NIH Director's New Innovator Award

The NIH Director's New Innovator Award is one of the NIH Common Fund's High-Risk, High-Reward Research awards and is aimed at Early Stage Investigators within 10 years of their final degree or postgraduate clinical training. It was established in 2007 to back highly innovative work from researchers early in an independent career. The award goes to a single principal investigator and requires at least 25% research effort. It provides $475,000 a year for five years, for a total of $2.375 million in direct costs. The program runs on an annual cycle, with funding opportunities generally released in spring and applications due in fall, and it is restricted to U.S. institutions and research organizations that can serve as eligible hosts. This award fits applicants with a clearly original idea, a strong institutional setting, and enough maturity to lead a five-year project without preliminary data. The structure favors researchers who can show why the work matters now and why their early-career position is an asset rather than a constraint.

Each grant below is a distinct funding opportunity with its own eligibility, scope, and deliverables.