Individual Career Development Funding Considerations and Contacts

• NEI is committed to training the next generation of the biomedical and clinical research workforce in vision health, optometry, and ophthalmology by providing support for fellowship and career development awards. These awards are intended to provide mentored research training, research experiences, and career transition assistance in alignment with NEI’s mission. 
• NEI is interested in applications from individuals with scientific or clinical expertise in eye and vision health who seek advanced training to further NEI’s mission, including individuals with backgrounds in computer science, epidemiology, artificial intelligence, and engineering.
• NEI participates in: 
  • Career Development (K) Awards
  • NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00)

NEI Extramural Research: 
[email protected]

NHGRI supports Individual Career Development applications in areas relevant to the NHGRI mission. Prospective applicants are strongly encouraged to contact NHGRI program staff prior to submitting an application.

•    NHGRI will provide research support up to $40,000 per year.
•    NHGRI encourages applicants to request up to $1500 of travel allowance to support travel to the NHGRI Research Training and Career Development Annual Meeting.

NHGRI expects candidates to commit a minimum of 75% of full-time professional effort (i.e., a minimum of 9 person-months) to their program of career development.

NHGRI Research Funding
[email protected]

NIAAA supports career development programs across the full range of alcohol research, including basic, translational, clinical, behavioral, social, epidemiologic, prevention, treatment, recovery, and data science. Topics must align with NIAAA mission and interest areas, including alcohol misuse, alcohol use disorder, related health conditions, prenatal alcohol exposure, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

• Pathway to Independence (K99/R00): Candidates with less than 4 years of post-doctoral research experience are encouraged to apply for a K99/R00 award. To activate the R00 phase, the K99 awardee must secure a full-time tenure-track assistant professor or equivalent position at an institution eligible to receive NIH funds. The R00 institution should contact NIAAA OEA to submit a R00 application package at least 90 days before K99 ends.
• Mentored career development awards: At the time of award, candidates must have secured a full-time faculty or equivalent position in an appropriate research-intensive environment.
  • Research Scientist Development Award (K01)
  • Clinical Investigator Award (K08)
  • Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23)
  • Mentored Quantitative Research Career Development Award (K25)
• Independent Scientist Award (K02): NIAAA prioritizes candidates who have shown independent alcohol-related research accomplishments but are not yet well established. At the time of award, applicants must be the PD/PI on an active alcohol-related R01 or equivalent grant, or on a subproject of a multicomponent project. At least 2 years must remain on that grant, not counting any no-cost extension. 
• Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (K24): At the time of award, applicants must have a mid-career faculty appointment at the Associate Professor level or higher and be the PD/PI on an active alcohol-related R01 or equivalent grant, or on a subproject of a multicomponent project, with sufficient time remaining to support mentoring activities.

NIAAA supports project periods of three-five years. 

• Salary support: 
  • K01, K02, and K99 awards provide up to $90,000 plus fringe benefits per year.
  • K08, K23, and K25 awards provide up to $100,000 plus fringe benefits per year.
  • K24 awards provide up to the maximum legislative salary cap plus fringe benefits per year.
  • In all cases, salary support is commensurate with the applicant institution’s salary structure for persons of equivalent qualifications, experience, and rank.
• Institutional base salary will be verified at the time of award. 

Other program related expenses: up to $50,000 per year.

[email protected]

NIAMS supports a variety of mentored and non-mentored career development award programs designed to foster the transition to independence of basic, translational, and clinical scientists to carry out research into the causes, treatment, and prevention of arthritis, musculoskeletal, rheumatic, and skin diseases. 

For Research Scientist Development Award (K01) applications, NIAMS prioritizes applications where the applicant 1) demonstrates a significant change in scientific focus or 2) has a significant departure (greater than 1 years) from research. Excluding the Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (K24), applicants must demonstrate a clear need for additional mentored research time. 

It is recommended to contact the appropriate Program Officer before submission. For general career development award information, see the contact information below. 

The project period may not exceed five years. 

