Aging and longevity — NIH Funding Overview
Reviewed by Dr. Meng ZhaoLast reviewed June 9, 2026Data refreshed September 5, 2026Editorial standards
Aging research at NIH covers basic mechanisms of cellular senescence, geroscience, age-related disease, and translational interventions. The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is the primary funder but most institutes contribute to age-related applications in their disease scope.
Funding snapshot
Award data on this page reflects a snapshot of NIH RePORTER records last refreshed on September 5, 2026. For live numbers, use the interactive trends view.
Why this matters now
Geroscience — targeting fundamental aging biology to prevent multiple age-related diseases simultaneously — has shifted from a niche concept to a mainstream NIH funding theme, with the Geroscience Interest Group coordinating cross-institute awards. Translational efforts include the TAME (Targeting Aging with Metformin) trial and rapamycin-class studies.
How NIH funds this area
NIA mechanisms dominate (R01, P01, P30 Centers, U19), with cross-institute U54 and Common Fund awards filling translational gaps. The data below covers all NIH awards mentioning aging in title, abstract, or terms.
How to use this funding brief
Use this page to decide whether the proposal addresses fundamental aging biology, a geriatric outcome, or an age-related disease. Broad aging terms can hide distinct review communities, so compare center and program grants separately from disease-specific R01 portfolios.
Official source: National Institute on Aging: Research mission and programs
Search tactics
- Search "geroscience", "senescence", or "longevity" for biology-focused subsets.
- Combine with "frailty", "sarcopenia", or "cognitive aging" for clinical applications.
- NIA P30 centers (Pepper, Roybal, Claude D. Pepper, Nathan Shock) anchor institutional aging research.
What the data shows
- Funding peaked in FY2025 at $4.9B. The FY2025 total of $4.9B is +18% versus FY2021.
- The number of awards fell about 8% in FY2025 even as total dollars grew — funding is concentrating in fewer, larger awards.
- About 82% of FY2026 dollars so far are non-Type-1 award actions, including competing renewals, supplements, non-competing continuations, and institutional changes. This is a descriptive record mix, not a measure of renewal activity alone.
- The average FY2025 award was $685K, and R01 was the most common mechanism in the recent window.
Editorial read
This is the largest portfolio we track — nearly $4.9B in FY2025 across almost 40,000 awards in five years — reflecting a decade of NIA budget growth and a keyword that spans basic geroscience through dementia care. Because it overlaps heavily with the Alzheimer’s portfolio, read both pages together before drawing conclusions about “aging” as a single market; the geroscience and care-delivery ends of this category compete in very different review communities.
Yearly NIH Awards for Aging and longevity
Counts and total funding per fiscal year from NIH RePORTER. Recent fiscal years may understate final totals because of reporting lag.
| Fiscal Year | Project Count | Total Funding | Avg Award |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2021 | 6,987 | $4,127,747,589 | $590,775 |
| FY2022 | 7,318 | $4,270,658,849 | $583,583 |
| FY2023 | 7,510 | $4,541,852,245 | $604,774 |
| FY2024 | 7,730 | $4,827,236,548 | $624,481 |
| FY2025 | 7,095 | $4,861,444,611 | $685,193 |
| FY2026 | 5,054 | $3,365,634,225 | $665,935 |
Open the full interactive trends view for Aging and longevity →
Top NIH Institutes (last 90 days)
Which NIH institutes funded the most Aging projects in the most recent 90-day window.
| Institute | Awards (90d) | Funding (90d) |
|---|---|---|
| NIH | 482 | $358,642,795 |
| VA | 18 | $0 |
Common Activity Codes (last 90 days)
Which grant mechanisms (R01, R21, U01, P30, etc.) appeared most often for Aging in the recent period.
Most Active Institutions (last 90 days)
Universities and research organizations with the most Aging awards in the most recent 90-day window.
- MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL — 18 awards
- DUKE UNIVERSITY — 16 awards
- JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY — 15 awards
- UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH — 14 awards
- COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES — 12 awards
- UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — 11 awards
- UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER — 9 awards
- STANFORD UNIVERSITY — 8 awards
Recently Awarded Aging and longevity Grants
Twelve most recent awards mentioning Aging, drawn from NIH RePORTER. Click through to Find PIs for the full investigator search.
