National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

NHLBI may award administrative supplements under rare circumstances and contingent upon the availability of funds; consideration will be given for the following:

Research Project Grants (RPGs)

• Preservation of a unique research material or resource that may otherwise be lost
• Provision for an orderly termination or temporary continuation of support
• Replacement of equipment, supplies, and/or time lost

Career Related

• Full or part-time mentored research training experiences to Reenter, Reintegrate, or Retrain in an active research career
• Research continuity and retention of investigators facing critical life events who are transitioning from mentored career development awards to research independence, with the goal to minimize departures from biomedical research workforce.

Research Project Grants (RPGs)

• 60 days before requested start date 

Career Related 

• Reenter, Reintegrate, or Retrain - 90 days before requested start date (awards not issued October and November)
• Research Continuity and Retention - February 1, June 1, and October 1

Research Project Grants (RPGs)

Contact the Program Officer listed on the Notice of Award for the most recent parent award and/or the NHLBI Office of Grants Management [email protected] 

Career Related

Research Re-entry, Re-integrate, or Re-train
[email protected]

Research Continuity and Retention
[email protected]

The NHLBI supports conferences that are critical to the mission of the NIH and NHLBI (i.e., meetings directly related to heart, lung, non-plastic blood, and/or sleep disorders and conditions), including advancing the science of solution-focused health disparities research, implementation science, and community-engaged research, or any combination of these. Meetings for the sole purpose of professional development (e.g., continuing medical education) fall outside of NHLBI priorities. Supported meetings generally explore and identify: (a) critical gaps in knowledge; (b) research challenges and opportunities; and/or (c) promising strategies for advancing prevention, diagnosis and/or treatment modalities for science related to the NHLBI mission.

The NHLBI accepts primary and secondary assignments on applications for the support of meetings directly related to heart, lung, blood, and sleep disorders and conditions. Typically, NHLBI provides nominal support for conferences up to $10K.

Applicants should select a submission date that allows sufficient time for NHLBI to make a potential award prior to the conference/meeting event.

NHLBI will consider support requests for a series of annual or biannual conferences for up to 5 years.

Scientific Program Contact:  
NHLBI Conferences and Meetings
Email: [email protected]

Grants Management Contact:
NHLBI Office of Grants Management
Email: [email protected]

NHLBI considers applications for the following individual career development awards that address our mission to promote the prevention and treatment of heart, lung, and blood disorders

• Research Scientist Development Award (K01)
  • Encourage applications with a research focus on population science
• Clinical Investigator Award (K08)
• Career Transition Award (K22)
  • Support applications from postdoctoral fellows and other doctoral-level researchers currently in training at NHLBI intramural laboratories
• Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23)
• Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (K24)
• Mentored Quantitative Research Career Development Award (K25)
• Career Transition Award (K99)/Research Transition Award (R00)

NHLBI encourages applications that include training in data science disciplines, such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Healthcare Data Analytics, Public Health Data Analytics, Imaging Analytics, Predictive Analytics, and Bioinformatics; and the application of data science in the creation, management, analysis, and integration of complex, large data sets.

NHLBI supports project periods of 3 to 5 years for the K01, K08, K23, K24, and K25 awards; the mentored phase of the K99 for a period of 1 to 2 years; and the independent R00 phase up to 3 years.

NHLBI limits cumulative support on individual mentored K awards to 8 years for K08 and K23 awardees and 6 years for K01 and K25 awardees.

K24 awards are supported up to 10 years and may be renewed once.

NHLBI provides support salary up to $100,000/year and fringe benefits for a minimum of 9 person-months (75%) effort for individual mentored K awards (K01, K08, K23, K24, K25, K99). 

NHLBI supports salary and fringe benefits up to 3 person-months (25%) effort for the non-mentored K24 award.

NHLBI provides research support as follows: 

K08 and K23 applicants in medical specialties requiring significant clinical activity may request a reduced research 6 person-months (50%) effort.

