6 Comments
Today we present our annual snapshot of NIH grant funding and success rate data for fiscal year (FY) 2022 enacted appropriations. These data are available in the NIH Data Book, which is also being regularly updated with other FY 2022 grants information. Similar to our FY 2021 and FY 2020 posts, spending related to special appropriations for coronavirus are excluded here, but may be found using RePORTER’s advanced search capabilities.
In FY2022, NIH spent $33.3 billion of its total $45.2 billion appropriation for competing and noncompeting grant awards. This is a 3.1% increase (or $1.02 billion) in spending over the previous year. Monies for grants and Other Transaction awards are included while research and development contracts are excluded.
NIH supported 1,576 additional new and renewed extramural grants in FY 2022, for a total of 58,368 competing and non-competing awards (2.8% more than FY 2021). NIH issued grants to 2,707 academic universities, hospitals, small businesses, and other organizations throughout the U.S. and internationally.
Table 1 – All Extramural Research (competing and non-competing, excluding contracts)
| 2021 | 2022 | 2022 % Change from 2021 | |
| Number of Awards | 56,792 | 58,368 | 2.8% |
| Total Amount (in billions) | $32.32 | $33.34 | 3.1% |
The success rate for new research project grants (RPGs) increased 1.6 percentage points from 19.1% in FY 2021 to 20.7% in FY 2022. This is because we received 4,301 fewer RPG competing applications in FY 2022 compared to the previous year (54,571 compared to 58,872), while making 82 more awards (11,311 compared to 11,229). The average nominal cost per RPG rose by 1.9% in 2022 to $592,617 from $581,293 in FY 2021.
Table 2 – Research Project Grants (RPG)
| 2021 | 2022 | 2022 % Change from 2021 | |
| Number of research project grant (RPG) applications: | 58,872 | 54,571 | -7.3% |
| Number of new or renewal (competing) RPG awards: | 11,229 | 11,311 | 0.7% |
| Success rate of RPG applications*: | 19.1% | 20.7% | 8.7% |
| Average size of RPGs: | $581,293 | $592,617 | 1.9% |
| Total amount of NIH funding that went to RPGs (both competing and non-competing): (in billions) | $23.280 | $24.400 | 4.8% |
*Success rates are calculated by dividing the number of awards made in a FY by the number of applications received. Applications having one or more amendments in the same fiscal year are only counted once.
Most RPGs are R01-equivalent grants, and they showed similar trends. We spent $19.1 billion on average on R01-equivalent grants in FY 2022 compared to $18.1 billion spent in FY 2021, a 5.4% increase. Like RPGs, the R01-equivalent grant success rate also increased (1.5 percentage points), going from 20.1% in FY 2021 to 21.6% in FY 2022. We spent 2.4% more in average nominal costs on R01-equivalents in FY 2022 ($585,307) compared to $571,561 spent in FY 2021.
Table 3 – R01-equivalent Grants**
| 2021 | 2022 | 2022 % Change from 2021 | |
| Number of R01-equivalent grant applications: | 37,987 | 36,198 | -4.7% |
| Number of new or renewal (competing) R01-equivalent awards: | 7,627 | 7,816 | 2.5% |
| Success rates for R01-equivalent applications: | 20.1% | 21.6% | 7.5% |
| Average size of R01-equivalent awards: | $571,561 | $585,307 | 2.4% |
| Total amount of NIH funding that went to R01-equivalents (both competing and non-competing): (in billions) | $18.134 | $19.108 | 5.4% |
**R01-equivalent grants are defined as activity codes DP1, DP2, DP5, R01, R37, R56, RF1, RL1, U01 and R35 from select National Institute of General Medical Sciences and National Human Genome Research Institute program announcements. Not all these activities may be in use by NIH every year.
Please note that NIH does not report the number of applications received in specific research areas, and thus does not report success rates for those areas either.
I would like to thank my colleagues within the NIH Office of Extramural Research’s Division of Statistical Analysis and Reporting for their work on this analysis.
Correction: Previously, we accidently misreported the FY 2021 success rate for R01-equivalent grants. We have corrected the data table to reflect this change, which now makes the percent change calculation correct.
Please check “2022 % Change from 2021” for “Success rates for R01-equivalent applications:”. How did you calculate a 7.5% increase?
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We accidently misreported the FY 2021 success rate for R01-equivalent grants. We have corrected the data table to reflect this change, which now makes the percent change calculation correct.
Thank you so much for this reporting.
I would be interested to learn about data on 1) the average cut in budget made by the NIH before award is made (% of budget) and 2) the incidence in which the duration of the project has been reduced. This latter issue occurs both to align the year-end reporting with NIH workload (resulting in a short first year), but also occurs with an entire year is taken off the project to save money (e.g., a five-year grant is cut to 4 years).
Thank you so much. Could you also report on the numbers and percentages for women and underrepresented researchers?
These success rates seem higher than posted paylines for many institutes and how many colleagues are getting funded. Is this success % of all grants submitted, or those discussed?
You show that there are 7,816 new or renewal R01-equivalent grants. What is the total number of active R01-equivalent grants?
What are the non-R01-equivalent research project grants?