Milestone-driven awards allow NIH to support riskier biomedical research projects. Unlike traditional research project grants many researchers may be familiar with, these awards have interim checkpoints (also referred to as “phases”) where progress towards achieving the objectives of the award are assessed. Examples of these types of awards include research grants R37, R61/R33, and R44; cooperative agreements U44 and UH2/UH3; as well as career development awards K22 and K99/R00. If the milestone is achieved, the project can continue to the next phase. If they are not, then NIH funding for the project ends.
This episode of the NIH All About Grants podcast series focuses on these phased/milestone-driven awards. Dr. Craig Hopp, Deputy Director of the Division of Extramural Research within the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, joins us for this conversation. He will help explain more about what makes these awards unique, advice on writing milestones, what peer reviewers and NIH program staff consider, how to show progress meeting the milestones, and much more.
“… My advice would be to write the milestone, as you know, think about what you would be reading this as a reviewer … Are these milestones really rigorous enough? Are they specific enough? Because … these are very important …components of this award. Again, that’s what makes them somewhat unique, is you should spend a lot of time thinking about those milestones and what would be an appropriate … achievement in the first phase that would really de-risk that project and make it a safe bet to go into the second phase of funding.” – Dr. Craig Hopp
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NIH’s All About Grants episodes can also be heard on iTunes, Spotify, and on the NIH Grants YouTube channel. Have an idea for a future podcast? Email ExtramuralNexus@mail.nih.gov. We love suggestions!
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