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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIH News
NIH Office of the Director (OD)
National Institute of General Medical
Sciences (NIGMS)
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Contact: Ann Dieffenbach,
301-496-7301
NIH DIRECTOR'S PIONEER AND NEW INNOVATOR AWARD PROGRAMS LAUNCH 2008
APPLICATION CYCLES
Highly Innovative Research Proposals Sought
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is calling for applications for 2008
NIH Director's Pioneer and New Innovator Awards. Both programs support
exceptionally creative scientists who take highly innovative -- and often
unconventional -- approaches to major challenges in biomedical or behavioral
research.
Pioneer Awards are open to scientists at any career stage, while New
Innovator Awards are reserved for new investigators who have not received an
NIH regular research (R01) or similar grant.
The programs, part of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, complement other
NIH efforts to fund innovative research and support scientists in the early
stages of their independent research careers.
"We want investigators to give us their boldest, most imaginative research
proposals," said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. "The Pioneer and New
Innovator Awards are designed to nurture out-of-the-box ideas that may have
more than the usual degree of risk but that, if successful, will have unusually
high scientific impact."
Pioneer Awards provide $2.5 million in direct costs over five years and New
Innovator Awards provide $1.5 million in direct costs over the same period. NIH
expects to make five to 10 Pioneer Awards and up to 24 New Innovator Awards in
September 2008.
"To continue our strong record of diversity in these programs, we especially
encourage women and members of groups that are underrepresented in NIH research
areas to apply," added Jeremy M. Berg, Ph.D., director of the National
Institute of General Medical Sciences, which runs the programs for NIH.
Pioneer Award applications will be accepted from Dec. 16, 2007, to Jan. 16,
2008. Application instructions are at <http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-RM-08-013.html>.
The New Innovator Award application period is from March 3 to 31, 2008. See
<http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-RM-08-014.html>
for application instructions.
The streamlined, electronic application process centers on an essay
describing the investigator's idea, its significance, and what makes it
particularly innovative. New Innovator Award proposals allow preliminary data
but do not require it.
"Both programs give awardees considerable freedom to follow their scientific
instincts and pursue promising new directions that may emerge in the course of
their explorations," Zerhouni noted.
Consistent with the novelty of other elements of the programs, applications
are evaluated using a special process that is itself an experiment in peer
review.
More information on the programs is available at <http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/pioneer
and http://grants.nih.gov/grants/new_investigators/innovator_award>.
The NIH Roadmap for Medical Research is a series of far-reaching initiatives
designed to transform the nation's medical research capabilities and speed the
movement of research discoveries from the bench to the bedside. It provides a
framework of the priorities the NIH must address in order to optimize its
entire research portfolio and lays out a vision for a more efficient and
productive system of medical research. For more information about the NIH
Roadmap, please visit the Web site at <http://nihroadmap.nih.gov>.
The Office of the Director, the central office at NIH, is responsible for
setting policy for NIH, which includes 27 Institutes and Centers. This involves
planning, managing, and coordinating the programs and activities of all NIH
components. The Office of the Director also includes program offices which are
responsible for stimulating specific areas of research throughout NIH.
Additional information is available at <http://www.nih.gov/icd/od/>.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) - The Nation's Medical Research
Agency - is comprised of 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.
S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary Federal agency
for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical
research, and investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common
and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit
<www.nih.gov>.
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