

New Figures Show CIRM Spending $1.2 Million-plus for Grant Management

In its first-ever public accounting of spending for its grant management system, the California stem cell agency this week disclosed it has already laid out more than $1.2 million, with substantially greater expenditures to come in the near future.

Overseeing CIRM's largess is no small task. The agency has approved 320 grants and one loan worth more than $1 billion. It is expected to approve another $2 billion over the next five or so years – more if it can secure funding beyond its current bonding authorization of $3 billion.

The amount CIRM is spending for grant management, not including state staff time, is tiny compared to the total portfolio. However, grant management is critical for the agency, which labelled the task as a “risk” as recently as last June.

In a new staff report prepared for a meeting Wednesday of the CIRM directors' Governance Subcommittee, the agency said it has made “considerable headway” since last spring. But CIRM said additional work will be needed, including a decision on whether to buy additional software or develop it in-house with the use of more consultants.

More immediately, the staff asked directors for approval of an additional $300,000 for technology assistance, extending and expanding two existing contracts with Turner Consulting of Washington, D.C., and 25by7 of Santa Monica, Ca. Some of the increases will cover costs in addition to grant management.

CIRM did not offer a total for past grant management spending in the documents it prepared for its directors. Nor did it predict the ultimate cost. The California Stem Cell Report compiled the $1.2 million figure from two new documents on the CIRM Web site. The first was a report on grants managements expenditures through June 30, 2009. The second was a report on all spending on outside contracts through Sept. 30, 2009, including additional funds for grant management.

The report on grant management is the most complete explanation of the status of the system, which was supposed to cost no more than $757,000, directors were told in October of 2007. But by spring of 2008, CIRM began hiring outside consultants to deal with the issue.

The contract at that time involved Grantium of Ottowa, Canda. CIRM staff said.

“However, that effort failed because CIRM's needs continued to evolve rapidly beyond the original scope, so the two parties mutual agreed to terminate the contract in 2009.”

CIRM cannot solve its technology issues in-house because Prop. 71, written by CIRM Chairman Robert Klein and others, capped the CIRM staff at 50 employees. The grant report said that “it has long been clear” that the agency faced critical problems because of the hiring cap.

Currently, 48 percent of CIRM's staff (20 out of the current 42 employees) is involved “centrally in some part of the grant life-cycle,” which includes everything from applications to standards enforcement,

The agency, however, does not have a single information technology staff person dedicated to grants management, according to its report. It had one in 2005-6, but he resigned. Currently CIRM has five grant management officers compared to one in 2006-7.

CIRM staff began “compliance site visits” in 2008-9 when it had 295 grants awarded, completing eight visits that fiscal year. CIRM expects to see 230 progress reports from grant recipients during the current fiscal year, compared to 16 in 2006-7.

CIRM posted the reports on the grant management system and the contract extensions on its Web site last Wednesday. The public can participate in next Wednesday's Governance meeting at teleconference locations in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Los Angeles(2), Stanford, Irvine and La Jolla. Specific addresses can be found on the agenda.

The item below contains additional links to additional information concerning CIRM grant management.

Sphere: Related Content

CIRM Grant Management Info and Costs

Here is a rundown on key documents related to CIRM's $1.2 million-plus expenditures on its grant management system.

Articles from the California Stem Cell Report

Cost Overruns and Candor from CIRM – May 29, 2008

Vagueness in CIRM budget, June 2009, with some info on the system:“The budget does not appear to contain a straight-forward accounting of all the past costs associated with the Grantium program or the projected cost of the new system. It appears to be something in the neighborhood of $610,000.”

CIRM's Troubled Grant Management System: A $1 Billion Oversight Matter – July 13, 2009

CIRM Grant Oversight Receives $150,000 Boost – July 22, 2009

California Courts and CIRM: Both Troubled by Technology Problems – Oct. 25, 2009

CIRM Documents

Transcript, CIRM directors meeting, October 2007, during which CIRM staff said the cost would not exceed $757,000

CIRM document describing grant management system as a risk – June 2009

First public accounting of CIRM expenditures on grant management system, November 2009 Sphere: Related Content

Buying BMWs and Grant Oversight

Revocation of three grants by the California stem cell agency has sparked a modest exchange of comments on TheScientist.com Web site.

Jef Akst wrote, on Nov. 16, about CIRM's grant oversight in an article headlined, “When does oversight overstep?”

Here is a sample from two comments.

Terry Iorns:

“I agree with others in the areas of be able to pursue serendipity and whether proper terms of oversight were apparent to the researcher, but I don't think getting the grant is a blank check to do any kind of research.

“I see no difference in using the funds to pursue unrelated research and using the funds to buy a BMW.”

Anand Rajan KD:

“'Taxpayer money' is just an euphemism for people to poke their nose into what is not their business in the first place. If at all - like the previous poster noted - there can be financial administrative oversight. You can look out for any scientist buying a BMW with his grant money, but if he is doing experiments with the money you gave him, where is the problem?”

Sphere: Related Content