The National Institutes of Health has announced a new grant program specifically designed to finance younger investigators with bold ideas who have never before received the NIH’s principal type of research grant.
The NIH Director’s New Innovator Award is part of the agency’s broader effort to provide more opportunities for younger scientists who have been crowded out by more-senior applicants from winning the NIH’s research grants, which are vital to establishing an independent career.
The new grants, announced on Friday, will provide up to $300,000 a year for five years for the direct costs of research. The awards will be highly competitive, though, and the NIH expects to make about 14 of them in all in 2007. Applicants must have received their doctorates since 1997 and must hold independent research positions at American institutions.
