Awards of R01 and R21 Grants in FY 2019

SUMMARY

During fiscal year 2019, the NCI awarded a total of 1,178 competing Research Project Grants (RPGs), which represented an overall success rate[1] of 12% for all RPGs and 12% for unsolicited R01s. Even though there was an increase in the number of unsolicited R01 grant applications in 2019, more awards were made in 2019 than 2018. Unsolicited R01 and R21 grants represent 73% of the total number of awards for 2019. NCI funded nearly all R01 applications with scores up to and including the 8th percentile2 and R21 applications with scores up to and including the 8th percentile[2] and R21 applications with scores up to and including the 7th percentile.

Special consideration was given to support funding for Early Stage R01 Investigators[3]; as a result, all applications in this group with scores up to and including the 14th percentile were funded. An additional 20 ESI applications were selected for funding beyond the 14th percentile. Beginning in Fiscal Year 2017 NCI further elevated priorities for supporting the next generation of talented cancer researchers by converting R01 applications that fell within the payline into MERIT R37 awards. The R01 award is relinquished and converted to an R37 to provide the extended funding for an additional 2 years of support beyond the initial award period.

The R03 and R15 applications with impact scores[4] up to and including a score of 25 were funded. NCI funded applications with scores beyond the payline after review and approval by NCI?s Divisions and Scientific Program Leaders during special meetings with the NCI Director. The graphs that appear below summarize the overall funding patterns for R01s and R21s across various categories of investigators.

The R35 Outstanding Investigator Award (OIA) supports investigators with outstanding records of productivity in cancer research by providing extended funding stability for projects of unusual potential. OIA recipients are required to relinquish their current R01 awards in accepting the OIA and to commit at least 50% effort to the OIA research. NCI will only consider funding two additional research project grants to the Outstanding Investigator while the OIA is active. This limit includes single PD/PI, multiple PD/PI and multi-project grants.

The R50 Research Specialist Award is designed to encourage the development of stable research career opportunities for exceptional scientists who want to pursue research within the context of an existing cancer research program, but not serve as independent investigators. These scientists, such as researchers within a research program, core facility managers, and data scientists, are vital to sustaining the biomedical research enterprise.

Funding Patterns for R01 Applications

The graph in Figure 1 summarizes the number of percentiled R01 applications received and grants funded at each percentile, among all investigators. As expected, beyond the 8th percentile, the number of grants funded decreased in proportion to the percentile ranking. Nevertheless, 22% of these awards had rankings beyond the 8th percentile.
Similar displays are shown below for experienced investigators (applicants who have received a prior R01 award and were applying for a new grant or a competitive renewal; Figure 2); new investigators[3] (Figure 3); and early stage investigators[3] (Figure 4). Similar patterns are observed in all cases. Success rates have not been plotted for new and early stage investigators because of the small numbers of applications at each percentile score. For Success Rate comparisons, refer to Tables 1 and 2 below.
Funding Patterns for other years are posted at: https://gsspubssl.nci.nih.gov/blog/articles.
[1] The success rate is the percentage of applications received that are funded. It is calculated by dividing the number of funded grants by the number of applications received. When an amended application is considered in the same fiscal year as the original, only the application with the better score is counted in the number of applications received.
[2] A percentile is a score that ranks competing applications against others in the same study section in the past year. It is intended to allow a comparison of impact scores[4] of applications across all study sections.
[3] The New Investigator is one who has not previously competed successfully for an R01 or other substantial NIH independent research award. An Early Stage Investigator is a New Investigator who is within 10 years of completing his/her terminal research degree or medical residency (or the equivalent). A more detailed definition can be found at: https://grants.nih.gov/policy/new_investigators/index.htm#definition.
[4] The impact score is given by each individual scientific reviewer's assessment of the scored criteria plus additional criteria regarding the protection and inclusion of human subjects; vertebrate animal care and welfare; biohazards, and criteria specific to the funding opportunity and is based on the overall impact that the project is likely to have on the research field(s) involved.
NCI FY2019: "Percentiled" R01 Applications, Awards and Success Rates
Figure 1: All Investigators: Experienced, New and Early Stage
Figure 1: All Investigators: Experienced, New and Early Stage
NCI FY2019 Competing R01 Applications and Awards
Figure 2: Experienced Investigators
Figure 2: Experienced Investigators
NCI FY2019 Competing R01 Applications and Awards
Figure 3: New Investigators (Includes Early Stage Investigators)
Figure 3: New Investigators (Includes Early Stage Investigators)
NCI FY2019 Competing R01 Applications and Awards
Figure 4: Early Stage Investigators
Figure 4: Early Stage Investigators
Figures 1-4: Excludes applications that did not receive a percentile ranking. When an amended application is considered in the same fiscal year as the original, only the one with the better ranking is counted.

