NIH R01 Grants — Research Project Grant
Reviewed by Dr. Meng ZhaoLast reviewed June 9, 2026Data refreshed September 5, 2026Editorial standards
Discrete, specified investigator-led research project
Funding
No fixed cap; most awards $250K–$500K direct/year
Duration
3–5 years (renewable)
Eligibility
Any qualified investigator with the skills, resources, and (typically) preliminary data
Activity code
R01
What is the NIH R01 grant?
The R01 is the standard NIH research grant — the workhorse mechanism that funds independent investigators to execute a discrete research project they have proposed. Most NIH-funded laboratories run on R01 funding. There is no fixed budget cap, but most awards land between $250,000 and $500,000 in direct costs per year, with project periods of 3–5 years and the option to renew (a "Type 2" competing renewal).
Recent R01 awards from NIH RePORTER
Examples of funded R01 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 September 5, 2026.
Example R01 projects from the sample
Definitive Evaluation of Gastric Dysrhythmia as a Disease Mechanism by a Novel Body Surface Gastric Mapping Technique
3R01DK137790-03S1Thomas Abell · UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE, KY · $108,000 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · NIHFunctional dyspepsia and chronic nausea and vomiting syndromes affect >10% of the population, inducing a vast burden of ill-health and economic harm. Yet despite their enormous impact, these diseases remain poorly understood, with few objective diagnostic tests available to subtype patients and direct therapies. There is a pressing need for new mechanistic…
Integration of a collaborative care model for mental health services into HIV care for pregnant and postpartum women in Kenya (the Tunawiri Study)
3R01MH133260-04S1Lisa Abuogi · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER, CO · $218,649 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · NIHCommon mental disorders (CMD) of depression and anxiety are prevalent and largely untreated among Kenyan pregnant and postpartum women living with HIV (PPWH). CMD lead to poor maternal and child health outcomes and contribute to lack of HIV care engagement and virologic failure in PPWH. While efficacious treatments for CMD exist, scaling treatment within…
Gut-Immune-Kidney Axis, Hypertension, and Renal End-Organ Damage
1R01HL187986-01Justine Abais-Battad · AUGUSTA UNIVERSITY, GA · $707,903 · awarded Aug 25, 2026 · NIHPROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Nearly half of the ~120 million Americans with hypertension are salt-sensitive and confer a higher risk of cardiovascular and kidney disease. Only 26% of hypertensive patients reach blood pressure (BP) control, indicating the urgent need to study novel mechanistic pathways in hypertension. The gut microbiota and immune system are…
FDA approved IND 29644: Multicenter Phase 1 Trial to Evaluate Safety and Immunogenicity of Preventive Tau Vaccine, AV-1980R/A, in cognitively unimpaired preclinical AD participants.
5R01AG092949-02Michael Agadjanyan · INSTITUTE FOR MOLECULAR MEDICINE, CA · $4,923,453 · awarded Aug 25, 2026 · NIHProject Summary Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia characterized by memory impairment and alteration of diverse cognitive abilities. It is a complex and multifactorial disease involving various genetic and environmental risk factors that lead to the development of two hallmark pathologies: β-amyloid (Aβ) oligomers/fibrils/plaques…
End Diagnostic Overshadowing: Understanding and Reducing Diagnostic Error in Patients with Disabilities
5R01HD116320-03Sarah Ailey · RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER, IL · $481,051 · awarded Aug 25, 2026 · NIHThrough our End Diagnostic Overshadowing: Understanding and Reducing Diagnostic Error in Patients with Disabilities program, we aim to identify mechanisms underlying diagnostic overshadowing and develop strategies for mitigation. Diagnostic overshadowing occurs when new or changing symptoms are attributed to an existing disability, mental health condition,…
Mechanisms for Hypothalamic Control of Glucose Mobilization
1R01DK143970-01A1Alison Affinati · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR, MI · $672,600 · awarded Aug 24, 2026 · NIHWhile the appropriate control of glucose production enables animals to adapt to a variety of environmental and physiological challenges, inappropriate glucose mobilization can promote metabolic diseases. For example, unrestrained hepatic glucose production is an early development in type 2 diabetes and excessive glucose mobilization during critical illness…
The Role of TGF-beta Activation and Signaling in Aortic Stenosis Progression
2R01HL148123-05A1Jasimuddin Ahamed · OKLAHOMA MEDICAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION, OK · $786,750 · awarded Aug 21, 2026 · NIHPROJECT SUMMARY Aortic stenosis (AS) is a complex multifactorial disease. Delayed diagnosis of this disorder is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality due to heart failure. Undiagnosed AS is often associated with aortic regurgitation (AS/AR), a mixed aortic valve disease with a poor prognosis due to accelerated heart failure compared to patients with AS…
Definitive Evaluation of Gastric Dysrhythmia as a Disease Mechanism by a Novel Body Surface Gastric Mapping Technique
5R01DK137790-03Thomas Abell · UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE, KY · $319,329 · awarded Aug 19, 2026 · NIHFunctional dyspepsia and chronic nausea and vomiting syndromes affect >10% of the population, inducing a vast burden of ill-health and economic harm. Yet despite their enormous impact, these diseases remain poorly understood, with few objective diagnostic tests available to subtype patients and direct therapies. There is a pressing need for new mechanistic…
Integration of a collaborative care model for mental health services into HIV care for pregnant and postpartum women in Kenya (the Tunawiri Study)
5R01MH133260-04Lisa Abuogi · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER, CO · $303,358 · awarded Aug 19, 2026 · NIHCommon mental disorders (CMD) of depression and anxiety are prevalent and largely untreated among Kenyan pregnant and postpartum women living with HIV (PPWH). CMD lead to poor maternal and child health outcomes and contribute to lack of HIV care engagement and virologic failure in PPWH. While efficacious treatments for CMD exist, scaling treatment within…
