Paylines Page Updated for Research Project, Small Business Grants

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Paylines—either percentiles (R01s only) or overall impact score order—are the funding cutoff points for investigator-initiated applications. 

We’ve recently updated our interim NIAID Paylines for research project grant (R), small business innovation research (SBIR), and small business technology transfer (STTR) awards.

Grant Type Payline Status Description
R01 (non-new PIs) 11 percentile Interim Research Projects for Established Investigators
R01 (new PIs) 15 percentile Interim Research Projects for New and Early-Stage Investigators
R03 28 overall impact score Interim Small Grants
R15 22 overall impact score Interim Research Enhancement Awards
R21 28 overall impact score Interim Exploratory/Developmental Grants
R41, R42 25 overall impact score Interim STTR Phase I and II—Small Business Technology Transfer
R43, R44 25 overall impact score Interim SBIR Phase I and II—Small Business Innovation Research

NIAID uses conservative interim paylines to ensure that we can operate efficiently should we receive a reduced budget or a significant increase in investigator-initiated applications before ultimately setting final paylines near the end of the fiscal year after assessing application rates, award costs, and future financial impact of outyear commitments.

A Note on the President’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Budget Proposal

Speaking of budget prognostication, you may have compared the President’s Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Proposal to the recently enacted Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 and noticed that several NIH spending level requests would amount to a funding decrease from FY 2022 to FY 2023. That discrepancy is circumstantial, rather than purposeful.

The President’s Budget Proposal, as a product of a monthslong process, did not adjust for a significant increase in NIH’s appropriated budget for FY 2022 that materialized just before the Appropriations Act’s passage and the Proposal’s publication. Instances in which requested spending levels for FY 2023 are below the appropriations enacted for FY 2022 are explained by last-minute budget increases from Congress, not a Presidential intent to reduce funding for NIH institutes.

Also of interest, the President’s Budget Proposal requests $12.1 billion for pandemic preparedness research at NIH to develop vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics against high-priority viral families, promote biosafety and biosecurity, and expand laboratory capacity and clinical trial infrastructure.

Resources for Tracking NIAID Paylines

You can Subscribe to Email Alerts to be notified when we set or raise a payline. We also announce payline updates on Twitter at @NIAIDFunding.

To learn more about paylines and how to determine your application’s likelihood of funding, go to Understand Paylines and Percentiles and NIAID Paylines and Budget Information Change Throughout the Year.

Contact Us

Email us at deaweb@niaid.nih.gov for help navigating NIAID’s grant and contract policies and procedures.

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