Funding Opportunities

The NIH Director's Transformative Research Award supports collaborative investigative teams or individual scientists who propose unusually bold and innovative research projects, which, if successful, would have a major impact in a broad area of relevance to the NIH. To be considered transformative, projects must have the potential to establish new or overturn fundamental scientific paradigms through novel concepts or perspectives, transform the way research is conducted through the development of novel tools or technologies, or lead to major improvements in health through the development of highly innovative diagnostic, therapeutic, or preventive strategies. Several key features of this NOFO are designed to emphasize to applicants and peer reviewers that Transformative Research applications are very different from conventional, investigator-initiated research applications. The Transformative Research application focuses on the importance of the problem, the novelty of the hypothesis and/or the proposed methodology, and the magnitude of the potential impact rather than on preliminary data or experimental details. Reviewers will be instructed to emphasize the significance and innovation of the application in their evaluations. Applicants and reviewers should keep the goal of the Transformative Research Award initiative in mind throughout the process– to solicit and fund unusually innovative and potentially transformative research. Applications are encouraged in all research areas broadly relevant to the mission of NIH. These areas include, but are not limited to, the behavioral, medical, natural, social, applied, and formal sciences. Research may be of basic, translational, or clinical focus. The primary requirements are that the research be highly innovative and have the potential for unusually significant impact. Prospective applicants are invited to view a pre-recorded, pre-application webinar on the Transformative Research Award website, where NIH staff discuss the initiative and answer common questions about the application and review process. Additional information and resources can be found on the website, and any questions can be sent to [email protected]. The NIH Director's Transformative Research Award is part of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research program funded through the NIH Common Fund, which supports cross-cutting programs that are expected to have exceptionally high impact. All Common Fund initiatives invite investigators to develop bold, innovative, and often risky approaches to address problems that may seem intractable or to seize new opportunities that offer the potential for rapid progress. Investigators proposing NIH-defined clinical trials may refer to the Research Methods Resources website for information about developing statistical methods and study designs.