NIH Pioneer, New Innovator grant applications now being accepted

by PSN Extra staff

09/09/2011 at 10:00AM

Deadlines are fast approaching for applications to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's Pioneer Awards and New Innovator Awards for 2012, which target innovative approaches to major challenges in biomedical or behavioral research.

Pioneer Awards

A minimum of seven Pioneer Awards will be bestowed upon researchers at any career stage - a maximum of $2.5 million will be awarded - for direct costs over five years. To be considered "pioneering," the proposed research must reflect substantially different scientific directions from those already being pursued in the investigator's laboratory or elsewhere. Awardees must commit the major portion (at least 51 percent) of their research efforts to the Pioneer Award project.

The deadline to apply for a Pioneer Award is Oct. 7.

New Innovator Awards

A minimum of 33 New Innovator Awards will be granted to early career stage investigators - defined as having never received an NIH R01 or similar grant, and who are within 10 years of completing their terminal research degree or medical residency. A maximum of $1.5 million will be awarded for direct costs over five years. The New Innovator Awards support a small number of early-stage investigators of exceptional creativity, who propose bold and highly innovative new research approaches that have the potential to produce a major impact on broad, important problems in biomedical and behavioral research.

The deadline to apply for a New Innovator Award is Oct. 14.

Information available

For information and instructions, go to the NIH website, then click on "Apply for Pioneer or New Innovator Award" under the heading News Flashes at the top of the right column.

The NIH desires to continue its strong record of diversity in its grant programs; therefore, it encourages women and members of groups underrepresented in NIH research to apply for its grant awards.

For more funding opportunities available to plastic surgeons, visit the Plastic Surgery Foundation online at ThePSF.org.