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June 2025

• Tools and Tips to Help New and Early-Stage Investigators Approach NIH Funding
• Requests for Information
• Grants Policy Announcements
• NIH News and Reports

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Tools and Tips to Help New and Early-Stage Investigators Approach NIH Funding

Getting your first NIH research grant as an early-stage investigator can be challenging, but there are many resources for grant preparation and submission to help you write a competitive proposal, find relevant funding opportunities, and know what to do before and after submitting your proposal.

Subscribe to listservs. The NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts listserv summarizes new funding opportunity announcements and policy notices released each week. If you’re interested in federal funding beyond NIH, you can search grants.gov or sign up for the grants.gov listserv to see funding across all federal agencies.

View recorded seminars from the NIH Office of Extramural Research. These seminars provide education and training for the next generation of biomedical and behavioral scientists by demystifying the application and review process, clarifying federal regulations and policies, and highlighting current areas of special interest or concern. Watch the recorded seminars on YouTube.

Apply to the NIH Early Career Reviewer Program to gain grant review experience. Why spend your time reviewing grants when you should be writing them? There are a number of benefits. Seasoned investigators will tell you that review is where you really learn how to write successful grant proposals. When opportunities come your way to review applications, try to volunteer.

Seek out awards targeted at early-stage investigators, e.g., NIH K awards and others.

Establish a mentorship team. Seek out senior investigators in your department and in other departments or institutions as mentors who will give you constructive criticism and advice. View mentee resources.

Review samples of previously funded grants. Familiarize yourself with what has previously been funded in order to spur new ideas that will help move the science forward. Previously funded research can be found using the NIH RePORTER, an electronic tool that allows users to search a repository of NIH-funded research projects and access publications and patents resulting from NIH funding. Examples of successfully funded cancer control and population sciences grant applications are available through NCI’s website.

Familiarize yourself with the NIH grant funding process.

Contact NCI program officers.

• Listen to a short video developed by NCI’s Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) that offers tips on beginning your funding application preparation and contacting a DCCPS program officer.
• Contact a program officer any time you want to ask about appropriate funding mechanisms, learn about NIH pre-submission policies and procedures, coordinate pre-application meetings, and get general information about current peer review standards.
• To find a DCCPS program officer, determine which DCCPS program relates to your project interests and contact a program officer in that area.
• Always email the program officer first to request information or to schedule a phone call to discuss your research idea (aims), application, or grant.
• Send the program officer a one-page summary of your specific aims or an abstract in advance for the call and come prepared with specific questions to ask.
• If responding to a specific NIH funding announcement that encourages a letter of intent (LOI), send the LOI and include your specific aims to open a dialog with a program officer and avoid common pitfalls.
• After review, we recommend you talk to your program officer about the outcome of the review once the summary statement is available, usually 4-6 weeks after the study section is completed.

Get colleagues’ feedback on your proposal before submission. Enlist colleagues to help troubleshoot your ideas and get feedback on your proposal, especially individuals who have served on study sections that review applications in your field of research. Have your aims reviewed by at least two trusted and experienced researchers, one in the field and one external. Make sure your aims are written as clearly and succinctly as possible.

Use the NIH Assisted Referral Tool to figure out which study section is right for your proposal.

Visit the DCCPS website to view more grant-related resources and learn about active funding opportunities.

Requests for Information

Grants Policy Announcements

NIH News and Reports