Funding Outcomes for NINDS R01 Applications
Each fiscal year (FY), NINDS establishes a payline for all percentiled RPGs (e.g. R01, R03, R15, and R21) and funds all applications that score within that payline with very rare exception (FY16 payline: 15th percentile). Figure 1 illustrates all competing R01 applications, grants and bridge awards through the 40th percentile for FY16, regardless of the career stage of the investigator. As part of an effort in recent years to maintain a stable funding environment for investigators, NINDS works to stabilize the number of R01 equivalent grants funded each year (Figure 2).
Figures 3 and 4 show new (Type 1) and renewal (Type 2) applications and awards respectively. Success rates for renewal applications are significantly higher than those for new applications (Table 1).
When resources are available, NINDS supports a limited number of applications with scores outside the payline. These include applications that are high priorities to NINDS; bridge awards to cover a known, productive lab during a brief period of funding uncertainty (Figure 5); and awards to assist in the transition to independence for investigators in the early parts of their careers. In recent years, NINDS has funded additional R01 applications from New (Figure 6) and Early Stage Investigators (Figure 7) with percentiles beyond the payline, based on funds available. In accordance with NIH policy, NINDS aims to support R01s from these early career scientists at success rates equivalent to those of established investigators submitting new R01 applications. Figure 8 shows the number of experienced, New Investigator or Early Stage Investigator applications that received an award.
Figure 1. Competing applications, grants, and bridge awards for all investigators; experienced, new, and early stage. Data shown include all competing R01 applications (green bars), awarded grants (R01 and R37; blue bars), and bridge awards (R56; pink bars) for all categories of investigators in Fiscal Year 2016 (FY16). Dashed line indicates the payline (15th percentile) for FY16. Note, applications at the 1st , 2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th percentiles were withdrawn due to overlap with other funded grants.
Figure 2. Number of R01 equivalent grants (R01, R23, R29, R37, and DP2 activity codes) funded by NINDS in fiscal years 1997-2016.
Figure 3: All new (Type 1) R01 applications (green bars), awarded grants (R01 and R37; blue bars), and bridge awards (R56; pink bars) for FY16.
Figure 4: All renewal (Type 2) R01 applications (green bars), awarded grants (R01 and R37; blue bars), and bridge awards (R56; pink bars) for FY16.
Table 1: R01 Success rates for new and renewal applications. Source: NIH Report )
Figure 5: FY16 R01 applications (green bars), awarded grants (R01 and R37; blue bars), and bridge awards (R56; pink bars) for experienced investigators, defined as those who have received previous R01-level funding from NIH.
Figure 6: FY16 R01 applications (green bars), and awarded grants (R01; blue bars), and bridge awards (R56; pink bars) for New Investigator applications. An application is eligible for `New Investigator’ status if all of the PIs on the application are New Investigators. New Investigators are defined as those who have NOT had previous R01-level funding from NIH.
Figure 7: FY16 R01 applications (green bars), awarded grants (R01; blue bars) for Early Stage Investigator applications. An application is eligible for ‘Early Stage Investigator’ status if all of the PIs on the application are Early Stage Investigators. Early Stage Investigators are defined as New Investigators within 10 years of completing their research training who have not had previous R01-level funding from NIH.
Figure 8: FY16 awards made to Early Stage Investigator (ESI; green bars), experienced (blue bars), or New Investigator (NI; pink bars) applications.