This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
NIH Common Fund awards $127 million for biomedical research
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
The NIH’s Common Fund announced that its High-Risk, High-Reward Research program recently awarded 88 grants totaling $127 million to an elite group of scientists who have “bold approaches” to challenges within biomedical research.
The goal of the HRHR program is to locate scientists who have ideas that hold potential high impact in the biomedical research field, but may be at an early stage in traditional peer review processes. These awards encourage “creative, outside-the-box thinkers” to seek ingenious and appealing ideas, according to a news release.
“The program continues to support high-caliber investigators whose ideas stretch the boundaries of our scientific knowledge,” NIH Director Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, said in the release. “We welcome the newest cohort of outstanding scientists to the program and look forward to their valuable contributions.”
The HRHR program presented grants in the following categories:
- the Pioneer Award (12 grants), which challenges investigators on all career levels to pursue new research and develop groundbreaking approaches to behavioral or biomedical sciences;
- the New Innovator Award (48), which supports research from early career investigators within 10 years of their final degree or residency and have not received a research project grant or equivalent NIH grant;
- the Transformative Research Award (12), which promotes interdisciplinary approaches and is open to individuals or teams who seek to conduct research that creates or challenges current models; and
- the Early Independence Award (16), which gives junior scientists who received recent doctoral degrees or completed residencies the opportunity to bypass traditional postdoctoral training and pursue independent research positions.
Disclosure: Collins is employed by the NIH.