The Division of Extramural Activities Support (DEAS) planned to start operations on April 1, 2004. Although DEAS will be established as an NIH organization by April 1st, it will not be fully operational by that time. More time is needed to complete the staffing and establish new business practices as adopted by the NIH Best Practices Committee. The NIH Extramural Transition Team has made significant progress towards implementation, but we still have more work to complete. As soon as we have a firm date for when DEAS will be fully operational, all employees will be informed as well as provided a timeline of the activities necessary for a full implementation.

The delay in the DEAS startup has no major impact for in-scope employees and other extramural staff. Employees will continue to sit in their current locations, report to their current supervisors and perform their current duties until they are notified otherwise (which now will be after April 1st). Employees will be informed well in advance of changes to their organizational status, reporting relationships, job duties, and location (if there is a location change).

The goal is to make the transition to DEAS as smooth as possible for employees and to ensure that services to the ICs continue without interruption. I appreciate your continued patience and understanding as we together move forward through this challenging organizational change.

David L. Whitmer
Chair, NIH Extramural MEO Transition Team