How NIAMS Makes Grant Funding Decisions

Peer reviewers’ judgments of scientific merit are expressed in priority scores, and some applications receive a percentile ranking derived from these priority scores. The percentile through which applications will be paid in order is what is referred to as the Institute's payline.

Applications that address topics of relevance to the institute’s scientific and health priorities may be considered for awards even if their assigned scores and percentile rankings would not qualify for funding under the current payline. Projects to be funded on this basis, which is called “select pay,” are selected by the institute, following staff discussion. Investigators may not request or apply for select pay funding. See the NIAMS Funding Plan for more information.

Rarely, NIAMS receives an application that is within the institute’s payline but is deemed to be of low program priority. An application can be considered low priority for many reasons, including (but not limited to) redundancy with other projects, concerns about the ultimate relevance of the proposed study’s results, or a lack of scientific premise. The amount of other research funding the Principal Investigator (PI) has available is also a consideration. 

The NIAMS Strategic Plan Fiscal Years 2025-2029 provides a broad outline of opportunities and needs related to the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and ultimately, prevention of diseases within the institute's mission areas. Members of both the scientific and lay communities interested in NIAMS’ programs provided extensive input as the plan was developed. 

Institute funding priorities reflect highly meritorious research as determined by the peer review process, public health needs, scientific opportunities, and Congressional and Administration mandates, among other factors. For grants, the principal public expressions of institute priorities are Requests for Applications (RFAs), Notices of Special Interest (NOSIs), or Notices of Information (NOTs), as published in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts. Applications received in response to an RFA generally compete only with other applications received in response to the RFA. Applications received in response to other announcements compete with all other scored applications assigned to the institute. However, applications that are responsive to institute priorities as published in the NIH Guide or the NIAMS Strategic Plan are candidates for select pay, as described above.

To further the NIAMS mission, and importantly, to best steward the resources allocated to us by Congress, over the last two years, we made changes to our funding approach and strategy. These include reserving 20% of competing funding to support applications beyond the payline (which is the funding percentile up to which almost all grant applications will be funded) and considering the total number of NIH grants a PI has (NOT-AR-24-013). 

Read these FAQs to learn more about the institute's three R01-equivalent threshold. 

Inflationary increases for future year commitments are not permitted. NIAMS does not allow out-year salary escalations for individuals providing the same effort from the previous budget year’s salary request in competing and renewal applications, regardless of the reason for the requested salary increases, e.g., merit-based or cost of living. This applies to other cost categories as well, e.g., supplies, travel, etc. Any non-inflationary, justified reason for year-to-year increases within a budget category should be clearly stated in the budget justification.

During the scientific review process, each application receives a priority score, and some applications receive a percentile ranking. The payline is the priority score or percentile through which almost all applications will be paid. For example, the R01 payline for fiscal year 2024 was the 8th percentile, meaning that almost all applications that received a percentile of 1 through 8 were eligible to be funded. 

In recent years, the institute budget has not kept pace with inflation and the cost of doing research has increased. The result: the institute’s payline has become tighter. We previously were able to fund a broader array of applications. Now, however, with a lower payline resulting in fewer awards, we need more flexibility to ensure we fund the diverse areas of science in our mission, preserve the research workforce, and meet the institute’s priorities.  

Setting a lower payline allows NIAMS more flexibility to fully use the expertise of our program officers to inform institute decisions and fund grants across the NIAMS portfolio. This updated approach ensures that NIAMS is able to fund highly meritorious applications that are deemed of high priority to the NIAMS mission. As a responsible steward of taxpayer money, NIAMS’ goal continues to be getting the best return on investment when deciding which awards to fund.

To allow for flexibility in funding, NIAMS has always devoted resources to support applications that have scored beyond the payline. With these funds, NIAMS program officers (POs), working in teams, review and recommend applications to senior staff that may have fallen outside of the payline for potential funding. Investigators cannot apply for select pay.

In addition to the score, key considerations taken into account include the following:

• Ensuring a stable and broad scientific workforce; 
• Balance in the institute portfolio, approaches, and investigators; 
• If the application reflects institute priorities, as articulated in our strategic plan and NOSIs; and 
• The amount of other research funding the PI has available.

While the payline might be lower, NIAMS plans to fund approximately the same number of research applications as in prior years. Similarly, the success rate should remain relatively stable with the new funding approach, which was about 17% in fiscal year 2023. Importantly, while this change shifts the percentage of applications funded based on the payline versus select pay, the total number of funded research awards will remain relatively consistent. 

NIAMS will continue to monitor our institute's funding trends and share updates with the community. You can also use the NIH Data Book (part of the NIH RePORTER site) to view trends in success rates, funding rates and funding priorities for institutes across the NIH.