NIH Extramural Nexus (News)

Finding the right funding opportunity as an early career investigator can feel overwhelming but understanding the NIH funding landscape can help inform your choice. 

As part of NIH's broader effort to simplify the funding landscape, we’re pleased to highlight three new parent funding opportunities under the NIH Research Education Program (R25). Similar to updates to career development, loan repayment, and predoctoral/postdoctoral transition programs, these new research education programs provide a simpler framework for supporting research education activities while helping NIH develop the scientific workforce of the future.

The Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act strengthens the government’s ability to prevent adversarial nations from exploiting federally funded technologies. Here we offer a practical guide to help small businesses avoid security risks from foreign countries of concern when applying.

You have likely come across the Public Health Service (PHS) assignment request form when putting together your grant application. It’s optional, but we encourage applicants to fill it out. This form is available in nearly all competing NIH application form packages and allows you to provide specific application assignment and review information to referral and review staff. 

NIH has a step-by-step guide available for linking an ORCID iD to an eRA Commons account.

The primary method to find contract solicitations is the federal-wide System for Award Management website (SAM.gov), which lists federal contracting opportunities higher than $20,000.

A “person month” is the metric for expressing the effort (amount of time) program directors/principal investigators (PD/PIs), faculty, and other senior personnel devote to a specific project. 

NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices (ICOs) communicate their research priorities through a variety of channels. For example, general interest areas may be discussed on an ICOs’ profile page or they may be expressed through a specific Highlighted Topic. In any case, the ICO may fund research in a wide range of scientific areas within their mission, whether or not they are explicitly identified as a particular Highlighted Topic.

NIH has released its first Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) under the new Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) SimplerNOFO initiative, which aims to make funding opportunities more accessible, understandable, and actionable for applicants.

NIH has advanced initiatives to strengthen transparency and ensure disclosure of other support. These actions build on prior work to address risks associated with foreign interference while reinforcing that honesty, transparency, and funding‑overlap prevention remain non‑negotiable requirements.