• Clinical Investigator Award (K08) and Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23): NIAMS will provide support up to $100,000 in salary/year plus fringe benefits 
• K01: Up to $75,000 in salary/year plus fringe benefits. 
• Career Transition Award (K99/R00): up to $75,000 per year for stipend in the K99 portion of the award.  
• K24: Up to the maximum legislative salary cap plus fringe benefits per year. 

• NIAMS expects a minimum of 75% of full-time professional effort (i.e., 9 person-months) from applicants for awarded mentored career development projects. 
• For any mentored K award, NIAMS allows for a minimum of 50% full-time professional effort (i.e., 6 person-months) for orthopedic surgeons.
• For K24, NIAMS expects a minimum of 25-50% of full-time professional effort (i.e., 3 person-months).

Program Contact: 
Email:  [email protected] 

Grants Management Contact 
Email: [email protected]  

NIBIB supports the following career development awards for junior faculty who are within 10 years of obtaining their Ph.D., fellowship or residency. Individuals with postdoctoral appointments are not eligible to apply:

• Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01)
  • NIBIB will support junior faculty who seek to train in a new field or obtain experience or skills in an area significantly different from their prior postdoctoral research
• Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award (K08)
• Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23)
  • Applicants must be clinicians with active licensure
• Mentored Quantitative Research Development Award (K25)

NIBIB also supports the NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) for postdoctoral fellows who need two years of additional mentored training to transition to independence.

NIBIB will consider individual career development applications addressing any area within NIBIB’s Interest Areas. 

Prospective applicants are strongly encouraged to discuss their plans with the NIBIB scientific program contact before preparing an application.

NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00): For the R00 phase, R00 applications received by June 30 will be considered for funding in the current fiscal year (by September 30). Applications received after June 30 may be considered for funding in the current fiscal year or the following fiscal year.

Supports project periods up to 4 years for K01, K08, K23 and K25 awards.

• For the K01 and K25, NIBIB will support up to $90,000 in salary/year plus fringe benefits.
• For the K08 and K23, NIBIB will support up to $105,000 in salary/year plus fringe benefits.
• For the K99, NIBIB will support up to $75,000 in salary/year plus fringe benefits.

• NIBIB will provide research support up to $40,000 per year for K01, K08, K23 and K25 awards.
• NIBIB will provide research support up to $25,000 per year for the first phase of the K99/R00 award.

NIBIB expects candidates to commit a minimum of 75% of full-time professional effort (i.e., a minimum of 9 person-months) to their program of career development.

Scientific Program Contact:
[email protected]

Grants Management Contact:
[email protected]

• NICHD offers individual career development awards in research areas relevant to NICHD’s mission. 
• For Mentored Research Scientist Development Awards, NICHD will only consider applications in child abuse & neglect, population sciences, rehabilitation medicine, and Down Syndrome related projects.
• NICHD prioritizes applications from early career individuals within 6 years of completion of postdoctoral or clinical fellowship training. Applicants must demonstrate a need for further mentored training in order to establish an independent research program. 

Project periods are expected to be 3-5 years in duration, depending on research experience and prior sources of training support.

NICHD has a 6-year limit of cumulative support on institutional K awards and individual mentored K awards.

Salary Support: Generally, salary support for individual career development awards from NICHD is $75,000 per year plus fringe benefits. For career development awards focusing on clinician-scientist training, salary support may be up to $100,000 plus fringe benefits per year. 

Research Support and other Program Related Expenses: Up to $25,000 per year. 

• NICHD expects scholars to devote a minimum of 75% (9 person-months) of full-time professional effort toward research and career development activities.
• To maintain specialty clinical competency, U.S. licensed surgeon-scientists with active surgical duties may, with prior approval and institutional justification, devote 50-75% full-time effort to K award activities.

For general inquiries, contact [email protected]. For questions about existing awards and renewal applications, contact the Program Officer or Grants Specialist identified in the Notice of Award. 

