Founded in 1887, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the collection of 27 institutes and centers that act as the primary agency of the Unites States’ government with regard to biomedical and public health research1. As part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, its budget is allocated to it by the US Congress2. The NIH contributes to the global scientific community through its Center for Global Health and the development of large-scale, free-to-use tools for researchers, such as GenBank.
The NIH began providing outside funding in 1938, providing a total of $464,000 to researchers3. This is not surprising, given how much the medical research field requires in funding.
Since then, it has become the preeminent funder for most biotech, genetics, and health-related sciences. It allots approximately 10% to intramural research, while at least 80% is awarded to outside applicants3. It currently provides funding under six main categories:
In FY 2022, the NIH awarded 58,368 individual grants, a 2.8% increase from FY 2021. Interestingly, the number of applications fell, and success rates increased a bit for both research project grants and R01-equvilant grants4.
|
2022 |
2021 |
2020 |
|
|
Number of Awards |
58,368 |
56,792 |
56,169 |
|
Amount (in billions) |
$33.34 |
$32.32 |
30.76 |
|
Yearly change in awards |
2.80% |
1.10% |
/ |
|
Yearly change in funding |
3.10% |
5.10% |
/ |
Almost 20% of the grants awarded went to the top 10 institutions receiving the highest amount of funding for FY 2022. This also accounted for about 20% of the overall funding as well.
|
University |
Grants Awarded |
Funds Awarded |
|
Johns Hopkins University |
1494 |
$839,852,301 |
|
University of California—San Francisco |
1510 |
$823,760,533 |
|
University of Pittsburgh |
1270 |
$675,447,236 |
|
Duke University |
1007 |
$672,506,294 |
|
University of Pennsylvania |
1350 |
$668,378,172 |
|
Stanford University |
1144 |
$651,714,427 |
|
University of Michigan |
1333 |
$644,315,349 |
|
Leidos Biomedical Research |
83 |
$625,102,662 |
|
Washington University |
1113 |
$620,587,925 |
|
Columbia University |
1061 |
$616,772,648 |
|
11365 |
$6,838,437,547 |
Many researchers go on to contribute to international journals, serve in faculty positions, and some of NIH’s awardees have even been recognized for national and international awards.
To improve your overall chance of success, the NIH offers several resources regarding the grants processes, such as a blog, a podcast, a YouTube channel, and multiple workshops and conferences aimed at investigators considering an application5.
References
- https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/who-we-are/organization
- chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/RL33695.pdf
- https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/what-we-do/nih-almanac/appropriations-section-1
- https://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/2023/03/01/fy-2022-by-the-numbers-extramural-grant-investments-in-research/
- https://grants.nih.gov/news/news_and_events.htm#
