Trends Generally Continue in FY 2023 for Demographic-Specific Funding Rates for Type 1 Research Project Grant and R01-Equivalent Applications

July 29, 2024

Last year, we showed that there were slight improvements in the funding and success rates for Black/African American and Hispanic researchers in fiscal year (FY) 2022. The race-ethnicity gaps also narrowed over the past few years, though the overall number of Black/African American and Hispanic applicants remained low.

How Many Researchers: The FY 2023 Cumulative Investigator Rate 

March 6, 2024

We are pleased to share our annual snapshot of how many researchers NIH supports. Our cumulative investigator rate is an NIH-wide person-based metric, calculated as the number of unique principal investigators designated on an NIH research project grant award, divided by the number of unique principal investigators who were designated on applications over a five-year period.

How Many Researchers? …Revisited…the FY 2018 NIH’s Cumulative Investigator Rate

April 22, 2019

In March 2018, we showed data suggesting that, despite still being in a state of hyper-competition (as described in this post), the severity may be lessening. The number of unique applicants for NIH research project grants (RPGs) appeared to stabilize after many years of uninterrupted growth. Furthermore, a person-based metric, called the cumulative investigator rate, started to rise in fiscal year (FY) 2015 for RPGs after declines in previous years.

Curling up with a New NIH Data Book

January 24, 2019

For the New Year, we resolve to make NIH data, reports, and analyses more accessible, interactive, and easy to use. For over a decade, the NIH Data Book has served as a helpful resource for describing funding trends on grants and contract awards, success rates, small business programs, peer review, as well as the scientific workforce. These data, presented as graphics and tables, have allowed you to get a better understanding of decisions made here at NIH. We are proud to announce a new edition is available for your 2019 reading list.

What Contributes to the Success of Early Career Scientists? – A NIAID Look

October 31, 2018

At NIH, we are heavily invested in our workforce and in understanding the barriers they face. What characteristics do they share? How do they compete in the current hypercompetitive environment? When do they stop applying to NIH (drop out), even after receiving their first award? Staff from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) delve into these questions in a paper published recently in PLOS ONE , whose findings I’d like to highlight today. Here, Drs. Patricia Haggerty and Matthew Fenton looked at factors that may contribute to the success of early-career investigators and if these factors affect all junior researchers equally.

Trends in Diversity within the NIH-funded Workforce

August 7, 2018

As highlighted in many previous blog posts and the recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report, promoting a strong biomedical workforce is a top priority for the NIH.  In 2017, NIH launched the Next Generation Researchers Initiative, which is a multi-pronged approach to increase the number of NIH-funded early stage investigators. An important component of this initiative is the call for increased transparency and availability of data about the make-up of the biomedical research workforce. More complete data will allow NIH leadership to best understand and address the needs of our emerging workforce.