K24 applicants may request no more than 3 person-months (25%) effort.

In addition to requirements outlined in the NOFOs, NHLBI will consider applications from:

•  K08 applicants with an active clinical license
•  K23 applicants holding a Doctor of Social Work

Career applicants are strongly encouraged to contact an NHLBI Scientific Program Contact below before preparing an application to discuss 1) the relevance of their proposed research to NIH’s and NHLBI’s priorities; 2) the program most appropriate for their career stage and career objectives; and 3) to confirm eligibility. 

To maintain K99 and R00 eligibility, K99 applicants and awardees are strongly encouraged to contact an NHLBI Scientific Program Contact when considering any change in title other than postdoctoral fellow.

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected] 

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected] 

NHLBI supports:

Individual Predoctoral NRSA for MD/Ph.D. Fellowships (F30)

Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F31)

Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F32)

National Research Service Awards for Senior Fellows (F33)

F30, F31, F32, F33: NHLBI follows standard Fellowship due dates for new, renewal, and resubmission applications.

Resubmission of F30 applications will be considered beyond the 48-month post-matriculation limit, provided that they have at least one year remaining in their PhD dissertation research on the date of award. 

F33: NHLBI encourages requests of a minimum of one year of support.

F30, F31, F32, F33: NHLBI follows the current Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Stipends, Tuition/Fees and Other Budgetary Levels.

All prospective fellowship applicants are strongly encouraged to contact relevant NHLBI Program staff below before preparing an application to determine the relevance of their proposed research to the agency’s and Institute’s research priorities; which fellowship program is most appropriate for their career stage and circumstances; and to discuss their individual eligibility. 

For Scientific Program, Grants Management, and Eligibility Inquiries, Contact: 

F30: [email protected] 

F31: [email protected] 

F32: [email protected]

F33: [email protected] 

The NHLBI supports T32 training programs to prepare predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees to become productive heart, lung, blood, and sleep researchers in the causes, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases; and to identify the best strategies for ensuring successful integration of evidence-based interventions within clinical and public health settings. Short-term (summer) training positions are allowed.

NHLBI supports T35 short-term research training experiences for medical students and students in health professional schools (nurses, dental, PharmD, and physical therapy students) during the summer. NHLBI supports requests for four to 32 students per budget period for summer research training of two-three months on a full-time basis. NHLBI will not fund a T35 application with the same Program Director as a currently funded T32 without explanation of how the activities differ.

• Predoctoral and/or postdoctoral for T32 applications
• Medical and other health professional students for T35 short-term research training experiences applications

NHLBI will consider T32 and T35 applications during the October and January Council meetings.

For new competitive T32 applications, programs that propose training eight or fewer trainees will be prioritized.

Travel Costs: Up to $1,400 per trainee per year may be requested for trainee travel 

For Scientific Program, Grants Management, and Eligibility Inquiries, Contact:

For T35 applications: [email protected]

For T32 applications:

• Division of Cardiovascular Sciences: [email protected]
• Division of Lung Diseases: [email protected]
• Division of Blood Diseases and Resources: [email protected]
• Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science: [email protected]

NHLBI supports two Outstanding Investigator Award (R35) programs

• NHLBI Outstanding Investigator Award (OIA) 
• NHLBI Emerging Investigator Award (EIA) 

The NHLBI R35 Program promotes scientific productivity and innovation by providing long-term support and increased flexibility to Program Directors (PDs)/Principal Investigators (PIs) who meet the NOFO eligibility requirements and have demonstrated their ability to make major contributions to heart, lung, blood, and sleep (HLBS) research. The R35 will provide investigators flexibility to conduct research that breaks new ground or extends previous discoveries in new directions, take greater risks, and pursue research that requires a longer timeframe. Research supported by the R35 must be within the scope of the NHLBI mission.  

