Who is a new investigator in the eyes of NIH?

Who is a new investigator in the eyes of NIH?

To help new investigators successfully compete for research project grants, many of the institutes comprising the National Institutes of Health (NIH) offer mentored career development awards and also draw the payline for new investigators about 5 percentile points higher than for established investigators. So the question of determining new investigator status can be critical.

For the purpose of review and funding, NIH considers applicants to be new investigators if they have not previously served as the Principal Investigator (PI) on any Public Health Service-supported research project other than a small grant (R03), an Academic Research Enhancement Award (R15), an exploratory/developmental grant (R21), or certain research career awards directed principally to physicians, dentists, or veterinarians at the beginning of their research career (K01, K08, K12, K22, K23, K25 and K99/R00). Current or past recipients of Independent Scientist and other non-mentored career awards (K02, K05, K24, and K26) are not considered new investigators.

Additional information is available at NIH’s New Investigators Program page on the Office of Extramural Research (OER) web site. An especially useful link for NIH Institutes and Center Practices takes the viewer to a page summarizing the specific concessions for new investigators provided by the respective institutes and centers.

Source: NIH Extramural Nexus, May 2006