Tesamorelin as an Adjunct to Exercise for Improving Physical Function in HIV (TRIUMPH)
5R01AG087809-03Lindsay Fourman · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL, MA · $679,500 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · R01Project Summary/Abstract With the advent of modern antiretroviral therapy, life expectancy in people with HIV (PWH) now approaches that of the general population. Nonetheless, PWH continue to experience earlier onset and accelerated progression of complications of aging, including impaired physical function and frailty, which in turn may predispose to…
The Role of Chemical Exposures in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and its Trajectory
3U01AG088562-03S3Rima Kaddurah-Daouk · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR HOUSTON, TX · $27,000 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · U01ABSTRACT It has become increasingly clear that environmental exposures, the genome, gut microbiome, diet, and lifestyle all affect an individual’s metabolic state contributing to brain health and disease, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and AD-related dementia (ADRDs). Our AD Metabolomics Consortium (ADMC), in collaboration with the AD Neuroimaging…
Duke Population Research Center
3P2CHD065563-15S2Giovanna Merli · DUKE UNIVERSITY, NC · $487,345 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · P2COverall: Summary In the ten years since its first NICHD award in 2009, the Duke University Population Research Center (DPRC) has grown into a vibrant, interdisciplinary research organization bringing together scientists from the social and behavioral sciences and the biological, health, and statistical sciences at Duke. We now have a network of population…
Deep learning to assess cardiovascular disease risk from chest imaging
5K01HL168231-03Vineet Raghu · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL, MA · $175,230 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · K01PROJECT SUMMARY Vineet Raghu, PhD is a computer scientist whose career goal is to improve early detection and prevention of chronic disease by applying artificial intelligence to large datasets of medical imaging, genomics, risk factors, and outcomes to better estimate risk and derive insight into etiology. Dr. Raghu is an Instructor of Radiology at Harvard…
Precision imaging of electromechanical coupling for non-invasive cardiac arrhythmia mapping
5R01HL170606-03Elaine Wan · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES, NY · $707,787 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · R01PROJECT SUMMARY Cardiac arrhythmias are a major cause of morbidity and mortality affecting over 5% of Americans. Arrhythmias have become increasingly prevalent due to an aging population with diabetes, heart failure and hypertension, which has led to an increasing number of invasive electrophysiology studies and catheter ablations. Our grasp of the cardiac…
Metabolic Mechanisms of Recovery in Mild TBI
7R01NS135406-03BONNIE FIRESTEIN · UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY, KY · $572,518 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · R01Project Summary The occurrence of concussion, or mild TBI, has been steadily increasing in incidence over the past decade. One possible consequence of concussion - post-concussion syndrome - can persist for weeks to months and result in life dissatisfaction for the patient and economic burden for society. With the development of new rodent models for mild…
Bilateral integration of the auditory scene
3R01DC019348-05S1CHARLES LEE · LOUISIANA STATE UNIV A&M COL BATON ROUGE, LA · $50,951 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · R01ABSTRACT The auditory system is posed with answering a challenging question: Does sound arriving at each ear originate from a single source or multiple sources? To accomplish this perceptual feat, central auditory neural circuits must accurately assess the spectral and temporal profile of bilateral sound signals to bind and integrate related acoustic…
Myocardial Fibrosis and Steatosis Burden and Region-Specific Predictors of Progression among ART-treated Women with HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa (The MUTIMA Study)
3R01HL167645-04S1Chris Longenecker · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, WA · $164,709 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · R01Project Summary/Abstract Heart failure (HF) is a major barrier to healthy aging among people with HIV (PWH) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Women with HIV (WWH) may be most vulnerable, with a nearly two-fold increased risk for HIV- attributable HF among women vs. men. Why HIV-attributable HF risk is higher in women is incompletely understood, but among WWH,…
Myocardial Fibrosis and Steatosis Burden and Region-Specific Predictors of Progression among ART-treated Women with HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa (The MUTIMA Study)
3R01HL167645-04S2Chris Longenecker · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, WA · $347,491 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · R01Project Summary/Abstract Heart failure (HF) is a major barrier to healthy aging among people with HIV (PWH) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Women with HIV (WWH) may be most vulnerable, with a nearly two-fold increased risk for HIV- attributable HF among women vs. men. Why HIV-attributable HF risk is higher in women is incompletely understood, but among WWH,…
Investigating Cellular Immunometabolic Mechanisms Underlying HIV-Related Cardiovascular Disease Risk
7R01HL160392-05Michael Corley · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO, CA · $445,200 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · R01Project Summary Older people living with HIV (PLWH) disparately experience an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and develop exacerbated age-related cardiometabolic comorbidities compared to uninfected individuals. Multiple risk factors in older people living with HIV including aging, HIV alone, antiretroviral therapy, microbial translocation,…
Transcriptomic characterization of membraneless organelles with scalable resolution
5R01HG013495-02Jingyi Fei · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, IL · $581,259 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · R01PROJECT SUMMARY Membraneless organelles (MLOs) are prevalent in eukaryotic cells, with a typical size of 1-200 nm to several microns. Through phase separation, MLOs can be assembled under native condition or upon external stimuli, based on either scaffold proteins or scaffold RNAs. “Client” biomolecules, including both RNAs and proteins are further…
Health expectations after acute respiratory failure in survivor-care partner dyads
5R01HL163660-04Alison Turnbull · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, MD · $781,143 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · R01PROJECT SUMMARY The vast majority of adults with Acute Respiratory Failure (ARF) in the U.S. now survive hospitalization as a result of clinical advances. Many ARF survivors experience new and persistent physical, cognitive, and mental health impairments and >50% of survivors remain dependent on caregiver assistance 1 year after discharge. Family/caregivers…
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