Inside Extramural: The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

“Inside Extramural at the NIH Institute, Center, or Office (ICO)” is a new feature that gives ICOs a dedicated space to share updates on funding priorities, policies, initiatives, and resources relevant to their extramural research community. Check back regularly for insights and information to help you stay informed about developments across NIH. 

Message from the Acting Director, John H. Powers III, M.D.

You, our extramural research community, are central to the NIAID mission of understanding, treating, and preventing infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases. In this feature article, all of us at NIAID aim to support you by highlighting some of the latest developments that will impact your work, sharing resources and new opportunities, and answering common questions from the community. 

With input from the community and the hard work of our staff, we recently published the NIAID Strategic Plan 2026-2030, our roadmap for the next five years. The plan reflects an integrated, person-centered approach to research on infectious and immune-mediated diseases. Several elements of the plan are especially noteworthy. 

• Our three research goals—foundational research, diagnostics and prevention, and treatments and cures—are organized around specific objectives and approaches designed to help investigators identify where their work fits within NIAID's priorities.
• The plan’s three crosscutting themes—person-centered research, research technology and data science, and health across the lifespan—touch every funded area.
• Our portfolio remains robust, with sustained support for research on emerging infections that impact the American public and a clear focus on today's most pressing public health challenges.
• Just as important are our capacity goals, which speak directly to extramural investigators: strengthening mentored career-transition awards, expanding shared research resources and core facilities, and advancing networks and multicenter collaborations that make large-scale, multi-site research possible. 

Taken together, these goals are meant to give investigators clearer entry points into NIAID's priorities and more robust infrastructure to support ambitious, collaborative science conducted safely and securely.

I also want to highlight NIAID's strong, ongoing commitment to early stage investigators and small-business innovators. 

• NIAID is on track to award approximately $200 million competing and non-competing grants in research training, career development, early stage investigators, and scientific workforce development, more than in any prior year. This reflects our dedication to building the next generation of scientists and furthers the NIH Director's continued commitment to workforce development for early stage investigators.
• NIAID is equally committed to fueling small business innovation: our fiscal year (FY) 2026 investment of more than $190 million in the NIH Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Research programs is accelerating the development and commercialization of groundbreaking technologies central to our mission.
• These investments strengthen the U.S. small business innovation ecosystem and drive economic growth nationwide.

In the sections that follow, you'll find more on NIAID's funding priorities, training opportunities, and resources to help you navigate what’s ahead. Thank you for your ongoing support and engagement as we continue to advance our mission together.

NIH Unified Funding Strategy Drives NIAID Grant Success

The NIH Unified Funding Strategy is a framework implemented earlier this year across the agency to provide a consistent, transparent, and mission-driven approach to awarding scientific research grants. Guided by this framework, NIAID is on track to award FY26 congressionally appropriated extramural grant research funds, ensuring timely support for critical research initiatives. The strategy still includes considering important peer review input from independent experts on individual applications but also enables a balanced funding distribution across applications based on portfolio merit, investigator status, and strategic alignment with institute research priorities. Additionally, the framework helped advance the institute's commitment to promoting early stage investigators and fostering the next generation of scientific talent (as noted on this NIH Extramural Nexus article). We encourage you watch this recent webinar to learn more about how this approach is being implemented across NIH.

Featured Opportunities and Research Priorities

The central NIAID Grants & Funding webpage provides extensive, institute-specific information, guidance, resources, and contacts. We communicate areas of high programmatic priority in part through Highlighted Topics, which you can subscribe to for weekly alerts (see also these Nexus articles).

We recently announced several NIAID funding opportunities focused on specific research areas within the institute’s mission, as well as NIH Parent opportunities soliciting investigator-initiated applications across a broad range of research topics: 

• Infectious Diseases Clinical Trials Network: This network seeks to advance clinical and public health outcomes across a broad range of infectious diseases, including emerging and chronic conditions, by rapidly designing and implementing impactful clinical trials. (RFA-AI-27-002)
• Clinical Research Network on Antimicrobial Resistance: This program aims to design, implement, and manage clinical research that addresses pivotal clinical questions related to antimicrobial resistance, defined as patients unresponsive to current therapies, through a coordinated, integrated research network. (RFA-AI-27-005)
• Atopic Dermatitis Research Network: This program will support U.S. centers that integrate clinical and translational research to improve scientific understanding of atopic dermatitis, with an emphasis on chronic inflammation and the skin’s defense mechanisms. (RFA-AI-27-004)
• Medical Countermeasures and Technologies Against Radiological or Chemical Threats: This program supports the research and development of medical countermeasures, diagnostics, and related technologies to address injuries caused by exposure to radiation or potentially toxic chemicals during public health emergencies. (RFA-AI-27-014)
• Investigator-Initiated Program Projects: This opportunity supports integrated, multi-project research programs that have a well-defined, central research focus or objective relevant to the NIAID mission and have an administrative core. (PAR-27-082)
• Clinical Trial Implementation Cooperative Agreement: This initiative aims to support implementation of investigator-initiated, milestone-driven clinical trials that need enhanced oversight, and as applicable, include mechanistic studies. (PAR-27-064)
• Resource-Related Research Projects: This opportunity will support proposed research resources that provide a significant benefit to currently funded, high-priority projects in need of further coordination and support. (PAR-27-083) 

Research Training and Workforce Development Opportunities

NIAID participates in newly issued funding opportunities (such as career development and fellowships) to empower the next generation of scientists:

• Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Transition Award (PA-27-037: Parent F99/K00 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)) – see also this Nexus article
• Academic Career Excellence Award (PAR-27-062: K32 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed))
• NIH Research Education Program:
  • Research Experiences (PA-27-036: Parent R25 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
  • Courses, Curriculum & Methods (PA-27-034: Parent R25 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
  • Mentoring Activities & Networks (PA-27-035: Parent R25/UE5 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
  • NIH Science Education Partnership Award (PAR-27-077: R25 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

We encourage you check out the new Explore NIH Grant Opportunities tool to quickly identify funding opportunities posted on Grants.gov (see this Nexus article).

Questions From Our Community (see also these FAQs)

Recurring eligibility question from graduate students and early stage postdoctoral scholars:

Question: Does being awarded an F99/K00 or K32 make an applicant ineligible for other career development (K) awards? 

Answer: No, applicants are still eligible to apply for other K awards.

Recurring questions from potential K22 and K99 applicants:

Question: What circumstances would allow me to be eligible for an extension to K99 or K22 eligibility and how do I request an extension?

Answer: Exceptional circumstances, such as family care responsibilities, childbirth, disability, illness, or active military duty may allow for eligibility extension (see these FAQs). Also, time spent conducting postgraduate clinical training not involving research or not specifically for NIAID, circumstances such as time spent gaining select agent approval or Biosafety Level-4 training, do not count toward the eligibility limit. To request an extension, contact the [email protected].

Council Corner
Join us virtually at NIAID’s Advisory Council meeting on September 23, 2026. See this page for agendas and details on how to watch.