NHLBI expects investigators to devote at least 50% effort throughout the duration of the R35 award, the equivalent of 50% effort on a full-year appointment, 66.67% on a 9-month appointment, or 100% on a 6-month appointment. There are no exceptions to this requirement.  

The R35 will support the research program of NHLBI-funded investigators for up to seven (7) years.  

NHLBI supports R35 awards up to $700,000 in direct costs per year. The requested budget should reflect the actual costs needed to carry out the Research Strategy proposed in the application. 

Given that the NHLBI R35 Program will generally fold in investigators’ current research projects, the requested budget should reflect the budgetary needs for the current research. If the proposed R35 research program is intended to continue the R01 line of research, it may be appropriate to consider existing R01 budgets as a baseline. 

Equipment requests may be made with appropriate justification and should be accommodated within a budget that is commensurate with the overall NHLBI grant support of the laboratory in recent years. 

Scientific/Program contact
[email protected] 

Office of Grants Management
[email protected] 

NHLBI is interested in Research Education (RE) programs relevant to its mission, and that also include cross-cutting themes of disease prevention and resilience, health disparities, precision medicine, data science, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, and implementation science, and will prioritize applications that develop:

Summer Research Experience programs to support short-term, mentored, hands-on RE for undergraduate and health professional students to provide exposure to NHLBI-relevant research and encourage pursuit of biomedical research careers. Programs do not support primarily didactic activities (e.g., courses), clinical service delivery, or any activities lacking a substantive RE component.

High School Summer Research Experiences that support science hubs, geographically situated across the United States and U.S. Territories, that will match high school students to mentors for hands-on summer RE close to the student’s home. The hubs will coordinate summer internships and provide follow-up mentoring during the year.

Summer Skills Development Courses for innovative RE that will enrich the development of undergraduates and rising graduate students in biomedical research topics within NHLBI’s mission. NHLBI encourages programs with in-person or hybrid courses focused on biostatistics and data science that include hands-on experiences and career mentoring.

Mentoring Activities and Networks to support early-career faculty with interests in NHLBI mission-relevant areas. NHLBI is interested in applications that include of two consecutive summers of research enhancement and skills development activities (~1-2 weeks; in-person or hybrid), with mentoring and relevant RE during the intervening academic year.  NHLBI will also consider Education Projects - Cooperative Agreements (UE5) applications that provide multi-program coordination for recruitment and program evaluation. 

Mentored Research Pathway in Residency (R38) to support institutional programs that will provide mentored research opportunities for individuals with health professional doctoral degrees during their clinical residency. The Resident-Investigators will be provided mentored research opportunities for one (minimum) to two years to foster their ability to transition to individual career development research awards. 

• Applications to the NIH Research Education Program-Research Experiences (R25) are considered during October Council meetings.
• Applications to the NIH Research Education Program-Courses, Curriculum & Methods (R25), the NIH Research Educational Program-Mentoring Activities & Networks (R25/UE5), and the Mentored Research Pathway in Residency (R38) program are considered during May Council meetings. 

• Other
  • Summer Research Experiences: Undergraduate, medical and other health professional (HP) students
  • High School Summer Research Experiences: High school students in 11th-12th grade 
  • Summer Skills Development Courses: Undergraduate or rising graduate students
  • Mentoring Activities & Networks: Early-career faculty 
  • Mentored Research Pathway in Residency: Clinical Residents with HP doctoral degrees

• Summer Research Experiences: Up to $250,000
• High School Research Experiences: Up to $250,000
• Summer Skills Development Courses: Up to $254,000
• Mentoring Activities & Networks: Up to $350,000; plus an additional $100,000 if proposing pilot research funding for participants

Summer Research Experiences

• Personnel costs: up to $40,000
• Participant costs (e.g., compensation, per diem including housing, and travel): up to $20,000 per trainee
• Other program-related expenses: up to $5,000

For scientific program, grants management, and eligibility inquiries, please contact:  

• For Research Experiences: [email protected]  
• For High School Summer Research Experiences: [email protected] 
• For Summer Skills Development Courses: [email protected]  
• For Mentoring Activities and Networks: [email protected] 
• For Mentored Research Pathway in Residency: [email protected]

NHLBI considers Research Project Grant (RPG) applications that address the NHLBI strategic vision and mission to promote the prevention and treatment of heart, lung, blood, and sleep (HLBS) disorders.

NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Project Grant (R21): Specific areas of interest for NHLBI include:

• Use of biospecimens from NHLBI BioLINCC;  
• Secondary Analysis of Existing Datasets. Proposed analyses may investigate novel scientific ideas; generate new models, systems, tools, methods, or technologies that have the potential for significant impact on biomedical or biobehavioral research in areas relevant to the NHLBI mission. Existing datasets may be obtained from both public and/or private sources, including, but not limited to: 
  • NHLBI BioData Catalyst; NHLBI BioLINCC; any NIH IC;
  • Investigator datasets; Electronic Health Records; Registries; Industry-supported research; Administrative datasets
• Early-stage innovative bioengineering projects that could lead to preclinical and translational research. Research should focus on discovery- and design-driven first-generation prototype development and initial feasibility studies. Specific areas of interest include:
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Data-Driven Approaches: using AI/Machine Learning (ML) for biomarker identification, streamlining medical device design, and AI-augmented wearable devices.
  • Imaging & Diagnostics: noninvasive imaging for coronary artery disease detection and novel molecular imaging agents.
  • Advanced Therapeutics & Regenerative Medicine: novel nanomaterials, cellular repair strategies for tailored medicine, and alternative oxygenation technologies.
  • Bioengineering Innovations & Health Systems: engineered biological systems to study disease progression and health system implementation.
• Research on HIV-related HLBS diseases and disorders, as well as blood-based therapies for transfusion and HIV cure, excluding malignancy.

Scientific Program Contacts:

Research Project (R01):

Division of Blood Diseases and Resources
[email protected]

Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science
[email protected] 

Division of Lung Diseases
[email protected] 

Division of Cardiovascular Sciences
[email protected]

NHLBI Katz Program
[email protected]

Exploratory/Developmental Grants (R21)
[email protected]

NHLBI BioLINCC
[email protected] 

Grants Management Contact:

[email protected]

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) is interested in supporting the development of novel therapeutics, devices, diagnostics, digital health technologies, research tools, and other innovative solutions for advancing the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of heart, lung, blood, and sleep (HLBS) diseases and disorders. 

Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to, the following topics: 

• Technologies addressing HLBS complications relevant to maternal health and women’s health  
• Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning technologies to improve diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease
• Precision medicine treatment approaches to treatment 
• New approach methodologies, tools, and point-of-care technologies to improve disease detection and therapeutic development

1. Small and large animal testing of biomedical technologies for HLBS diseases and disorders.
2. Human clinical studies for HLBS diseases and disorders.
3. Development of therapeutics for HLBS diseases and disorders.
4. Development of devices (including software and digital health tools) for HLBS diseases and disorders.
5. Diagnostics development for HLBS diseases and disorders.
6. Investigation of biomarkers and biosignatures for HLBS diseases and disorders.
7. Tools and technologies to enhance biomedical and clinical research for HLBS diseases and disorders.
8. Tools, technologies, and novel strategies to improve the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based interventions for HLBS diseases and disorders.

NHLBI generally supports the following project periods:

• Phase I up to two years
• Phase II/IIB up to three years
• Phase IIB up to four years
• CRP up to two years 

Human subjects and clinical trial applicants are encouraged to propose a two-year project period for Phase I and a three-year project period for Phase II/IIB, and a four-year project period for Phase IIB.

[email protected] 

Human subjects and clinical trial applicants are encouraged to reach out to NHLBI program staff before submitting their application.