Now that you understand the major types of research project grants NIGMS supports and where to apply, let’s discuss our Institute’s funding opportunities that focus on research capacity building.

What Is Research Capacity Building?

Part of NIH’s mission is to increase the participation and representation of researchers at institutions that don’t receive large amounts of NIH funding. This includes institutions that have partnerships with Tribal organizations and that educate students from backgrounds underrepresented in biomedical research, and those in states and jurisdictions that traditionally have low levels of NIH funding.

The first post in this series introduced our Institute’s research priorities. This post outlines the major types of research project grants that NIGMS supports and where to find notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs) to which you can apply.

UPDATE: The video and slides [PDF] from this webinar are now available.

We’re pleased to announce a technical assistance webinar for people interested in applying for training grants in the predoctoral basic biomedical sciences (PAR-23-228). The next application due date is January 25, 2024.

During the webinar, we’ll provide a brief overview of the funding opportunity and answer your programmatic, budget, and scientific review questions. You can send questions before the webinar or post them in the chat box during the event:

We’re always looking to add stunning images to our gallery, like this one from Tina Weatherby Carvalho, University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Have you seen our image and video gallery? We’d love to feature your work there!

The gallery contains photos, illustrations, and videos that showcase NIGMS-supported science. It’s a place where anyone, including teachers, students, and journalists, can get images that help people understand and appreciate biomedical research. Images in the gallery are freely available for educational, news media, or other noncommercial purposes, as long as the user credits the source (i.e., you/your colleagues and institution).

We regularly feature cool imagery from the gallery on our Biomedical Beat blog and in our social media posts.

If you have interesting or striking images or videos created with NIGMS support that you’d like to share via our image and video gallery, please let us know! We prefer entries without copyright restrictions (i.e., never published or retained under copyright).

We’re pleased to announce the launch of the new web resource, Which Research Grant Is Right for Me? This interactive decision tree will be particularly useful for investigators who are new to or less familiar with NIGMS notices of funding opportunities that support research. Through a series of yes/no questions, potential applicants can identify the best potential fit to one or more of the major research project grant types we support, including R35, R16, R15, and R01.

The questions work through the eligibility criteria for the different award types. For example:

We receive many questions from prospective applicants about getting NIGMS funding for their research: How do I know if my research fits within the scientific interests of NIGMS? What grant programs does the Institute offer? What are NIGMS' research priorities? Whom do I talk to—and when—to learn more?

This post will help to answer those questions. And because it’s the first post in a new series from our staff, think of it as a primer for your initial interactions with us.

We’re pleased to announce our Predoctoral Basic Biomedical Sciences Research Training Program (T32) notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) has been reissued (PAR-23-228). This NOFO continues our support of eligible, domestic organizations to develop and implement effective, evidence-informed approaches to biomedical graduate training and mentoring that will keep pace with the rapid evolution of the biomedical research enterprise. We expect that the proposed research training programs will incorporate didactic, research, and career development elements to prepare trainees for careers that will have a significant impact on the health-related research needs of the nation.

UPDATE: The webinar video is now available.

We’re pleased to announce the new Advancing Research Careers (ARC) program as part of NIGMS’ strategic efforts to enhance support for trainees from diverse backgrounds—for example, individuals from underrepresented groups—through critical career transition points. The ARC program is designed to enhance participation of trainees as they transition from predoctoral research training to postdoctoral research and career development. The program has two components:

ARC Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Transition Award to Promote Diversity (F99/K00) PAR-23-222

We’d like to make you aware that NIGMS is expanding eligibility within the diversity supplement program (PA-23-189) to include applications from principal investigators (PIs) of parent awards from the following programs:

• Support for Research Excellence (SuRE, R16)
• Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE Phases 1 and 2, P20)
• Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Networks for Clinical and Translational Research (IDeA-CTR, U54)
• IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE, P20)
• Native American Research Centers for Health (NARCH, S06)

Welcome to the NIGMS Feedback Loop! As a current NIGMS trainee, you’re automatically subscribed to our blog so that we can provide you with information about upcoming meetings and events, opportunities to provide your input, program news, and more. You can unsubscribe at any time to opt out of these messages.

As the school year begins, we’d like to start by sharing upcoming NIGMS-supported events you can participate in.