The National Institutes of Health will award up to $64 million over five years to encourage exploration of exceptionally innovative and original research ideas that have the potential for extraordinary impact.
The NIH Director's Transformative Research Projects (T-R01) award program allows investigators to sidestep conventional stumbling blocks they often face when applying for funding for high-risk research, such as the need for preliminary data or a restriction on the amount of funds that can be requested. This year, 20 T-R01 award recipients will address challenges in basic science or clinical research.
The T-R01 program, supported by the NIH Common Fund (formerly the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research), is an incomparable NIH research opportunity for investigators. Scientists are spurred to rethink the way science is conducted and propose daring ideas. The awards can provide up to $25 million in total costs each year for a single project.
"Complex research projects, even exceptionally high-impact ones, are tough to get funded without the necessary resources to assemble teams and collect preliminary data. The TR01 awards provide a way for these high impact projects to be pursued," said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
The NIH expects to make awards of $12.8 million for new T-R01 projects in fiscal year 2010. The 2010 recipients' names and institutions are listed below.
More information on the Transformative R01 Award is at http://commonfund.nih.gov/T-R01 . For descriptions of the 2010 recipients' research plans, see http://commonfund.nih.gov/T-R01/Recipients10.asp
The NIH Common Fund encourages collaboration and supports a series of exceptionally high impact, trans-NIH programs. The Transformative Research Projects (T-R01) Awards Program is funded through the Common Fund and managed by the NIH Office of the Director in partnership with the various NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices. Common Fund programs are designed to pursue major opportunities and gaps in biomedical research that no single NIH Institute could tackle alone, but that the agency as a whole can address to make the biggest impact possible on the progress of medical research. Additional information about the NIH Common Fund can be found at http://commonfund.nih.gov .
The Office of the Director, the central office at NIH, is responsible for setting policy for NIH, which includes 27 Institutes and Centers. This involves planning, managing, and coordinating the programs and activities of all NIH components. The Office of the Director also includes program offices which are responsible for stimulating specific areas of research throughout NIH. Additional information is available at http://www.nih.gov/icd/od .
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov .
2010 NIH Director's Transformative Research Projects Award Recipients