NIH Director's Early Independence Award (DP5 Clinical Trial Optional)

The NIH Director's Early Independence Award, opportunity number RFA-RM-28-004, is a forecasted federal grant opportunity administered by the National Institutes of Health within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The award is part of the NIH Common Fund's High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program and is categorized by Grants.gov as a discretionary grant in the Health funding activity category. The applicable Assistance Listing is 93.310, Trans-NIH Research Support. NIH expects approximately 10 awards and estimates total program funding of 5700000. The purpose of the NIH Director's Early Independence Award is to support outstanding early-career investigators who are prepared to pursue independent research soon after completing a doctoral degree or post-graduate clinical training. The program is specifically intended to allow qualified investigators to move toward independent research without following the traditional postdoctoral pathway. Through this mechanism, NIH seeks to accelerate the transition to an independent research career. Applications are welcomed across all fields of research relevant to the NIH mission, providing broad disciplinary scope within NIH-supported research. The forecast identifies an award ceiling of 350000 and an award floor of 350000. The source does not provide additional information explaining whether this amount is annual or total, the period of performance, allowable or prohibited cost categories, indirect cost limitations, subaward restrictions, or other spending conditions. The opportunity does not require cost sharing or matching. Because the available source is a Grants.gov forecast rather than the final funding announcement, applicants should rely on the subsequently posted opportunity for any detailed budget rules and funding restrictions that are not included in the forecast. Eligible applicant organizations are broad and include city or township governments, county governments, special district governments, state governments, independent school districts, public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities, federally recognized Native American tribal governments, other Native American tribal governments, Native American tribal organizations, public and state controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations with or without 501(c)(3) status other than institutions of higher education, for-profit organizations other than small businesses, and small businesses. Additional eligible applicants identified in the forecast include eligible agencies of the federal government, U.S. territories or possessions, faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, and non-domestic entities or foreign institutions. No individual U.S. state restriction is identified in the forecast. The opportunity is currently forecasted rather than open for applications. Grants.gov lists a forecast date and last updated date of September 3, 2026, with an estimated posting date of March 15, 2027 and an estimated application due date of September 10, 2027. The available forecast does not identify a letter of intent, concept paper, pre-proposal, notice of intent, initial application, or other pre-application gating requirement. It also does not provide application forms, required uploads, narrative questions, evaluation criteria, portal-specific submission instructions beyond the Grants.gov opportunity context, or other detailed submission components. These details may be provided when NIH posts the full opportunity. NIH estimates an award date of August 30, 2028 and an estimated project start date of September 30, 2028, with fiscal year 2028 identified for the opportunity. The source does not state that this specific opportunity recurs annually, biennially, quarterly, or on another defined schedule, so recurrence is not assumed. Questions concerning the opportunity may be directed to the NIH Director's Early Independence Award Program by email at EarlyIndependence@od.nih.gov. No individual grantor contact name or telephone number is provided in the source.

Emphasize readiness to pursue independent research soon after completing a doctoral degree or post-graduate clinical training and demonstrate alignment of the proposed research with the NIH mission. The program is designed to accelerate transition to an independent research career without the traditional postdoctoral path.