NIH All About Grants Podcast: Early Stage Investigator (ESI) Policy

Hello, and welcome to another virtual edition of NIH's "All About Grants" podcast. I'm your host David Kosub with the NIH's Office of Extramural Research, and today we're going to be talking all about early stage investigators or ESIs as we'll throw out that acronym throughout the conversation. All about the policy of what you need to know, all that good stuff, and we have with us, Dr. Ericka Boone. She directs the Division of Loan Repayment and also serves as the Acting Director of the Division of Biomedical Research Workforce within the Office of Extramural Research. And we also have Dr. Shoshana Kahana. She is a Senior Advisor and also the NIH Training Policy Officer within the Division of Biomedical Research Workforce, and I welcome you both to the show today.

Boone: Thank you for having us.

Kahana: Good to be here.

Great. So maybe Ericka, I'll start with you. Why do we have an ESI policy?

Kosub: Right. Thanks for that, Ericka. And I guess sticking with you, like who does NIH actually consider to be an ESI?

Boone: An ESI is considered to be a person who is a Program Director or Principal Investigator who has completed their terminal research degree or end of their postgraduate clinical training, whichever day is later, within the past ten years, and who has not previously competed successfully as a Program Director or Principal Investigator for substantial NIH Independent Research Award.

Kahana: So actually someone's application will be automatically flagged based on their degree or training information that's in their commons profile account.

Kosub: I guess that underscores the importance as to why it's you keep that commons profile up to date. So Shoshana, I guess are there any specific grants that an ESI policy relates to or specific for?

Kahana: Yeah. So good question. Mostly focuses on the R01 equivalent awards. I'm sure most of the listeners know about the R01, but for some of the other activity codes that qualify for that, we list them on a Web page that OER maintains.

Kosub: Great. And do they get any advantages or consider special considerations during like peer review of an application?

Kahana: So in terms of peer review, they're actually clustered together, typically, so that gives one advantage. In terms of funding R01 equivalent ESI applications with meritorious scores are prioritized for funding across NIH ICs.

Kosub: Cool. One question I actually would love to know is about preliminary data. I guess as an ESI, you know, folks may still be trying to get all the right information to build up their application. Is preliminary data necessary for any or do we assize need for preliminary data I guess is what I'm trying to get at.

Kahana: So it's a good question. I think it depends more on the Funding Opportunity Announcement and sort of less on ESI status per se. So some Funding Opportunity Announcements, like the Katz FOA specifically prohibit preliminary data while other announcements simply don't require preliminary data. Many times really the core issue is really demonstrating feasibility in terms of what's being proposed, so I would just, umm, suggest that if an applicant is not certain about what the requirements are, would fully support them reaching out to their program officer just to sort of clarify what the requirements are for any given FOA.

Boone: Thanks for that question, David, but before we move on, I think I want to point out something or agree really wholeheartedly with one of Shoshana's last points, and that is practicing the reach-out amongst early stage of investigators because it is so very important that they initiate contact with the program officer prior to submitting an application. So it's really important that they get used to over time sending an e mail, introducing themselves, talking about their research with their program officers, because it will allow for them to not only get used to that, but to also get really good information from these individuals so that they can prepare the best application that they possibly can. But getting back to your question about when is someone no longer considered an ESI, so in general, it's individuals that are past their ten year window, and those individuals that have been awarded an RO1 or an RO1 equivalent grant.

Kosub: Cool. And those are some good advice that you just provided as well. Before we close out, any other final thoughts y'all might want to leave with the audience about the importance of early stage investigator policy?

Boone: Well, one thing that I like to add, David, is that early stage investigators are really key to sustaining the viability of the Biomedical Research Workforce and Scientific Discovery in general. That is really important for us here at NIH to wholeheartedly support the continuation of their research career. And developing and implementing key policies such as our ESI policies are really important to that endeavor.

Kahana: So thanks so much. Just wanted to echo what Ericka said. This is a popular program that is really meant to help junior scientists, so please do look at this information and do get in touch with us.

Kosub: Wonderful. Well, thank you very much, Ericka and Shoshana, for this opportunity to talk about the ESI policy, and for those who have questions, please check out our website. We have a wealth of information on the ESI website on our grants page. And if you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to our inbox, e mail address ESI_extensions@OD.NIH.gov. This has been David Kosub with another virtual edition of "All About Grants". Thank you.