The National Institutes of Health (NIH) New Innovator (NI) Award Program was
created in FY 2007 to support promising new investigators who were proposing innovative,
high-risk, high-reward research. NI awards are targeted to early stage investigators who are
defined as investigators within 10 years of their terminal research degree or medical
residency and who have not yet received a substantial NIH research grant, such as the NIH R01
grant. NIH awarded 115 NI awards in FY 2007–2009; however, 120 early career
investigators submitted an NI award application in this same timeframe, scored well in
review, but did not receive funding. The NIH Office of the Director contracted with the
IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) to assess potential differences
between the 120 award finalists in comparison to the 115 NI awardees.