NIH DP5 Grants — NIH Director's Early Independence Award

Recent DP5 awards from NIH RePORTER

Examples of funded DP5 projects across the last two fiscal years. The matching-award count comes from the full result set; funding totals, averages, rankings, and examples use the first 500 records returned by NIH RePORTER. Figures reflect a snapshot last refreshed on June 9, 2026.

Example DP5 projects from the sample

• Rapid innovation of precision psychiatry interventions using dynamic systems modeling and ecological quasi-experiments

  7DP5OD039510-02
  Emily Presseller · DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, NH · $408,750 · awarded Mar 25, 2026 · NIH

  PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The US faces a mental health crisis; nearly 83 million Americans experience mental illness, but fewer than 50% of these individuals accessed past year mental health services. There is a critical need for highly disseminable, potent mental health interventions. Standalone digital interventions offer promise for improving clinical…

• The Menses Study: Menstrual blood as a novel target-tissue biomatrix for chemical exposures relevant to reproductive system disorders

  1DP5OD042636-01
  Jenni Shearston · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO, CO · $434,110 · awarded Mar 5, 2026 · NIH

  PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT The long-term goal of this project is to transform women’s health by investigating the novel biological matrix of menstrual blood for measurement of environmental chemical exposure, advancing understanding of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and reproductive system disorders. One such condition, endometriosis, is estrogen-…

• Leveraging Adaptive Evolution and High-Throughput Techniques to Dissect the Link Between Biochemical Function and Fitness

  7DP5OD033413-05
  Margaux Pinney · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY, CA · $802,500 · awarded Feb 27, 2026 · NIH

  PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Enzymes are the primary functional molecules in cells, providing enormous rate enhancements, specificity and regulation to the diverse chemical reactions that are necessary for life. Enzymes, like all biological macromolecules, are the products of evolution: all enzymes have evolved to operate within the complex environment of the…

• Modification of the predisposition for ectopic calcification

  1DP5OD042637-01
  Shira Ziegler · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, MD · $388,750 · awarded Feb 17, 2026 · NIH

  PROJECT SUMMARY Cardiac valve and arterial wall calcification are associated with a 3- to 4-fold increased risk of all-cause mortality and catastrophic cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction and stroke. A number of factors and disease processes predispose to ectopic and vascular calcification, including aging, hypertension, diabetes, and…

• Decoding Functional Cell-Cell Communication to Uncover Cellular State Modulation, Tissue Homeostasis, and Disease Genetics

  1DP5OD042638-01
  Na Sun · WHITEHEAD INSTITUTE FOR BIOMEDICAL RES, MA · $487,500 · awarded Feb 5, 2026 · NIH

  7. PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Although recent advancements in single cell and spatial transcriptomics have provided unprecedented resolution to study intercellular communication, there are currently still no comprehensive methods to fully decipher the complexity of truly functional cell-cell communication and to investigate its implications for human health…

• Juggling Roles: A Study of Diverse Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Parents and Their Work-Family Transition

  5DP5OD037403-02
  Alexandrea Craft · WOMEN AND INFANTS HOSPITAL-RHODE ISLAND, RI · $437,453 · awarded Sep 4, 2025 · NIH

  PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT Preterm infants are at a heightened risk for developing neuromotor, cognitive, and psychiatric disorders that persist through adulthood. Infants born very preterm (<32 weeks gestational age) are three times more likely to develop psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, ADHD, and autism compared to term infants. Critically, the…

• Optimizing the Assessment of Parenting: A Multi-Method and Multi-Informant Approach

  5DP5OD036508-02
  Violeta Rodriguez · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, IL · $385,763 · awarded Sep 4, 2025 · NIH

  Parenting plays a crucial role in youth development, influencing a myriad of health behaviors. As a result, parenting is a common focus of interventions aimed at improving youth health outcomes. Effective parenting interventions and their study necessitate robust assessments of parenting. However, the state of the evidence for psychometric properties of…

• Sex chromosomal regulation of hippocampal microglial activation with Alzheimer's disease and aging

  4DP5OD033443-04
  Sarah Ocanas · OKLAHOMA MEDICAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION, OK · $874,000 · awarded Aug 28, 2025 · NIH

  ABSTRACT Sex and age are the primary risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia. After decades of failed clinical trials for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), there is an urgent need for creative approaches to uncover new therapeutic targets. While women experience a greater prevalence, more severe neuropathology,…

• Public Drinking Water Contaminants and Infant Health: Advancing Environmental Justice

  5DP5OD031849-05
  Anne Nigra · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES, NY · $405,000 · awarded Aug 27, 2025 · NIH

  Project Summary The objective of this project is to evaluate the contribution of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequalities in public drinking water contaminant exposures to in utero water contaminant exposures and subsequent adverse birth outcomes across the United States (US). Potential disparities in public drinking water contaminant exposures have not…

• Biomarkers, mechanisms and modulation of oxidative stress associated risk factors in carcinogenesis

  3DP5OD033424-04S1
  Yun Li · BECKMAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE/CITY OF HOPE, CA · $1 · awarded Aug 25, 2025 · NIH

  Abstract Cancer is the second most common cause of death in developed nations, and incidence is rising among developing nations. An estimated 70% of cancers are attributable to “modifiable” risk factors, including obesity, chronic inflammatory diseases, and poor diet, all of which have been associated with increased oxidative stress. These are not…

• Place-Based Influences on Mortality among People Experiencing Homelessness

  5DP5OD037332-02
  Kaitlyn Berry · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, MN · $380,222 · awarded Aug 22, 2025 · NIH

  PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Research Challenge: More than 582,000 people in the US experience homelessness each night, and a staggering 1.25 million people enter the shelter system each year. People experiencing homelessness endure extreme adversity, drastically increasing their risk of dying young. Although the response to the homelessness crisis primarily…

• Predictive modeling of viral RNA cellular behavior

  5DP5OD037420-02
  Megan Ken · SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE, THE, CA · $460,000 · awarded Aug 22, 2025 · NIH

  PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Modern biomedical science enjoys an unprecedented ability to identify and describe viral pathogenic mechanisms, as well as characterize the biomolecular components that constitute them. However, we have not yet achieved a fully quantitative biophysical understanding in which modeling of component molecules is accurately predictive…

Compare nearby NIH grant mechanisms

Searchers often land on DP5 while deciding between adjacent NIH activity codes. Compare scope, NIH staff involvement, budget scale, and applicant stage before choosing a funding opportunity.