|
|
|
Greetings,
We are excited to share several opportunities from the NIH Common Fund's High-Risk, High-Reward Research (HRHR) program. HRHR programs support exceptionally creative scientists who propose highly innovative research with the potential for broad impact in biomedical, behavioral, or social sciences within the NIH mission. Preliminary data are not required for these programs. Awards include the New Innovator (DP2), Transformative Research (R01), and Pioneer (DP1). More information about these open HRHR programs can be found in the synopses and links below. For a full list of currently open opportunities that have been announced through our office, please visit our new Current Opportunities web page. As a reminder, our Research Development team is available to provide proposal development support to FAS ladder faculty.
NIH Director's New Innovator Award (DP2 Clinical Trial Optional)
- OSP Deadline: August 10, 2026 at 9:00 AM ET
Departments or areas may require additional time for proposal review and submission. Please discuss a timeline with your departmental or FORA grants administrator.
- Sponsor Deadline: August 17, 2026 at 5:00 PM ET
- Award Amount: Up to $475,000 in direct costs per year for five years, plus applicable indirect costs.
The NIH Director's New Innovator Award Program supports Early Stage Investigators of exceptional creativity who propose bold and highly innovative research projects with the potential to produce a major impact on broad, important areas relevant to the mission of NIH. The New Innovator Award is designed specifically to support unusually creative investigators with groundbreaking research ideas at an early stage of their career when they may lack the preliminary data required for a conventional R01 grant application. The emphasis is on innovation and creativity; preliminary data are not required but may be included. The review process emphasizes the individual’s creativity, the innovativeness of the research approaches, and the potential of the project, if successful, to have a significant impact on an important biomedical or behavioral research problem. Given the highly innovative nature of the research, New Innovator Award recipients are given unusual flexibility to pivot research direction as they see fit to maximize impact. NIH intends to commit approximately $23 million for approximately 30 awards in FY 2027.
Eligibility
- Applicants must meet the definition of an Early Stage Investigator (ESI) at the time of application submission. An ESI is a new investigator (defined as a PD/PI who has not competed successfully for a substantial NIH independent research award) who is within 10 years of completing their terminal research degree or end of post-graduate clinical training.
- Investigators who were not selected for a New Innovator Award in prior years may submit applications this year as long as they continue to meet eligibility requirements; however, all applications must be submitted as “new” applications regardless of any previous submission to the program.
- Applicants must hold an independent research position at a domestic (U.S.) institution by September 1, 2027. For this opportunity, an "independent research position" is a position that automatically confers eligibility to the investigator (based on institutional policy) to apply for R01 grants with appropriate institutional commitment of facilities for the conduct of the proposed research.
- Investigators still in training or mentored status (such as postdoctoral fellows) are not eligible to apply unless they have a written commitment from the institution stating they will be in an independent faculty position by September 1, 2027. The commitment is certified by the institution's submission of the application.
- Awardees are required to commit at least three person-months (25%) of their research effort each year to activities supported by the New Innovator Award.
- Applicants may submit or have an NIH R01 or other grant application (including an ESI MIRA R35 application) pending concurrently with their NIH Director's New Innovator Award application, but scientific overlap is not allowed per NIH policy. If a pending grant becomes active prior to the New Innovator Award, and the grant mechanism is not on the list of smaller NIH grants and awards that maintain ESI status, then the applicant is no longer eligible to receive the New Innovator Award.
Prospective applicants are invited to view resources and FAQs on the New Innovator Award website, as well as a pre-recorded, pre-application webinar during which NIH staff discuss the initiative and answer common questions about the application and review process.
- OSP Deadline: August 27, 2026 at 9:00 AM ET
Departments or areas may require additional time for proposal review and submission. Please discuss a timeline with your departmental or FORA grants administrator
- Sponsor Deadline: September 3, 2026 at 5:00 PM ET
- Award Amount: Application budgets are not limited but must be commensurate with the scope of the proposed research. The maximum project period is five years.
|
The NIH Director's Transformative Research Award Program supports collaborative investigative teams or individual scientists who propose unusually innovative research projects, which, if successful, would have a major impact in a broad area of relevance to the NIH. To be considered transformative, projects must have the potential to establish new or overturn fundamental scientific paradigms through novel concepts or perspectives, transform the way research is conducted through the development of novel tools or technologies, or lead to major improvements in health through the development of highly innovative diagnostic, therapeutic, or preventive strategies. This program is open to all career stages and does not require preliminary data. NIH intends to commit approximately $8 million in FY 2027 and make approximately 7 awards.
