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Simpler Grants

No. RFA-RM-27-001 · National Institutes of Health

Open

NIH Director’s Pioneer Award (DP1 Clinical Trial Optional)

grants.gov listing
Dealbreakers No cost share required Audit: not stated Reimbursement-only: not stated
Award range
$700,000 – $700,000
Expected awards
~8
Application deadline
Sep 9, 2026 7 days left
Posted
Jun 29, 2026
Last verified
2 days ago

At a glance

No plain-language summary yet for this grant — the official description below is the best source.

What it funds

  • Health
  • Research & Discovery
  • Researchers & Scholars
  • Biomedical & Disease Research
Official description from grants.gov

The NIH Director"s Pioneer Award supports individual scientists of exceptional creativity who propose bold and highly innovative research projects with the potential to produce a major impact on broad, important areas relevant to the mission of NIH. To be considered pioneering, the proposed research must reflect substantially different scientific directions from those already being pursued in the investigator"s research program or elsewhere. Applications in all topics relevant to the broad mission of NIH are welcome. Research may involve basic, translational, or clinical research. The NIH Director"s Pioneer Award is a component of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research (HRHR) program of the NIH Common Fund.

Who can apply

  • City or township governments
  • County governments
  • For-profit organizations other than small businesses
  • Independent school districts
  • Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
  • Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized)
  • Nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status (other than higher education)
  • Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) status (other than higher education)
  • Others
  • Private institutions of higher education
  • Public and State controlled institutions of higher education
  • Public housing authorities / Indian housing authorities
  • Small businesses
  • Special district governments
  • State governments
Geographic restriction None found in the announcement — likely nationwide
Set-aside Set aside or prioritized for: Faith-based organization
“Faith-based or Community-based Organizations” — From the announcement

Program history

USASpending.gov

Assistance listing 93.310 · Trans-NIH Research Support

Real awards this federal program has made — the whole assistance listing (93.310), not just this notice.

Fiscal year Awards Median award Middle half
FY 2026 (so far) 115 $582,838 $418,649 – $860,735
FY 2025 401 $786,876 $385,000 – $1,467,198
FY 2024 455 $1,174,898 $558,715 – $2,057,532
FY 2023 643 $1,437,358 $1,200,000 – $2,578,153
FY 2022 666 — —
FY 2021 689 — —

For comparison, this notice advertises $700,000 – $700,000.

Dollar figures are based on the 1,000 most recent awards we store, not all 2,969 — award counts are complete.

Who wins it Higher education (2,212), Nonprofit (582), Business (34) of 2,969 awards — categories can overlap.
Top states CA (153) · MA (103) · NY (93) · PA (63) · MI (21)
Largest recent awards
  1. THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK $34,424,926 · FY 2023
  2. THE GENERAL HOSPITAL CORPORATION $33,014,143 · FY 2023
  3. MAYO CLINIC JACKSONVILLE (A NONPROFIT CORPORATION) $17,574,818 · FY 2024
  4. TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, THE $16,308,508 · FY 2025
  5. UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS MEDICAL CENTER RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INC. $14,064,599 · FY 2025

Source: USASpending.gov · refreshed Aug 18, 2026

Change history

Since we first indexed it
  1. Jul 18, 2026 Eligibility text updated
  2. Jul 11, 2026 Title updated
  3. Jul 11, 2026 Status: forecasted → open
  4. Jul 11, 2026 Deadline set: Sep 9, 2026