A New Vision for Women's Health Research: Transformative Change at the National Institutes of Health (2025)
Chapter: Appendix B: National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Awards (K Awards)
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Appendix B
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Suggested Citation:
"Appendix B: National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Awards (K Awards)." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. A New Vision for Women's Health Research: Transformative Change at the National Institutes of Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/28586.
Appendix B
National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Awards (K Awards)
TABLE B-1 Types of National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Career Development Awards (K Awards)
| Type | Name | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| K01 | Mentored Research Scientist Career Development Award | The purpose of this program is to provide support and protected time for an intensive, supervised career development experience in the biomedical, behavioral, or clinical sciences leading to research independence. Some NIH Institutes use the K01 to enhance workforce diversity, or for individuals who propose to train in a new field, or for individuals who have had a hiatus in their research career. |
| K02 | Independent Research Scientist Development Award | The purpose of this program is to foster the development of newly independent, outstanding scientists who can demonstrate the need for a period of intensive research, to enable them to expand their potential to make significant contributions to their field of research. |
| K05 | Senior Research Scientist Award | The purpose of this program is to provide protected time to established researchers to devote effort to basic or clinical research and to act as research mentors to early-stage investigators. Candidates for this award should have independent, peer-reviewed, research support at the time of award and possess a demonstrated record of mentoring. |
Suggested Citation:
"Appendix B: National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Awards (K Awards)." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. A New Vision for Women's Health Research: Transformative Change at the National Institutes of Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/28586.
| Type | Name | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| K07 | Academic Career Development Award | The purpose of this program is to provide support for academic researchers and to enhance the educational or research capacity at the sponsoring institution. The K07 supports both development awards for more junior candidates, and leadership awards for more senior individuals with acknowledged scientific expertise and leadership skills. |
| K08 | Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award | The purpose of this program is to prepare clinically trained individuals for careers that have a significant impact on the health-related research needs of the Nation. This program provides support and protected time for an intensive, supervised research career development experience in the fields of biomedical, behavioral, or clinical research, including translational research. |
| K12 | Clinical Scientist Institutional Career Development Program Award | The purpose of this program is to support institutional career development awards designed to prepare newly trained clinicians who have made a commitment to independent research careers, and to facilitate their transition to more advanced support mechanisms, e.g., K08 and K23. |
| K18 | Research Career Enhancement Award for Established Investigators | This program provides either full-time or part-time support for experienced scientists to augment or redirect their research programs through the acquisition of new research skills or to make changes in their research careers by acquiring new research skills or knowledge. |
| K22 | Career Transition Award | The goal of this program is to facilitate the transition of investigators to independent, productive research careers. One or two phase award; an initial period of mentored research, followed by a period of independent research at an extramural institution. |
| K23 | Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award | The purpose of this program is to support the career development of individuals with a clinical doctoral degree who have the potential to develop into productive, clinical investigators, and who have made a commitment to focus their research endeavors on patient-oriented research. |
| K24 | Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research | The purpose of this program is to provide support to mid-career health-professional doctorates or equivalent who are typically at the Associate Professor level for protected time to devote to patient-oriented research and to act as research mentors primarily for clinical residents, clinical fellows and/or junior clinical faculty. |
Suggested Citation:
"Appendix B: National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Awards (K Awards)." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. A New Vision for Women's Health Research: Transformative Change at the National Institutes of Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/28586.
| Type | Name | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| K25 | Mentored Quantitative Research Career Development Award | The purpose of this award is to attract to NIH-relevant research those investigators whose quantitative science and engineering research has thus far not been focused primarily on questions of health and disease. The K25 supports productive professionals with quantitative (e.g., statistics, economics, computer science, physics, chemistry) and engineering backgrounds to integrate their expertise with NIH-relevant research. |
| K26 | Midcareer Investigator Award in Biomedical and Behavioral Research | The purpose of this award is to support biomedical and behavioral scientists to allow them protected time to devote to their research and mentoring. The goal of this program is to support established, outstanding investigators by providing protected time for research and mentoring. |
| K43 | Emerging Global Leader Award | The purpose of the Fogarty Emerging Global Leader Award is to provide research support and protected time to a research scientist from a low- or middle-income country (LMIC) with a junior faculty position at an LMIC academic or research institution leading to an independently funded research career. |
| K76 | Emerging Leaders Career Development Award | The purpose of this program is to develop a cadre of talented scientists prepared and willing to take an active leadership role in transformative change that will lead to improved health care outcomes. |
| K99/R00 | Pathway to Independence Award | The purpose of this program is to increase and maintain a strong cohort of new and talented, NIH-supported, independent investigators. This program is designed to facilitate a timely transition of outstanding postdoctoral researchers or clinician-scientists from mentored research positions to independent, tenure-track or equivalent faculty positions, and to provide independent NIH research support during the transition that will help these individuals launch competitive, independent research careers. |
SOURCE: Excerpts from NIH, 2017.
REFERENCES
NIH (National Institutes of Health). 2017. Research Career Development Awards (K) Kiosk. https://researchtraining.nih.gov/programs/career-development (accessed August 22, 2024).
Suggested Citation:
"Appendix B: National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Awards (K Awards)." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. A New Vision for Women's Health Research: Transformative Change at the National Institutes of Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/28586.
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Suggested Citation:
"Appendix B: National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Awards (K Awards)." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. A New Vision for Women's Health Research: Transformative Change at the National Institutes of Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/28586.
Suggested Citation:
"Appendix B: National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Awards (K Awards)." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. A New Vision for Women's Health Research: Transformative Change at the National Institutes of Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/28586.
Suggested Citation:
"Appendix B: National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Awards (K Awards)." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. A New Vision for Women's Health Research: Transformative Change at the National Institutes of Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/28586.
Suggested Citation:
"Appendix B: National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Awards (K Awards)." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. A New Vision for Women's Health Research: Transformative Change at the National Institutes of Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/28586.
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