Funding Opportunity Number: PAR-25-097
Deadlines:
February 16, 2025
June 16, 2025
October 16, 2025
Purpose and Need for the Program
The NIH recognizes that the entry of new investigators into the ranks of independent, NIH-funded researchers is essential to improving the overall capacity of this country’s biomedical research enterprise. While scientific workforce diversity supports the NIH mission, expanding the pool of investigators in the biomedical research workforce remains an elusive goal. Even with long-standing congressional support for early research independence, NIH funding, and government-wide efforts to promote STEM workforce diversity, early career scientists find it increasingly difficult to obtain support for a first research award, and retain that support in subsequent years. See, Policy Supporting the Next Generation Researchers Initiative, https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-17-101.html.
This NOFO is intended to provide support for new investigators from diverse backgrounds, including investigators from nationally underrepresented groups in the biomedical sciences, who are interested in conducting research projects within the scientific mission areas of the NIDDK or the participating institutes. The goal of this NOFO is to enable a pool of investigators from diverse backgrounds to submit subsequent R01 or equivalent applications through the support of these small research grants, as well as receive additional independent research grant awards, produce research results, and author publications. This NOFO provides up to three years of funds for applicants to base a subsequent research grant application (i.e., R01 or equivalent) within the scientific mission areas of the NIDDK or the participating institutes.
This NOFO will only support research within the mission of the NIDDK, NHGRI, or NIBIB.
Programmatic Considerations and Approach
Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact the NIH program staff from the respective institutes before preparing or submitting an application to verify eligibility and alignment with the funding priorities of the participating institutes.
General Considerations: Consistent with existing practices and applicable law, NIH does not use race, ethnicity, or sex in the application review process or funding decisions.
To minimize the loss of competitive investigators from diverse backgrounds, and to promote successful transitions to established investigator levels, it is imperative to provide funding opportunities to support investigators actively conducting research studies but without substantial preliminary data for them to be fully competitive at the R01 levels in all areas of interest to the NIDDK and the participating institutes.
For more information, please see the opportunity webpage.