Alzheimer's disease — NIH Funding Overview
Reviewed by Dr. Meng ZhaoLast reviewed June 9, 2026Data refreshed June 9, 2026Editorial standards
Alzheimer's disease research receives sustained NIH investment driven primarily by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and supplemented by NINDS and NIMH. Funding spans biomarker discovery, disease-modifying therapeutics, neuroimaging, and clinical trial infrastructure such as the Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers (ADRC) network.
Funding snapshot
Award data on this page reflects a snapshot of NIH RePORTER records last refreshed on June 9, 2026. For live numbers, use the interactive trends view.
Why this matters now
Alzheimer's remains the most common cause of dementia, and federal investment has accelerated since the National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease set explicit funding goals. The NIH Alzheimer's budget is reported separately to Congress, which both stabilizes long-range planning and concentrates competition for category-specific awards.
How NIH funds this area
Most Alzheimer's awards flow through R01, P30 (ADRCs), R21, K01/K99, and U01/U19 mechanisms. The page below shows yearly award counts and totals from NIH RePORTER, with the most recent example grants and top funded labs. Numbers reflect awards across all NIH institutes, not only NIA.
How to use this funding brief
Use this page to decide whether your project belongs in a disease-specific Alzheimer’s portfolio, a broader aging program, or a center-based environment. Compare the institute and mechanism mix, then search P30 awards when institutional ADRC infrastructure matters to the work.
Official source: National Institute on Aging: Alzheimer’s research
Search tactics
- Search "Alzheimer disease" or specific subtopics like "tau", "amyloid", "ApoE", "preclinical AD" for narrower views.
- For caregiver, behavioral, or systems-of-care research, try "dementia caregiving" or "ADRD" alongside "Alzheimer".
- P30 mechanism searches surface ADRC core grants — useful for identifying institutional centers of expertise.
What the data shows
- Funding peaked in FY2025 at $3.9B. The FY2025 total of $3.9B is +12% versus FY2021.
- The number of awards fell about 9% in FY2025 even as total dollars grew — funding is concentrating in fewer, larger awards.
- About 87% of FY2026 dollars so far are renewals and continuations. Mid-year snapshots overweight renewals because non-competing continuations are issued early in the fiscal year, but the share still indicates how much of the portfolio is committed before new applications compete.
- The average FY2025 award was $855K, and R01 was the most common mechanism in the recent window.
Editorial read
Alzheimer’s and related-dementias funding has settled onto a high plateau: totals grew from roughly $3.4B in FY2021 to $3.9B in FY2025, a 12% rise that actually trails several smaller fields we track. The average award is among the largest of any tracked area — a signature of the ADRC center network and large cooperative cohorts rather than unusually large R01s. The practical read for new investigators: the money is substantial but concentrated, and a center affiliation often matters as much as the score.
Yearly NIH Awards for Alzheimer's disease
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 | 4,811 | $3,443,093,618 | $715,671 |
| FY2022 | 5,106 | $3,709,779,216 | $726,553 |
| FY2023 | 4,885 | $3,785,988,244 | $775,023 |
| FY2024 | 4,973 | $3,756,421,737 | $755,363 |
| FY2025 | 4,505 | $3,852,555,812 | $855,173 |
| FY2026 | 1,950 | $1,429,003,017 | $732,822 |
Open the full interactive trends view for Alzheimer's disease →
Top NIH Institutes (last 90 days)
Which NIH institutes funded the most Alzheimer's projects in the most recent 90-day window.
| Institute | Awards (90d) | Funding (90d) |
|---|---|---|
| NIH | 497 | $404,360,077 |
| VA | 3 | $0 |
Common Activity Codes (last 90 days)
Which grant mechanisms (R01, R21, U01, P30, etc.) appeared most often for Alzheimer's in the recent period.
Most Active Institutions (last 90 days)
Universities and research organizations with the most Alzheimer's awards in the most recent 90-day window.
- WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY — 20 awards
- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO — 17 awards
- MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL — 15 awards
- STANFORD UNIVERSITY — 12 awards
- COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES — 12 awards
- DUKE UNIVERSITY — 10 awards
- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES — 10 awards
- UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — 9 awards
Recently Awarded Alzheimer's disease Grants
Twelve most recent awards mentioning Alzheimer's, drawn from NIH RePORTER. Click through to Find PIs for the full investigator search.
Preclinical evaluation of tacrolimus in a canine model of Alzheimer's disease
5R01AG056998-08Elizabeth Head · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE, CA · $915,176 · awarded Jun 5, 2026 · R01Project Summary/Abstract Our proposed project is to test the hypothesis that calcineurin (CN) inhibition may be a promising intervention to prevent or slow Alzheimer disease (AD). The molecular target of our treatment strategy, CN, has emerged as a key mechanism related to AD pathophysiology. Signs of CN hyperactivity are found during early stages of…
Blood-Brain Barrier Repair in Alzheimer’s Disease with Epilepsy
5R01AG075583-05Anika Hartz · UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY, KY · $719,390 · awarded Jun 5, 2026 · R01More than 25% of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) develop epilepsy as co-morbidity. In AD with epilepsy (ADxEpi), seizures accelerate cognitive decline and further reduce life expectancy compared to AD alone. One hallmark of both AD and epilepsy is blood-brain barrier dysfunction. We discovered that barrier dysfunction is more severe in ADxEpi…
Protective Role of Mitochondrial CHCHD10 in Alzheimer's Disease through MAM and Mitophagy Mechanisms.
