December 22, 2025

NIH, including help desks, will be closed for the federal holidays on December 24, 25, and 26, 2025 (Wednesday through Friday for Christmas) and January 1, 2026 (Thursday for New Year's Day). If a grant application due date falls on a federal holiday, the application deadline is automatically extended to the next business day.

Blog co-authored by Dr. Lyric Jorgenson, Associate Director for Science Policy, and Dr. Jon Lorsch, NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research.
Throughout the year we advanced a policy agenda that was based on two interlocking principles. The first principle involved pro-actively anticipating policy needs that would drive biomedical research. The second was to ensure that we cut unnecessary red tape to the maximum extent possible.

NIH will contact the applicant in certain, limited situations if required attachments of an application were not submitted on time. 

NIH is requesting public input on its proposal to establish harmonized and transparent policy requirements for protecting human participant research data. 

The complete Focus on Fellowships video series has been updated to include parts 3 and 4. As a reminder, NIH fellowships are open to early career scientists, including those at the predoctoral and postdoctoral level.