The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the nation’s medical research agency — making important discoveries that improve health and save lives.
The NIH Director’s Pioneer Award Program seeks to fund exceptionally creative scientists proposing highly innovative research projects that have the potential to create a significant impact on many broad and important fields relevant to NIH's mission. The program encourages applications from individuals of diverse backgrounds, including those from underrepresented groups, and from all geographic locations and types of eligible institutions. It embraces proposals across the broad spectrum of NIH's interests, including behavioral, social, biomedical, applied, and formal sciences, as well as basic, translational, or clinical research. This award is part of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program of the NIH Common Fund, designed to support pioneering research endeavors.