Spotlight on the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award – DP2

By Bouvier Grant Group

We stay current on NIH happenings and would be delighted to keep you informed.

The NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (activity code DP2) supports Early-Stage Investigators (ESIs) who are pursuing highly innovative research that has the potential to have a major impact on areas relevant to NIH mission. Applications can be basic, translational, or clinical in nature. The Notice of Funding Opportunity (RFA-RM-25-002) allows for clinical trials, though it is not required.

Applicants must be ESIs, i.e. they have completed doctoral degree or postgraduate clinical training within last 10 years and have never been a Principle Investigator on an R01 or equivalent research award.

Awardees must dedicate a minimum of 25% research effort. Preliminary data are not required. Instead, the focus should be on innovation and creativity. The award provides funding of $475,000 direct costs per year for up to 5 years, making the time and budget similar to a standard R01.

Funding is very competitive, but these awards are also very prestigious. It is always a good idea to speak with the Scientific/Research Contact about whether your project would be best suited to the DP2 or another mechanism. While this call is not required, it may be the single most important step in deciding whether a DP2 is right for your project and career stage.

The NIH Director’s New Innovator Award application has an unusual structure. There is no Specific Aims page, and instead of the standard 6- or 12-page Research Strategy, there is a 10-page essay. The NOFO lays out specific subheaders for the essay. Read the NOFO carefully and follow the instructions exactly. In addition, there is a wealth of information on the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award page, including a slideshow, webinar FAQs, and much more. It might also be helpful to ask your pre-award support office if they have a sample of a DP2 application that a past PI might be willing to share with you.

Note: There is a single deadline each year, on August 19.

The NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (DP2) is one of four High-Risk, High-Reward (HRHR) research grants issued by the NIH Office of the Director out of the NIH Common Fund, which means they are not sponsored by a specific IC. The other three are the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award, and the NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (New NOFO not yet issued).

If you are interested in seeing some information about funded DP2s, use NIH RePORTer’s Advanced Search feature. Under Project Number/Application ID, enter “DP2” as the Activity Code. The projects that list the funding IC as “OD” (Office of the Director) are the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award.

In that RePORTer search, you will also see DP2s funded by a specific IC. Note that sometimes, other ICs use the DP2 mechanism to fund their own version of an innovator award. For example, right now, there are two other active NOFOs for DP2s, out of NIAID and NIDA, and in RePORTer you can see recently funded DP2s from other ICs as well (NINDS, NIMH, NIGMS, NICHD, NCI, etc.) However, the version out of the Common Fund is the largest and most consistent DP2 program at NIH.

Our next blog will compare the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award with the other two active DP2 NOFOs out of NIAID and NIDA, so be sure to check back.

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Dr. Meg Bouvier

Author:
Dr. Meg Bouvier

Margaret Bouvier received her PhD in 1995 in Biomedical Sciences from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. After an NINDS post-doctoral fellowship, she worked as a staff writer for long-standing NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins in the Office of Press, Policy, and Communications for the Human Genome Project and NHGRI. Since 2007, Meg has specialized in editing and advising on NIH submissions, and began offering virtual courses in 2015.

She’s recently worked with more than 25% of the nation’s highest-performing hospitals*, three of the top 10 cancer hospitals*, three of the top 16 medical schools for research*, and 8 NCI-Designated Cancer Centers.

Her experience at NIH as both a bench scientist and staff writer greatly informs her approach to NIH grantwriting. She has helped clients land over half a billion in federal funding. Bouvier Grant Group is a woman-owned small business.

*As recognized by the 2024/25 US News & World Report honor roll.

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