• NIDA supports Individual Career Development Awards in all areas of research described in NIDAs current strategic plan.
• Prospective applicants are highly encouraged to contact a NIDA Program Official in their area of interest, prior to preparing an application by contacting [email protected].

• Salary Support: Up to $100,000 plus fringe benefits per year.

• Research Support: Up to $50,000 per year.

Office of Research Training and Career Development
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Email: [email protected]
 

• NIDDK supports applications from postdoctoral and non-tenured junior faculty conducting research in basic, translational, and/or patient-oriented research within the mission areas of the NIDDK.
• NIDDK supports candidates for the following programs
  • Research Scientist Development Award (K01)
  • Clinical Investigator Award (K08)
  • Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23)
  • Mentored Quantitative Research Career Development Award (K25)
  • Career Transition Award (K99/R00)
• Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact the appropriate NIDDK program staff well in advance of applying.

NIDDK supports project periods up to 5 years.

• NIDDK will support up to $90,000 in salary per year, plus fringe benefits for K01 and K25 applicants
• NIDDK will support up to $100,000 in salary per year, plus fringe benefits for K08 and K23 applicants
• NIDDK will provide support up to $90,000 total costs for the K99 phase and up to $249,000 total costs for the R00 phase for K99/R00 applicants.
  • During the K99 phase, NIDDK will provide:
    • up to $75,000 per year for salary
    • appropriate fringe benefits

• NIDDK will provide up to $25,000 per year in research support for K01 and K99 applicants.
• NIDDK will provide up to $25,000 per year in research support for K08 applicants and up to $50,000 per year for K23 applicants.
• NIDDK will provide up to $40,000 per year for K25 applicants

In addition to the above, NIDDK will provide up to an additional $1,500 to support travel to the NIDDK K Awardees’ Workshop during the award project period. 

• In general, NIDDK expects candidates to commit a minimum of 75% of full-time professional effort (i.e., a minimum of 9 person-months) to their program of career development. 
• Candidates who are surgeon-scientists in sub-specialties recognized by the American College of Surgeons, as well as transplant surgeons, may request a minimum of 50% full-time professional effort (6 person-months).

Scientific Program Contacts

Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases 
Email: [email protected] 

Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition 
Email: [email protected]   

Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases 
Email: [email protected] 

Office of Obesity Research 
Email: [email protected]   

Grants Management Contact: 

Email: [email protected]

NIEHS supports the following Individual Career Development Awards:

• Research Scientist Development Award (K01)
• Clinical Investigator Award (K08)
• 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)

NIEHS Individual Career Development Awards support research that examines how the environment affects biological systems across the lifespan and translates to this knowledge to reduce disease and promote human health. 

Environmental agents which are considered of primary interest for NIEHS include: industrial chemicals or manufacturing byproducts, metals, pesticides, herbicides, air pollutants and other inhaled toxicants, particulates, extreme heat, and fungal or bacterially derived toxins.   

Agents that are not considered within the primary mission responsibility of NIEHS include, but are not limited to: alcohol, chemotherapeutic agents, radiation that is not a result of an ambient environmental exposure, tobacco smoke, drugs of abuse, pharmaceuticals, dietary nutrients, and infectious or parasitic agents. NIEHS does not support proposals on environmental science and engineering, including the development and validation of remediation technologies and studies of the environmental fate and transport of chemicals.

Neither the NIEHS Superfund Research Program, nor the NIEHS Worker Training Program participate in this program.

• K01: 3 yrs
• K08/K23: 5 years (six cumulative years including Physician Scientist Award (K12) and/or Mentored Career Development Award (KL2) support)
• K24: 5 yrs (Recipients may apply for a one-time renewal for an additional 3-5 yrs of support if they have a NIEHS independent peer-reviewed research award at the time of renewal submission)
• K25: 5 yrs
• K99: 2 yrs 
• Research Transition Award (R00): 3 yrs

NIEHS will support salary plus fringe benefits as follows:

