NIH Director’s Early Independence Awards (DP5 Clinical Trial Optional)

The NIH Director's Early Independence Award (DP5) is a high-risk, high-reward grant program administered by the National Institutes of Health under the NIH Common Fund. This initiative is designed to support exceptional investigators in the biomedical sciences who wish to establish independent research programs immediately following their doctoral or clinical training, effectively bypassing the traditional postdoctoral period. The program accepts applications on any topic aligned with the NIH mission, with a project period of up to five years and annual budget requests up to 350,000 dollars. For fiscal year 2027, the NIH Common Fund expects to allocate approximately 5.7 million dollars to fund about 10 awards. Applications are evaluated through a two-phase peer review process involving topic experts and an editorial panel, focusing on the likelihood that the project will exert a sustained and powerful influence on its field. Key evaluation criteria include significance, investigator qualities, approach, and the institutional environment, with a particular emphasis on the investigator's capabilities and the support provided by their institution. Eligibility requires a single Program Director/Principal Investigator and limits each institution to two applications. Applicants must maintain active registrations in the System for Award Management and eRA Commons. Additionally, awardees must comply with specific cybersecurity incident reporting requirements and clinical trial registration mandates where applicable.