The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced a new policy establishing goals to encourage funding for scientists new to NIH and those who are at an early stage in their careers. The involvement of new investigators is considered essential to the vitality of health-related research and has been the focus of several critically important NIH initiatives. NIH is hopeful that this new policy will nurture a new cadre of promising scientists and provide the continued expertise needed to foster the next generation of biomedical research. NIH expects this new policy will level the playing field, allowing new investigators to achieve success rates comparable to those of established scientists submitting new grant applications. Achievement of a comparable success rate should permit the NIH to support 1650 or more New Investigators across all Institutes and Centers in FY 2009, a number equivalent to that achieved in FY 2008.

"Exceptional scientists with new ideas are at the core of our success - we must invest in the future of our new scientists today if we expect to meet the nation's health challenges of tomorrow," said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D.

As a first step, NIH created a new 'Early Stage Investigator' category designed to accelerate the early transition of new scientists to research independence (announced Sept. 26 in NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-08-121 http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-121.html). An Early Stage Investigator is defined as a New or First-time investigator who is within 10 years of completing his/her last research degree or is within 10 years of completing medical residency (or the equivalent). Beginning with R01 research grant applications received in February 2009, NIH will identify Early Stage Investigators and take into consideration their career stage at the time of review and award.
Under the policy:

* New goals will be established to support new investigators at success rates comparable to those of established scientists submitting new applications
* Early Stage Investigators should comprise a majority of the new investigators supported
* Where possible, Early Stage Investigator applications will be clustered during review with the expectation that they will be evaluated more effectively when judged against applications from scientists at the same stage of their careers.

NIH strongly encourages Early Stage Investigators seeking NIH funding for the first time to apply for traditional research project (R01) grant awards, instead of applying for small grants (R03) or Exploratory/Developmental Research Awards (R21). R03s and R21s are limited in scope and period of support, and thus may not be the most effective way to launch an independent research career. NIH is responding to concerns that an increasing number of new investigator applicants are applying for these mechanisms, despite the fact that R21 success rates can be lower than R01 success rates, and a smaller proportion of individuals with initial R21 or R03 grant support subsequently apply for and obtain R01-equivalent funding.