Funder: National Institutes of Health
Due Dates: May 7, 2025 (AIDS) | June 5, 2025 (New) | July 5, 2025 (Renewal/Resubmission/Revision) | September 7, 2025 (AIDS) | October 5, 2025 (New) | November 5, 2025 (Renewal/Resubmission/Revision) | January 7, 2026 (AIDS) | and standard NIH cycles through January 7, 2028
Funding Amounts: No budget cap; budgets must reflect actual project needs. Up to 4 years for most, 5 years for Early-Stage Investigators. One renewal allowed.
Summary: Supports development of innovative technologies (not clinical trials) that enable acquisition of biomedical knowledge and advance the state of the art for broad biomedical research use.
Key Information: Applications must focus solely on technology development (not biological questions); clinical trials are not allowed.
Description
This opportunity, offered by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) at NIH, supports research projects focused exclusively on the development of innovative technologies with the potential to broadly enable biomedical research. The goal is to advance technologies that have demonstrated proof-of-concept but require further development to reach a working prototype stage, overcoming significant technical hurdles. Projects must be justified by their technical innovation and their anticipated impact on future biomedical research.
Key points:
- Projects must focus solely on technology development (e.g., instruments, devices, algorithms, software, chemical reagents, or engineered biological systems).
- Applications proposing to use the technology to answer specific biological questions are not responsive and will be withdrawn.
- Incremental improvements or obvious extrapolations of existing technologies are a low funding priority.
- Clinical trials are not allowed.
Due Dates
- Standard NIH R01 due dates apply.
- Upcoming deadlines:
- May 7, 2025 (AIDS-related applications)
- June 5, 2025 (New applications)
- July 5, 2025 (Renewal/Resubmission/Revision)
- September 7, 2025 (AIDS)
- October 5, 2025 (New)
- November 5, 2025 (Renewal/Resubmission/Revision)
- January 7, 2026 (AIDS)
- These cycles repeat through January 7, 2028.
- All applications are due by 5:00 PM local time of the applicant organization.
Funding Amount
- Budget: No specific budget cap; budgets must be well-justified and reflect the actual needs of the project.
- Project period: Up to 4 years for most investigators; up to 5 years for Early-Stage Investigators (ESIs).
- Renewal: One renewal is allowed.
- Number of awards: Contingent on NIH appropriations and the number of meritorious applications.
Eligibility
Eligible organizations include:
- Public and private institutions of higher education (U.S. only)
- Nonprofits (with or without 501(c)(3) status)
- For-profit organizations (including small businesses)
- State, county, city, township, and special district governments
- Independent school districts
- Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities
- Native American tribal governments (federally recognized and other)
- Faith-based and community-based organizations
- Regional organizations
- U.S. territories and possessions
- Eligible agencies of the federal government
Not eligible:
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities/organizations
- Non-domestic components of U.S. organizations
Foreign components (as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement) are allowed within U.S. applications.
Individuals: Any individual(s) with the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research as PD/PI may apply.
Application Process
- Submission: Applications must be submitted electronically via Grants.gov, NIH ASSIST, or an institutional system-to-system solution.
- Required registrations: Applicant organizations must be registered in SAM, Grants.gov, and eRA Commons. PDs/PIs must have an eRA Commons account.
- Application format: Use the SF424 (R&R) forms and follow the NIH Research Project (R01) Application Guide.
- Budget: No cap, but must be justified. If requesting $500,000 or more in direct costs in any year, contact a Scientific/Research Contact at least 6 weeks before submission.
- Research plan: Must focus exclusively on technology development and validation. Do not propose to use the technology to answer specific biological questions.
- Data Management and Sharing Plan: Required for all applications generating scientific data.
- Appendix: Only limited materials allowed (see FOA and NIH policy).
Additional Information
- Non-responsive applications: Proposals that include aims to address specific biological questions, or that focus on incremental improvements to existing technologies, will be administratively withdrawn.
- Validation: Use of test systems for technology validation is allowed, but only to facilitate development—not to answer new biological questions.
- Contact NIGMS program staff before applying to discuss project fit and responsiveness.
- Companion opportunity: For earlier-stage, proof-of-concept technology development, see PAR-25-202 (R21).
External Links
Contact Information
For additional contacts, see Section VII. Agency Contacts in the FOA.