Research Project Grants (RPGs)

During fiscal year 2018,

  • Over 72.4% of of competing dollars supported grants awarded within the established payline and RFAs and the remainder supported grants as an exception to the fundable range.
  • RFA funds accounted for 18.8% of the FY 2018 competing dollars.
  • A total of 1,162 competing RPGs were funded.

FY 2018 data on this page includes FY 2018 Cures-Moonshot funding and excludes FY 2017 Cures-Moonshot carryover obligations.   

Number of RPG Awards

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Includes Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Awards.

RPGs Summary, FY 2017-2018

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RPG Awards Funded
(Dollars in Thousands)
RPG Awards Funded 2017 Number 2017 Amount 2018 Number 2018 Amount
Total Funding for RPGs 4,663 $2,278,416 4,780 $2,450,558
SBIR/STTR 238 $125,636 280 $142,899
Funding for RPGs without SBIR/STTR Program 4,425 $2,152,780 4,500 $2,307,659
Continuation or Noncompeting Grants Funded 3,286 $1,500,855 3,338 $1,615,654
Competing Grants Funded 1,139 $535,521 1,162 $571,222
Administrative Supplements 243 $33,173 280 $36,754
Partial Assessment for DHHS Program Evaluation   $83,232 $84,028
Funds Set Aside Within Competing Dollars
(Dollars in Thousands)
Grant Category R01 or Share 2017
Number or %
2017 Amount 2018
Number or %
2018 Amount
Grants within Paylines   772

$300,349

841

$326,426

Traditional R01 570 $265,943 534 $250,668
RFA Grants   145 $90,579 115 $107,311
Share of Competing Grant Funds 16.9%   18.8%
Exception Grants   367 $235,172 321 $244,796
Share of Competing Grant Funds 43.9%   42.9%

Competing RPGs
Statistical Measure 2017 2018
*Excludes SBIR/STTR
Total Competing Application Requests* 9,704 10.317
Funding Success Rate 12% 11%
Percentile Funding for R01 Grants 10th & 12th 9th & 14th
Average Cost-Competing $470 $492
Average Reduction from Recommended/Requested Levels -14% -13%

RPGs Funding Mechanisms

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The "Other" category includes DP1, DP2, DP5, R00, R37, U01, U19,UH2, UH3, UG3, UA5, R50, UM1, R15, R55, R56, and RC2 activities.

Grant Funding Paylines
RPG Mechanism 2017 2018 Description
*SPL = Scientific Program Leaders (NCI)
R01 Traditional Grants 10th & 12th 9th & 14th Percentile
P01 Program Projects 17% Reduction 17% Reduction SPL Selected*
R03 Small Grants 25 25 Impact Score
R15 Academic Research 25 25 Impact Score
R21 Exploratory Phase I 7th 7th Percentile
R33 Exploratory Phase II* N/A N/A SPL Selected*
R41/R42 STTR 21 25 Impact Score
R43/R44 SBIR 25 27 Impact Score

RPGs Requested and Awarded

The following table displays requested and awarded RPGs and the success rate for fiscal years 2017 and 2018. These numbers include Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBTT) awards. The Download the Data link contains data for the prior ten years.

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RPGs Requested, Awarded, and Success Rate
(Dollars in Thousands)
Fiscal Year Type Number Requested Amount Requested Number Awarded Amount Awarded Success Rate
Includes Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) Awards.
Success rate is the number of awarded grants divided by the number of awards requested.
2017 Competing New 10,354 $4,504,710 1,172 $514,490 12.0% 
Competing Renewal 518 364,485 136 96,512
Competing Supplement 21 7,444 3 1,131
Competing Subtotal 10,893 4,876,638 1,311 612,133
Non-Competing 3,352 1,666,283
FY 2017 RPG Total     4,663 $2,278,416
2018 Competing New 10,921 $4,914,256 1,220 $546,677 11.9%
Competing Renewal 471 327,711 134 96,208
Competing Supplement 33 8,382 2 331
Competing Subtotal 11,425 5,250,349 1,356 643,216
Non-Competing 3,424 1,807,342
FY 2018 RPG Total 4,780 $2,450,558

RPG Awards by Grant Activity Codes

This table displays awarded research project grants (RPG) data by grant activity code and count. Please visit NIH Activity Codes for more information on the descriptions.

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RPG Awards by Grant Codes, FY 2017-2018
(Dollars in Thousands)
Grant Code 2017
Number
2017
Amount
2018
Number
2018
Amount
From FY 2017 onward, RFAs will be accounted for in the actual grant mechanism categories under which they fall.
RPG Activity Codes with a "0" count displayed for No. are grants where NCI did not take the grant award count for the funding since NCI was not the Primary IC funding the award.
R01 3,074 $1,328,242 3,092 $1,375,890
DP1 3 3,620 2 2,388
DP2 0 174 1 2,711
DP5 7 2,882 6 2,494
P01 90 169,753 85 165,529
R00 109 26,551 103 24,704
R37 2 955 66 30,163
U01 237 201,670 285 243,522
U19 3 6,577 2 5,087
UH2 19 4,953 7 1,408
R35 105 96,338 125 118,267
R50 49 8,430 63 10,559
UH3 6 5,723 21 11,275
UA5 0 0 0 0
UM1 23 65,150 33 110,404
UG3 8 3,268 11 5,574
R03 138 10,796 149 12,227
R21 472 91,406 382 74,013
R33 57 33,586 45 17,863
R15 20 8,559 20 8,951
R55 0 0 0 0
R56 3 917 2 602
RC2 0 0 0 0
SBIR/STTR 238 125,636 280 142,899
Total 4,663 2,195,184 4,780 2,366,530

  • Posted: December 20, 2018