NIH R03 Grants — Small Research Grant

Recent R03 awards from NIH RePORTER

Examples of funded R03 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 R03 projects from the sample

• Clinical Informatics of Xerostomia: Characterizing Comorbidities, Social Risk Factors, and Predicting Oral Health Outcomes Using Structured and Unstructured EHR Data

  1R03DE036394-01
  Sepideh Banava · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, CA · $328,000 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · NIH

  Project Summary Xerostomia (dry mouth) is a widespread and underrecognized oral health condition that affects an estimated 46% of adults in the United States and 22% globally, with the highest prevalence among older adults aged 50– 90. Etiologies include polypharmacy, autoimmune diseases such as Sjögren’s syndrome, prior head and neck radiation or…

• In vivo analysis of secretory pathways driving systemic inflammation

  1R03AI202285-01
  Prabhodh Abbineni · LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO, IL · $77,000 · awarded Aug 25, 2026 · NIH

  Project Summary/Abstract Local inflammatory responses often propagate systemically through the dissemination of secreted mediators, driving acute syndromes such as sepsis and cytokine storm, as well as chronic pathologies including metabolic and autoimmune disease. To identify therapeutic targets to mitigate systemic inflammation and secondary organ damage,…

• Preliminary Investigation of Task-Based Joint-Simultaneous-Optimization of Collimation and Reconstruction Plus Processing of SPECT Imaging for Targeted Alpha Therapy (TAT)

  1R03EB040197-01
  Michael King · UNIV OF MASSACHUSETTS MED SCH WORCESTER, MA · $83,750 · awarded Aug 25, 2026 · NIH

  Parallel-hole collimators act as the “lenses” for single-photon-emission-computed-tomography (SPECT) imaging by preferentially attenuating all photons but the few that can make it through their array of holes without having to penetrate the septa defining their holes. They thus play a major role in determining the fraction of photons employed in imaging…

• Structure-guided approaches to prevent polymyxin-induced acute kidney injury

  1R03DK149104-01
  ANDREW BEENKEN · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES, NY · $123,375 · awarded Aug 20, 2026 · NIH

  Summary The rise of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria is a grave public health challenge. Polymyxin B serves as an essential, last-line therapy for life-threatening MDR gram-negative infections, but its clinical use is constrained by dose-limiting nephrotoxicity. Acute kidney injury (AKI) from polymyxin is driven by its uptake and accumulation in the…

• The secretion of Legionella Dot/Icm effectors in the absence of host cells – questioning the T4SS dogma

  1R03AI201932-01
  NICHOLAS CIANCIOTTO · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, IL · $80,000 · awarded Aug 20, 2026 · NIH

  PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT Among the many bacterial secretion systems, one of the most versatile is the type IV secretion system (T4SS). In most cases, the system delivers, in a cell-to-cell contact-dependent manner, protein “effectors” directly into eukaryotic host cells and/or other bacteria. In Legionella pneumophila (Lp), the Dot/Icm T4SS is very…

• A functional smoothed machine learning approach for high-dimensional orofacial clefts genetic data analysis

  1R03DE034770-01A1
  Pei Geng · UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, NH · $299,950 · awarded Aug 19, 2026 · NIH

  A functional smoothed machine learning approach for high-dimensional orofacial clefts genetic data analysis Project summary Orofacial clefts (OC) are one of the most challenging newborn defects that demand innovative quantitative analysis methods and tools based on genetic data. Machine learning methods, including deep neural networks (DNN), have been…

• Improving Human Pharmacokinetic Prediction of HIV-1 Monoclonal Antibodies through Cross-Species Modeling

  1R03AI203508-01
  Yunda Huang · FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER CENTER, WA · $92,956 · awarded Aug 19, 2026 · NIH

  ABSTRACT Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are transforming prevention and treatment strategies for HIV-1 and emerging infectious diseases. Understanding their pharmacokinetics (PK) is essential in mAb development because the concentration and persistence of the antibody in vivo directly determine whether protective thresholds are reached and maintained.…

• Variation in Chest Pain Admission Among Emergency Department Clinicians and Its Impact on Subsequent Testing and Patient Outcomes

  1R03HL180982-01A1
  Shih-Chuan Chou · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, CA · $246,000 · awarded Aug 17, 2026 · NIH

  ABSTRACT Chest pain accounts for nearly 7 million emergency department (ED) visits annually in the U.S., yet over 80% of these patients do not show evidence of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Despite this, short-stay hospitalizations for additional cardiac testing remain common, costing more than $3 billion annually, even as updated American Heart…

• Examining developmental toxicity of isopropylated phenyl phosphates (IPP)

  1R03ES037818-01A1
  Subham Dasgupta · CLEMSON UNIVERSITY, SC · $77,500 · awarded Aug 17, 2026 · NIH

  Project abstract Organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) have become ubiquitous environmental contaminants following the phase-out of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Among them, isopropylated phenyl phosphates (IPPs)—a complex mixture of structural isomers and a major component of the commercial mixture Firemaster 550—have emerged as a widespread…

• Mitochondrial liquid-liquid phase separation in Alzheimer's disease

  7R03AG087431-02
  Nam Chul Kim · YESHIVA UNIVERSITY, NY · $151,475 · awarded Aug 17, 2026 · NIH

  PROJECT SUMMARY In Alzheimer's disease, abnormalities in the morphology, transport, and functions of mitochondria are prevalent. Mitochondria are cellular organelles that generate energy to fuel cellular metabolism. Toxic Aβ42 is known to concentrate in mitochondria. However, how Aβ42 affects crucial mitochondrial processes that maintain mitochondrial…

• PET Imaging of Cardiac Fibrogenesis

  1R03HL187204-01
  Eman Akam-Baxter · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL, MA · $121,345 · awarded Aug 14, 2026 · NIH

  Project Summary/Abstract Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a poorly understood syndrome projected to become the leading cause of heart failure within the next decade. Despite two decades of research and clinical trials involving more than 15,000 patients, no effective therapies have been identified. A major barrier to therapeutic…

• Enhancing perfusion-driven treatments with moderate dose radiotherapy in liver cancer

  1R03CA307796-01
  Alejandro Bertolet Reina · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL, MA · $162,608 · awarded Aug 14, 2026 · NIH

  PROJECT ABSTRACT/SUMMARY Liver cancer represents one of the most challenging oncologic diseases to treat to this day. For inoperable tumors, we still mostly lack effective and curative therapies, being necessary the combination of multiple therapeutic approaches. Systemic therapy -i.e., targeted or conventional chemotherapy- is usually combined with…

Compare nearby NIH grant mechanisms

Searchers often land on R03 while deciding between adjacent NIH activity codes. Compare scope, NIH staff involvement, budget scale, and applicant stage before choosing a funding opportunity.

Open NIH NOFOs for R03

NIH accepts R03 applications only through a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO). These 13 are open or opening soon; each page lists due dates, participating institutes, related notices, and the projects NIH funded under it.