Funding Patterns for R21 Applications

The funding patterns for R21 grant applications differ from those of R01 applications. The patterns are explained by the fact that NCI receives a disproportionate number of applications relative to the number of R21 grants that can be funded (see Table 1). Of the Competing R21s funded, 15% had rankings beyond the 7th percentile. NCI has seen a drop in R21 applications from last year by 239.
In contrast to R01 funding patterns where New Investigators (applicants who have never received an R01; Figure 7) have a success rate of 11%, the success rates for R21 funding of new investigators is 8%. This is notably lower than the 12% success rate for experienced investigators (applicants who have received a prior R01 award; Figure 6) (Table 1). This disparity results from the fact that R01 applications, but not R21 applications, from early stage investigators are given preferential consideration. As explained in footnote 3 above, early stage investigators are new investigators within 10 years of receiving their highest degree or completing their clinical training who have not had an R01 award or other substantial NIH independent research award; Figure 8. . Although R21 success rates for new investigators are lower than for experienced investigators (8% vs. 12%), new investigators received a majority of the R21 awards (98 vs. 72).
NCI FY2019: R21 Applications, Awards and Success Rates
Figure 5: All Investigators: Experienced, New and Early Stage
Figure 5: All Investigators: Experienced, New and Early Stage
Figure 6: Experienced Investigators
Figure 6: Experienced Investigators
NCI FY2019 Competing R21 Applications and Awards
Figure 7: New Investigators (Includes Early Stage Investigators)
Figure 7: New Investigators
Figure 8: Early Stage Investigators
Figure 8: Early Stage Investigators
NCI applied the same R01 criteria to identify new and early stage investigators. For Success Rate comparisons, refer to Tables 1 and 2 below.
Figures 5-8: Excludes applications that did not receive a percentile ranking. When an amended application is considered in the same fiscal year as the original, only the one with the better ranking is counted.
Table 1: Fiscal Year 2019: Success Rates (unsolicited R01s, R37s and R21s)
  Total Applications Number With Percentiles
1-24		 Number With Percentiles
1-8		 Funded Success Rate
R01/R37 - All Investigators 5,912 1,519 548 687 12%
Experienced Investigators - Total 4,241 1,194 446 505 12%
Type 1 3,934 1056 378 432 11%
Type 2 297 135 66 71 24%
Type 3 Board 10 3 2 2 20%
New Investigators - Total1 1,671 325 102 182 11%
Early Stage New Investigators2 653 162 44 107 16%
R21 - All Investigators 1,861 509 167 170 9%
Experienced Investigators 626 218 72 72 12%
New Investigators 1,235 291 95 98 8%
Early Stage New Investigators2 281 68 26 26 9%
Total new and competing renewal applications include those that received either a percentile, an impact score, as well as those that were not discussed (triaged) or were not recommended for funding.
Funded R01s include competing revisions. In FY19 35 R01s were converted to R37s.
1 Includes Early Stage Investigators
2 Included in New Investigators
The NIH does not report the R21 grants in terms of experienced and new investigators; NCI applied R01 criteria to identify those parameters.
Table 2: All Competing Research Project Grants
  FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018 FY 2019
Requested Funded Success Rate Requested Funded Success Rate Requested Funded Success Rate Requested Funded Success Rate Requested Funded Success Rate
R01/R37 - Unsolicited1 4,550 623 14% 4,785 650 14% 5,263 650 12% 5,864 676 12% 5,912 687 12%
R01 RFAs 102 12 12% 240 45 19% 309 44 14% 249 35 14% 381 45 12%
Total R01/R37 4,652 635 14% 5,025 695 14% 5,572 694 12% 6,113 711 12% 6,293 732 12%
R21 - Unsolicited 2,864 325 11% 3,100 260 8% 1,513 109 7% 2,100 187 9% 1,861 170 9%
R21 RFAs 250 38 15% 283 35 12% 388 44 11% 310 26 8% 343 36 10%
Total R21 3,114 363 12% 3,383 295 9% 1,901 153 8% 2,410 213 9% 2,204 206 9%
R35 224 43 19% 175 35 20% 141 29 21% 104 20 19% 71 17 24%
R50 - 0 0% 219 34 16% 80 17 21% 27 14 52% 85 19 22%
R03 - Unsolicited 582 67 12% 484 48 10% 714 90 13% 564 60 11% 505 60 12%
Other RFAs2 297 34 11% 285 62 22% 443 57 13% 338 54 16% 288 37 13%
Other RPGs3 656 94 14% 889 95 11% 933 116 12% 788 104 13% 662 107 16%
Total Competing RPGs: 9,525 1,236 13% 10,241 1,230 12% 9,704 1,139 12% 10,317 1,162 11% 10,108 1,178 12%
1 Funded R01s include competing revisions. In FY2019 35 R01s were converted to R37s.
2 Other RFAs include UM1, R33, P01, U01, UH2, and UG3.
3 Other RPGs include DP2, P01, R15, U01, U19, UH2, UH3, UM1, and UG3.
Funding Patterns for other years are posted at: https://gsspubssl.nci.nih.gov/blog/articles.


Published Mar 9, 2020 by DEA/OEA/AISB