• K01: up to $75,000 in salary/year plus fringe benefits
• K08: up to legislated cap per year plus fringe benefits
• K23: up to legislated cap per year plus fringe benefits
• K24: up to legislated cap per year plus fringe benefits for 25-50% effort.
• K25: up to $100,000 in salary/year plus fringe benefits
• K99: up to $75,000 in salary/year plus fringe benefits 

NIEHS will provide research support as follows:

• K01: research support up to $50,000 per year
• K08: research support up to $40,000 per year
• K23: research support up to $40,000 per year 
• K24: research support up to $50,000 per year
• K25: research support up to $40,000 per year
• K99: research support up to $20,000 per year

NIEHS expects candidates to commit the following effort:

• K01: 9 person months.
• K08 and K23: 9 person months (75%) full-time professional effort. Exceptions for certain specialties or special circumstances may be requested in writing at least 12 weeks prior to the submission.
• K24: 3-6 person-months (25 - 50% full-time professional effort). 
• K25: 9 person months
• K99: 9 person months

[email protected]

NIGMS prioritizes mentored career development applications relevant to its mission that demonstrate compelling career development needs and strong plans to address those needs.    

NIGMS prioritizes mentored career development awards that promote:  

• Clinician-scientist career development in basic or patient-oriented research in NIGMS-mission relevant clinical areas: 
  • Anesthesiology  
  • Clinical pharmacology 
  • Injury and critical illness.   
• Quantitative scientist career development to attract investigators whose quantitative science and engineering research has not yet focused primarily on biomedical topics to integrate their expertise with NIGMS-relevant research. 
• Pathway to independence awards to facilitate a timely transition of promising postdoctoral researchers from mentored, postdoctoral research positions to independent, tenure-track or equivalent faculty positions in all areas of the NIGMS mission.   

NIGMS strongly encourages applications from:  

• Institutions from IDeA-eligible states 
• HBCUs  
• Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), as defined under 25 U.S.C. 1603 (24). 
• Resource-limited institutions that can support rigorous career development programs.

NIGMS will contribute up to the following amounts in salary and fringe benefits/per year, consistent with the established salary structure at the applicant institution to other staff members of equivalent qualifications, rank, and responsibilities in the department concerned. 

Clinician-scientist career development: Up to $50,000  

Quantitative scientist career development: Up to $50,000  

Pathway to Independence awards: Up to $25,000   

Funds may be used for 

• research-related expenses, such as supplies, equipment and technical personnel 
• tuition and fees related to career development 
• travel to research meetings or training 
• statistical services including personnel and computer time 

Salaries for mentors, secretarial and administrative assistants, etc. are not allowed. 

• For all mentored career development awards, NIGMS expects scholars to devote a minimum of 9 person months (75% of full-time professional effort) to the award.    
  • Note: Surgeon-scientists with surgical duties may devote a minimum of 6 person-months (50% full-time professional effort) to the award. 

Clinician-scientist career development  
[email protected]  

Quantitative scientist career development  
[email protected] 

Pathway to Independence awards  
[email protected] 

NINDS prioritizes applications for funding that: 

• Justify the need for a mentored career development award (CDA) through a clear, feasible career development plan that addresses specific training gaps. 
• Demonstrate that the plan will support progress toward the next career stage and research independence. 
• Show intellectual ownership of the proposed project by the candidate. 
• Document appropriate institutional support. 
• Prepare the candidate to submit an R01 or other major research application in 3-5 years for advanced postdocs and faculty. 

For clinician-scientist career development awards, NINDS prioritizes for funding applications from human health care professionals who are licensed to practice in the US and will have a faculty position at the time of award. Applicants that are beyond 5 years post clinical training (i.e. post consecutive residency and clinical fellowship training) are encouraged to contact the Office of Training & Workforce Development prior to applying, to discuss program priorities. 

• NINDS supports project periods up to 5 years.  
• For clinician-scientists, NINDS prioritizes applications proposing project periods of 4 – 5 years to allow time to develop research projects and skills. 
• NINDS recipients may receive a maximum of 8 years of mentored CDA support (up to 5 years of CDA funding subsequent to up to 3 years of prior institutional CDA support).  

