NIH New Innovator Award
Sponsor Deadline: September 9, 2016
Award Amount: $300,000/year for 5 years 

The NIH New Innovator Award supports unusually creative investigators with highly innovative research ideas at an early stage of their career when they may lack the preliminary data required for an R01 grant application. The emphasis is on innovation and creativity; preliminary data are not required, but may be included. The review process emphasizes the individual’s creativity, the innovativeness of the research approaches, and the potential of the project, if successful, to have a significant impact on an important biomedical or behavioral research problem. The research proposed for a New Innovator Award may be in any scientific area relevant to the mission of NIH (biological, behavioral, clinical, social, physical, chemical, computational, engineering, and mathematical sciences).  Applicants must meet the definition of an Early Stage Investigator (ESI). An ESI is a new investigator who is within 10 years of completing his/her terminal research degree or is within 10 years of completing medical residency (or the equivalent).  An extension to the 10-year period may be granted under special circumstances (e.g., family care responsibilities, extended periods of clinical training, disability or illness, etc.). Applicants may submit or have an R01 (or other equivalent) grant application pending concurrently with their NIH Director’s New Innovator Award application. However, if that pending grant is awarded prior to the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, then the applicant is no longer eligible to receive the New Innovator Award.  Awardees are required to commit at least 25% of their research effort each year to activities supported by the New Innovator Award.