NIH Grants and Funding
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NIH Staff 
Small Grant Applications
Purpose of the Award
- Provides limited funding for a short period of time to support investigator-initiated research
- Investigator-initiated research, also known as unsolicited research, is research funded as a result of an investigator submitting a research grant application to NIH in an investigator’s area of interest and competency
- Supports small research projects that can be carried out in a short period of time with limited resources
- Supports different types of projects including pilot and feasibility studies; secondary analysis of existing data; small, self-contained research projects; development of research methodology; and development of new research technology.
Details
- Limited to two years of funding
- Direct costs generally up to $50,000 per year
- Not renewable
- Utilized by more than half of the NIH Institutes and Centers
More Information
- Visit the Parent Announcement through the Parent Announcement page
- Consult the funding opportunity announcement to read the Review Process section; Individual funding opportunities often have additional review criteria and/or considerations
- To read more about the review criteria and considerations for R applications, visit Review Criteria at-a- Glance.
- Please see the following documents for more information on scoring and critique templates: Scoring System and Procedure, Critique Template Instructions.
- A comprehensive list of Guidelines for Reviewers is available at /grants/peer/reviewer_guidelines.htm
