Building Bridges

You may have heard that NIH can provide limited, interim research support for applications with creative and innovative approaches that fell just outside the payline. These “bridge awards” are helpful for researchers to gather additional data to revise their current application. But, how do we decide on which applications to support this way?

Join us for this NIH All About Grants podcast episode to learn more about R56/bridge awards. Drs. Lakshmi Ramachandra from the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases and Bonnie Burgess-Beusse with the national institute of diabetes and digestive and kidney diseases will tell us about the purpose of bridge awards, how program staff consider who and what to recommend for funding, the budget, when investigators should reach out about them, and more.

“…If you received a score that was close to the pay line but you missed being funded, but you have extenuating circumstances in your laboratory… for example you might be in danger of losing your position or losing your lab, that's something that can be helpful for program officials to know, because that can also factor into their decisions.” – Dr. Bonnie Burgess-Beusse