Key Dates

Related Announcements

None

Issued by

Office of The Director, National Institutes of Health (OD)

Purpose

By way of this Notice, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) hereby announces an automatic short-term extension of Early-Stage Investigator (ESI) eligibility in response to disruptions caused by the recent lapse in federal appropriations. The extension is intended to lessen the impact of these disruptions on application submission, peer review, and award processing.

Who is impacted

• Investigators whose ESI end date was in September, October, or November 2025 will have ESI status extended through March 31, 2026; the last submission as an ESI must be on or before that date.
• All others retain their current ESI timelines unless extended under other NIH policies.

No action is required; affected investigators do not need to submit an individual ESI extension request.

Additional information

This administrative extension does not limit eligibility for further extensions based on qualifying life events (such as medical leave or caregiving) under existing ESI extension policies. Updated ESI end dates will appear in eRA Commons, and investigators may verify their status in the Education section of their Personal Profile.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Division of Biomedical Research Workforce
Office of Extramural Research
National Institutes of Health
Email: [email protected]