NINDS will provide salary support as follows:

• Postdoctoral fellows/mentored positions (non-clinicians): Up to $75,000 per year, plus fringe 
• Mentored practicing clinician-scientists: Up to $125,000 per year, plus fringe 
• Faculty/independent positions: Up to $150,000 per year, plus fringe 

NINDS will provide the following amounts for other program-related expenses: 

• Postdoctoral fellows/mentored positions: research support up to $30,000 per year 
• Mentored practicing clinician-scientists applying for non-transition awards: research support up to $51,000 per year, including $1,000 to attend the annual ANA/NINDS career development symposium 
• Faculty/independent positions: research support up to $75,000 per year 

NINDS expects candidates to commit a minimum of 75% of full-time professional effort to their program of career development, except for neurosurgeons, who may commit a minimum of 50% of full-time professional effort. Time with clinical on-call responsibilities may not be counted as protected time for research. 

NINDS Office of Training and Workforce Development
[email protected]  

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) advances biomedical discovery, data science, and access to health information by supporting NIH career development (K) applicants whose research aligns with NLM’s core scientific priorities in bioinformatics, biomedical data science, and health informatics. Areas of particular interest include:

• Bioinformatics and biomedical data science, including AI/ML for genomic, multi-omics, clinical, and population health analysis
• Clinical and translational informatics, integrating clinical, genomic, and real-world data for research and care
• Biomedical knowledge representation and discovery, including ontologies, knowledge graphs, information retrieval, and NLP/text mining
• Data infrastructure, standards, and interoperability, including FAIR principles, metadata harmonization, and scalable, privacy-preserving ecosystems
• Open science and reproducibility, including data sharing, benchmarking, and transparency
• Digital health and human-centered informatics, including mobile and consumer health tools that improve access to trustworthy health information
• Responsible and ethical data science, including accountability, stewardship, privacy, security, and attention to fairness, transparency, and societal impact

• For applicants holding academic appointments (e.g., Assistant Professor, Research Scientist), the proposed salary may not exceed $125,000 for mentored career development awards. 
• For applicants with no more than four years of postdoctoral research experience, a salary of up to $75,000 per year, plus fringe benefits, is considered appropriate. 
• For K99 applications, a salary of up to $75,000 per year, plus fringe benefits, is allowable during the postdoctoral phase.

NLM will provide up to $50,000 per year to support research-related costs.

NLM Extramural Programs
[email protected] 

• ORIP supports research-oriented veterinarian scientists (D.V.M., V.M.D., or equivalent degree from an institution accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association) proposing to develop independent research skills and gain experience in the methods, state-of-the art technologies, and experimental approaches required to advance modern biomedical research. 
• ORIP prioritizes applications that
  • Develop model systems, biomaterials, and technologies to address emerging human health needs, prevent disease, promote health, and advance foundational science
  • Advance the career development of veterinarian scientists to align with the management and use of comparative medicine resources
• ORIP encourages interdisciplinary collaborations and cross-training in essential and emerging areas, such as computational biology/bioinformatics, biostatistics, artificial intelligence/machine learning, science communication, science policy, and other relevant fields.
• ORIP supports career development applications that propose to develop leaders in human based models, including biology-centered in vivo modeling, artificial intelligence/machine learning, bioinformatics, tissue engineering, organoids, and organ-on-chip technology.

• A maximum of four years of protected time to develop awardee’s research career; however, the awardee is actively encouraged to apply for additional research grants anytime during the tenure of their K award.

ORIP will provide up to $75,000 plus fringe benefits per year for salary support.

ORIP will provide up to $20,000 direct costs per year for research support.

• Candidates are expected to commit a minimum of nine person months of effort (75% of full-time professional effort) to their program of career development during the mentored phase.
• In the final two years of the award, effort can be reduced, but not below 50%, provided recipient remains in a mentored status, and has successfully competed for research awards from NIH or any other Federal agency. 

Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP)
Email: [email protected]