Several key features of this opportunity are designed to emphasize to applicants and peer reviewers that Transformative Research applications are very different from conventional, investigator-initiated research applications. The Transformative Research application focuses on the importance of the problem, the novelty of the hypothesis and/or the proposed methodology, and the magnitude of the potential impact rather than on preliminary data or experimental details. Applications are welcome in all research areas broadly relevant to the mission of NIH. Research may be basic, translational, or clinical. The primary requirements are that the research be highly innovative and have the potential for unusually broad impact.
Prospective applicants are invited to view additional information and FAQs on the Transformative Research Award website, including a pre-recorded, pre-application webinar where NIH staff discuss the initiative and answer common questions about the application and review process.
|
- OSP Deadline: September 1, 2026 at 9:00 AM ET
Departments or areas may require additional time for proposal review and submission. Please discuss a timeline with your departmental or FORA grants administrator.
- Sponsor Deadline: September 9, 2026 at 5:00 PM ET
- Award Amount: Awards will be for $700,000 in direct costs per year for up to five years, plus applicable indirect costs.
|
The NIH Director's Pioneer Award Program emphasizes the qualities of the investigator and the innovativeness and potential impact of the proposed research. It supports individual scientists of exceptional creativity who propose bold and highly innovative research projects with the potential to produce a major impact on broad, important areas relevant to the mission of NIH. To be considered pioneering and as an aspect of innovativeness, the proposed research must reflect substantially different ideas from those being pursued in the investigator’s current research program or elsewhere. The Pioneer Award is not intended to expand a current research program into the area of the proposed project. While the research direction may rely on the applicant’s prior work and expertise as its foundation, it cannot be an obvious extension or scale-up of a current research enterprise. Rather, the proposed project must reflect a fundamental new insight which may involve exceptionally innovative approaches and/or radically unconventional hypotheses. Given the scientifically risky nature of the proposed research, award recipients will be given unusual flexibility to pivot their research direction as warranted to maximize scientific impact during the project period. NIH intends to commit approximately $8 million in FY 2027 to fund approximately 7 awards.
The Pioneer Award Program is open to all career stages and does not require preliminary data. Pioneer recipients are required to commit the major portion of their research effort (more than 6 person-months or at least 51%) to activities supported by the Pioneer Award project in the first three years of the project period. Effort expended toward teaching, administrative, or clinical duties should not be included in this calculation. Recipients may reduce effort to a minimum of 4 person-months (33%) and a minimum of 3 person-months (25%) in the fourth and fifth years, respectively, to help them transition to other sources of support since Pioneer Awards cannot be renewed. Investigators who will not be able to meet this requirement should not submit applications.
Letters of reference are an important part of the Pioneer Award application. PIs must arrange to have three (and only three) letters of reference submitted on their behalf. Prospective applicants are invited to view FAQs as well as a pre-recorded, pre-application webinar on the Pioneer Award website, where NIH staff discuss the initiative and answer common questions about the application and review process.
|
Questions from FAS or SEAS faculty about this opportunity may be directed to FAS Research Development.
|
|
|
|---|
|
MAILING LISTS
Sign up to join the mailing list for FAS Funding Focus, a resource series tailored to help FAS faculty and staff navigate the ever-evolving landscape of grants and funding. Previous editions of FAS Funding Focus (FFF) are accessible in the FFF archive. To receive additional announcements from FORA, including the monthly On Your RADAR (Research Administration Developments & Announcements Rundown) newsletter and invitations to the FORA Forum, a monthly meeting for Harvard research administrators, please sign up for the FORA listserv here.
RESOURCES
Research Development maintains a Sample Proposal Library of successful proposals from recent award recipients that are available to FAS and SEAS faculty by request; please email Research Development to request to view a proposal. For more information on Research Development's resources—including lists of internal funding programs, early career funding programs, and sabbatical fellowships—please visit the Funding Opportunities web page.
SEARCH FOR OPPORTUNITIES WITH PIVOT
All Harvard affiliates can search for opportunities and set up alerts using Pivot, a searchable database of federal and private funding opportunities. Information on Pivot, including a one-page user guide, and other funding opportunity databases available to the Harvard community can be found on the Funding Databases web page.
PIVOT CURATED SEARCHES
Curated funding opportunity lists are funding search topics of broad interest. The following curated lists can be further refined in Pivot based on your funding needs. To view the results you must be on a Harvard network or logged in to your Pivot account. Information on setting up a Pivot account can be found in our one-page user guide.
Additional curated lists are available on the Funding Databases web page. We continue to add to and refine these lists based on feedback. Please feel free to reach out to us at research_development@fas.harvard.edu with any suggestions you may have. |
|
|---|
|
|
Your Research, Our Mission |
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|  |
|
|
|
|
