2011 NIH Directors Pioneer Award Program (DP1) | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The 2011 NIH Director's Pioneer Award Program (DP1) is a discretionary National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant opportunity designed to complement NIH's traditional investigator-initiated funding by backing individual scientists who show exceptional creativity and are willing to pursue bold, potentially field-changing ideas. The emphasis is on "pioneering" research that could transform how major biomedical or behavioral problems are addressed. A key expectation is that the proposed work should represent a substantially different scientific direction from what the applicant's lab is already doing, and it should also stand apart from work already being pursued elsewhere, signaling that NIH is specifically trying to create space for genuinely new trajectories rather than incremental extensions of established programs.

This funding announcement uses the DP1 award mechanism, which is associated with NIH's High Risk Research efforts and is framed here as part of the broader "Research Teams of the Future" initiative. In practice, that positioning communicates that NIH is intentionally seeking proposals where the payoff could be large even if the approach is unconventional, uncertain, or difficult to evaluate through the usual conservative metrics. Another defining feature is the required commitment of effort: awardees must devote the major portion of their research effort, at least 51 percent, to the activities supported by the Pioneer Award. That requirement underscores that NIH views the award as more than a supplement; it is meant to be a central driver of the investigator's research agenda during the project period.

For fiscal year 2011, NIH indicated an intention to commit roughly $6 million total to support at least 7 awards, assuming a sufficient number of highly meritorious applications are submitted. This sets expectations for a competitive program with a limited number of awards relative to typical NIH grant programs, consistent with the idea that the program targets a smaller set of investigators pursuing unusually ambitious or unconventional directions.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of U.S.-based organizations that can receive NIH grants. Eligible applicants include public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (excluding higher education institutions in that specific category description), state governments, Native American tribal governments (federally recognized) and other Native American tribal organizations, small businesses, and for-profit organizations other than small businesses. The announcement also lists additional eligible applicant categories such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Hispanic-serving institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, and U.S. territories or possessions. Cost sharing or matching is not required, which is typical for NIH research grant support and reduces barriers for applicants who may not have discretionary institutional funds to contribute.

Administratively, the opportunity is issued by the National Institutes of Health and is categorized as a health-related grant program under CFDA number 93.310 (Trans-NIH Research Support). The funding opportunity number is RFA-RM-10-008, and the original and current application closing date listed is September 13, 2010, with an archive date of October 14, 2010, indicating it was a time-limited competition for the 2011 award cycle. Applicants or interested parties were directed to the NIH funding announcement page for full details, and NIH provided webmaster contact information for access or linking issues related to the electronic announcement.

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