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This page serves as a central location where you can learn more about the status of changes impacting NIH grants process and plans for implementing new initiatives and policies.
In Progress & Upcoming Changes
Updates to Finding NIH Funding Opportunities and Information
We have several efforts underway that impact how potential applicants will learn about scientific topics of specific interest to NIH and find grant and cooperative agreement funding opportunities in FY2026. These efforts are part of a wider strategy across NIH to simplify and streamline the application and funding process.
Letters of Collaboration to Replace Letters of Support
As part of NIH's ongoing efforts to increase efficiency and minimize applicant burden, NIH announced plans to align its letter of support requirements in applications with the format currently used by the National Science Foundation (NSF). NIH letters of support will be replaced with letters of collaboration.
Updates to Career Development (K) Award Programs
We are updating our Career Development programs to improve consistency, reduce administrative burden, and align policies across programs. These updates include:
- Consolidating individual K notice of funding opportunities (NOFOs).
- Eliminating the requirement for data management and sharing (DMS) plans on Ks.
- Clarifying allowable uses of K award funds for clinical trial research activities.
Recent Changes
For a complete list of policy updates see Notices of NIH Policy Changes.
New Application Structure for NIH-Funded International Collaborations
In 2025, we updated our policy on foreign subawards and announced that NIH would no longer issue awards that included a foreign subaward nested under a parent grant (NOT-OD-25-104). In place of foreign subawards, we introduced the Collaborative International Research application and award structure using the PF5 activity code (NOT-OD-25-155). The multi-project PF5 structure accommodates separate components for international projects which, if selected for funding, become individual, linked direct foreign awards under the RF2 activity code. This establishes direct legal relationships between NIH and each PF5 and RF2 recipient, enables appropriate tracking of funds to international organizations, and allows for collaborative reporting of scientific progress and programmatic oversight.