Strategies to Achieve Viral Suppression for Youth with HIV (The SAVVY Study)
5R01MH134724-04ALLISON AGWU · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, MD · $482,299 · awarded Aug 14, 2026 · NIHPROJECT SUMMARY Adolescents and young adults (AHIV) ages 12-30 years have disproportionately poorer outcomes across the HIV care continuum, including lower rates of adherence to oral ART (oART) and viral suppression (VS) than older adults, correlating with individual risk of poor health and disease progression and public health risk of secondary…
Simulation for Attending Obstetricians to Improve Technical Skills for Managing Postpartum Hemorrhage
5R01HD107451-05Jason Adelman · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES, NY · $639,530 · awarded Aug 13, 2026 · NIHPostpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is a rare but potentially catastrophic obstetric emergency, and a leading cause of severe maternal morbidity and preventable mortality in the U.S. Women of racial and ethnic minority groups and living in underserved and remote areas are at greatest risk. Obstetric units must be prepared to manage PPH, and obstetric (OB)…
Using bile salt metabolism to modulate CDI prophylaxis
5R01AI109139-08Ernesto Abel-Santos · UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS, NV · $725,006 · awarded Aug 12, 2026 · NIHAbstract Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is the main identifiable cause of antibiotic assoicated diarreah. in the US alone, there are close to 500,000 cases annually causing approximately 25,000 deaths and costs the health care system an estimated $6.3 billion. C. difficile spores do not cause disease but can revert to toxin-producing bacteria (a…
Funding institutes in the sample
| Institute | Awards | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| NIH | 496 | $306.6M |
| AHRQ | 3 | $1.2M |
| ALLCDC | 1 | $531K |
Most frequent institutions in the sample
- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO — 39 awards
- COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES — 24 awards
- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES — 14 awards
- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO — 14 awards
- UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER — 13 awards
- OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY — 12 awards
- NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE — 12 awards
- DUKE UNIVERSITY — 11 awards
Source: NIH RePORTER. Verify any award in the official record by searching its project number. See our data methodology for how this sample is built and its limitations.
Decision guide
Choose R01 when
Choose R01 when you have a defined, hypothesis-driven research project with preliminary data, an established literature, and 3–5 years of milestones you can articulate in a Specific Aims page. Multiple specific aims should be logically connected but able to stand independently if one fails.
Choose another mechanism when
Skip R01 in favor of R21 if you lack preliminary data and the project is genuinely high-risk/exploratory. Choose R03 for very small, focused projects that finish in 2 years. Pick R35 if you're an established investigator and want one larger, longer, more flexible award per program (you can only have one R35 active at a time).
Who applies for R01
Faculty and other qualified investigators apply for R01s after typically 1–2 postdoctoral years of preliminary data generation, often after a successful K99/R00 or K-series award. Both new (NI) and early-stage (ESI) investigators receive payline advantages. Clinicians, basic scientists, and computational researchers all use R01s, though the typical preliminary-data expectation pushes earlier-stage investigators toward R21 or K mechanisms first.
Compare nearby NIH grant mechanisms
Searchers often land on R01 while deciding between adjacent NIH activity codes. Compare scope, NIH staff involvement, budget scale, and applicant stage before choosing a funding opportunity.
Novel, high-risk/high-reward exploratory research
Small, short-term projects (pilot studies, secondary analyses, methods development)
Long, flexible support for productive investigators (one program per lab)
Postdoc → faculty transition (mentored K99 then independent R00)
R01 with extended funding for top-scoring established investigators
For broad grant lookup, use the NIH grant search to find funded examples by activity code, PI, institution, and award year.
Search tips for R01
- Filter the PI Finder by activity_code R01 to find investigators currently funded as PIs.
- R01 success rates vary by institute — NIAID, NCI, and NHLBI publish rates separately.
- A "Type 1" R01 is a new award; "Type 2" is a competing renewal; "Type 5" is a non-competing year of an active award.
Search NIH grants by activity code
Find R01-funded PIs
R01 funding trends
R01 frequently asked questions
What is the page limit for an NIH R01?
The Research Strategy section of an R01 is 12 pages. Specific Aims is 1 page. The full application includes additional sections (biosketches, budget, resource sharing plan, etc.) that have their own page limits.
What is the typical NIH R01 success rate?
Overall NIH R01 success rates have ranged 18–22% in recent years, with significant variation by institute. Early-stage investigators (ESI) and new investigators (NI) typically receive payline advantages.
How many NIH R01s can a PI have at one time?
There is no hard cap on the number of R01s a single PI can hold. Many established labs hold 2–4 R01s simultaneously. NIH does flag investigators whose total direct costs exceed $1M/year for additional review.
Can postdocs apply for an R01?
An R01 must be submitted by an institution on behalf of an investigator who can hold an independent position. Most postdocs cannot apply directly because they don't have the required institutional independence. The standard postdoc-to-faculty bridge is the K99/R00.
Related NIH grant types
Exploratory/Developmental Grant
Novel, high-risk/high-reward exploratory research
Small Research Grant
Small, short-term projects (pilot studies, secondary analyses, methods development)
Outstanding Investigator Award
Long, flexible support for productive investigators (one program per lab)
Pathway to Independence Award
Postdoc → faculty transition (mentored K99 then independent R00)
MERIT Award
R01 with extended funding for top-scoring established investigators