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Fiscal Year 2025 By the Numbers: Extramural Grant Investments in Research
To promote transparency, each year we provide information about the NIH’s investments of taxpayer funds in extramural biomedical research and related activities. Today, we are sharing funding data for fiscal years (FYs) 2023 to 2025.
NIH’s overall investment in biomedical research grew in FY 2025. We awarded $35.3 billion in competing and noncompeting grants, a slight increase over previous years (Table 1). The remaining funds of the NIH’s total FY25 appropriation of $48.5 billion went to research and development (R&D) contracts, intramural research, administrative support, and other areas. Similar to prior analyses, additional explanations about the data are noted at the end.
FY 2025 saw continued growth in applications submitted for research project grants (RPGs) (Table 2). Total NIH funding allocated to RPGs increased by 3% in FY 2025, compared to the prior year. NIH made fewer new awards in FY 2025, but with the average cost per award increasing. These changes were likely due in part to more awards being forward funded than previous years. Finally, the success rate declined for RPG applications because of the decrease in the number of awards and increase in applications.
R01-equivalent grants comprise the majority of RPGs. This group showed similar trends as RPGs (Table 3).
As outlined in the NIH Director’s commitment to “Gold Standard Science,” transparent data reporting is central to maintaining public confidence in biomedical research. The NIH is committed to continuing to provide these kinds of data so that the research community can plan and the public can understand where its investments are going.
Table 1 – All Extramural Research (competing and non-competing, excluding R&D contracts) during FYs 2023-2025
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2025 % Change from 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Awards | 59,102 | 59,063 | 55,394 | -6.2% |
| Total Amount (in billions): | $35.22 | $35.15 | $35.30 | 0.4% |
Table 2: RPGs During FYs 2023-2025
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2025 % Change from 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of research project grant (RPG) applications: | 51,883 | 55,418 | 62,592 | 12.9% |
| Number of new or renewal (competing) RPG awards: | 11,052 | 10,265 | 8,161 | -20.5% |
| Success rate of RPG applications:* | 21.3% | 18.5% | 13.0% | -29.6% |
| Average size of RPGs: | $609,790 | $620,265 | $675,426 | 8.9% |
| Total amount of NIH funding that went to RPGs (both competing and non-competing, in billions): | $25.365 | $25.729 | $26.503 | 3.0% |
Table 3: R01-equivalent Grants during FYs 2023-2025
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2025 % Change from 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of R01 -equivalent grant applications: | 35,072 | 37,478 | 42,022 | 12.1% |
| Number of new or renewal (competing) R01-equivalent awards: | 7,592 | 7,000 | 5,471 | -21.8% |
| Success rates for R01-equivalent applications: | 21.6% | 18.7% | 13.0% | -30.3% |
| Average size of R01-equivalent awards: | $600,957 | $606,438 | $664,005 | 9.5% |
| Total amount of NIH Funding that went to R01-eqivalents (both competing and non-competing, in billions): | $19.761 | $20.024 | $20.840 | 4.1% |
Notes on the data:
- Monies for grants and Other Transaction awards are included while research and development (R&D) contracts are excluded.
- Previous year spending related to special appropriations for coronavirus are excluded, but may be found using RePORTER's advanced search capabilities.
- The NIH Data Book has other historical grants data for reference and is also being updated with more FY 2025 grants and application data on a rolling basis.