5R01AG086365-03Tian Liu · CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY, OH · $630,595 · awarded Jun 5, 2026 · R01Project Summary Dysfunctions in mitochondria and mitochondria-associated endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane (MAM) are associated with the accumulation of amyloid β (Aβ) and hyperphosphorylated tau in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Mitochondrial protein, CHCHD10, plays a pivotal role in governing various mitochondrial functions, including respiration, genome…
Targeting IDOL-ApoE receptor pathway in Alzheimer's disease
5R01AG073310-05Jie Gao · OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, OH · $532,118 · awarded Jun 5, 2026 · R01Apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype strongly impacts several major pathological features of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), including extracellular β-amyloid (Aβ) deposits, intracellular tau tangle formation, and microglial dysfunction. The metabolism and signaling of ApoE in the brain are controlled by members of the lipoprotein receptor superfamily, and genetic…
CRCNS: Repurposing Transformers to Characterize Gut Microbiome & Aging Brain Axis
5R01AG092220-03Vikas Singh · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON, WI · $369,360 · awarded Jun 5, 2026 · R01For debilitating neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), some drugs have been approved but only offer a modest attenuation of cognitive decline. There is a need to better understand the role of modifiable risk factors which could decrease the risk of AD and other types of dementia. The human gut microbiome–comprising of microbes and…
Metabolic determinants of reactive astrogliosis and cognitive heterogeneity in aging
5R01AG085398-03Sreemathi Logan · UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA HLTH SCIENCES CTR, OK · $443,080 · awarded Jun 5, 2026 · R01ABSTRACT The greatest risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) is aging, but the mechanisms that link aging to ADRD disease processes are largely unknown. Of particular interest, recent single-cell transcriptomic studies of aged hippocampal astrocytes, and multi-transcriptomic analysis of astrocytes from human AD samples and a mouse…
Impact of DNA double-strand breaks on 3D genome organization and genome stability in Alzheimer's disease
5R00AG073466-05Vishnu Dileep · BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE, TX · $249,000 · awarded Jun 5, 2026 · R00PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The accumulation of DNA Double-Strand Breaks (DSBs) in neurons is an early hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Increased DSBs are also associated with aging, which is the largest risk factor for AD. AD is also a complex disease involving all major brain glial cell types. Thus, there is a critical need to understand the molecular…
Identifying Neural Signatures of Racial Discrimination in Black individuals with a Multivariate Data Fusion Approach
5R01MH138893-02NEGAR FANI · EMORY UNIVERSITY, GA · $539,563 · awarded Jun 5, 2026 · R01Project Summary The current proposal utilizes an innovative, multivariate data fusion approach that combines ecological momentary assessment of racial discrimination (RD) and multimodal human neuroimaging to characterize neural network alterations related to RD exposure and mental coping in Black Americans. Racial discrimination (RD) is embedded in the…
The blood-brain barrier and Alzheimer pathology
5R01AG080043-04William Jagust · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY, CA · $668,511 · awarded Jun 4, 2026 · R01Project Abstract Dysfunction of the vascular blood-brain barrier (BBB) and cerebrovascular leakiness are present during aging and in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and are associated with the onset of preclinical mild-cognitive impairment. Based on recent discoveries we have defined a highly explanatory biological pathway that directly causes neural dysfunction…
Advancing Workforce Analysis and Research for Dementia (AWARD) Network
5R24AG077014-05JOANNE SPETZ · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, CA · $365,760 · awarded Jun 4, 2026 · R24ABSTRACT / PROJECT SUMMARY More than 6 million people live with neurodegenerative diseases in the United States, receiving care and support from both unpaid care partners and paid workers. The paid workforce is large and diverse, employing millions of people, most of whom are in occupations that do not require a college degree. The largest occupation by far…
Make MRI Coils Digital and Programmable to Advance Ultra-High-Field Brain MRI
5R01EB038755-02Chunlei Liu · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY, CA · $641,462 · awarded Jun 4, 2026 · R01Abstract The overarching goal of the proposal is to bring the RF technology of MRI from the analog to the digital age. By doing so, we aim to address several fundamental challenges and create new capabilities at ultra-high field ( ~- 7T). 7T MRI recently gained FDA approval for clinical use in brain and extremities. The FDA found that 7T "allows for better…
Development of a therapeutic nanobody targeting brain TNFa for the treatment of Alzheimer Disease
5R42AG080864-03Marco Taglietti · NANONEWRON LLC, NJ · $1,519,969 · awarded Jun 3, 2026 · R42Abstract: This project seeks to advance the development of humanized TNFα inhibitors (INNs) as a novel therapeutic approach for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our innovative INNs are designed to effectively inhibit TNFα while crossing the blood-brain barrier, targeting the neuroinflammatory processes central to AD pathology. Building on Phase I achievements,…
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