Funder: National Institutes of Health
Due Dates: September 3, 2025 (anticipated)
Funding Amounts: R01 mechanism; award size and duration vary; no set budget cap.
Summary: Supports exceptionally innovative, high-risk research with the potential to transform science or medicine; preliminary data not required.
Key Information: This is a forecasted opportunity; the official Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is forthcoming.
Description
The NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award, part of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research program, is designed to support bold, groundbreaking, and unconventional research projects that have the potential to create new scientific paradigms, establish entirely new and improved clinical approaches, or develop transformative technologies. The program encourages applications from individual investigators or teams proposing exceptionally innovative and original research. Notably, preliminary data and detailed experimental plans are not required, making this opportunity accessible to researchers with high-impact ideas at any stage of development.
This award uses the R01 activity code and is open to clinical trial and non-clinical trial proposals. The Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is expected to be published soon, with this advance notice provided to allow researchers time to develop competitive applications.
Due Dates
- Anticipated application due date: September 3, 2025
- The official NOFO is not yet released; confirm deadlines upon publication.
Funding Amount
- Mechanism: R01 (Research Project Grant)
- Award Size: No set budget cap; budgets should reflect the needs of the project.
- Project Duration: Typically up to 5 years.
- Note: Award size and duration may vary depending on the scope and scale of the proposed research.
Eligibility
Eligible applicants include:
- State governments
- County governments
- Independent school districts
- Public and State controlled institutions of higher education
- Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
- Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities
- Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
- Nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status (other than institutions of higher education)
- Private institutions of higher education
- For-profit organizations (other than small businesses)
- Small businesses
Both individual investigators and teams are eligible to apply.
Application Process
- The official NOFO will provide detailed application instructions upon release.
- Applications will be submitted via the NIH ASSIST system or Grants.gov.
- No preliminary data or detailed experimental plans are required.
- Proposals should focus on the transformative potential, innovation, and impact of the research.
Additional Information
- This is a forecasted opportunity; applications are not being accepted at this time.
- The program is part of the NIH Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research initiative.
- Investigators are encouraged to begin developing ideas and assembling teams in anticipation of the NOFO release.
External Links
Contact Information