NIH new awards rose 21% in FY2026, while total grants fell

NIH made 13,686 new extramural awards in fiscal 2026, 21% more than the 11,272 issued in fiscal 2025 and within 2% of fiscal 2024's 13,943. The fiscal year ended Sept. 30, and an analysis of NIH's Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools, or RePORTER, completed Oct. 28 provides the strongest current count, not an official NIH total.

The calculation counts Type 1 NIH-funded extramural awards to universities and other outside institutions. It excludes subprojects inside larger grants and awards from other agencies listed in RePORTER, including the Veterans Affairs Administration and Food and Drug Administration.

RePORTER remains open to late records, and NIH has not published official full-year totals. The 13,686 figure could therefore rise slightly, which makes it a working count for planning rather than a settled accounting result.

What did forecasts predict?

In June, Science projected that new and renewal awards in fiscal 2026 would finish about 2,800 below the 2021-24 average. Its year-end total, which includes subprojects, reached 17,543, or 2,259 awards below the average, an 11% deficit.

The narrower R&D World count put new and renewal awards at 15,733, about 1,000 or 6% below the 16,764 average. The two reported shortfalls reflect different scopes, not necessarily contradictory measurements: Science includes subprojects, while the RePORTER-based count does not.

Earlier warnings nevertheless identified a severe interruption. Roll Call reported in August 2025 that forward funding, which pays multiyear grants upfront, would reduce grant numbers even if Congress approved a proposed budget increase. STAT reported in March that competitive awards were 74% below the 2021-24 average by March 3, citing a Johns Hopkins analysis.

That early pace did not persist. New awards recovered 21% from fiscal 2025, although new and renewal awards combined still finished below the four-year average.

Why did the total grant count still fall?

An Oct. 15 Association of American Medical Colleges analysis put total extramural grants at about 56,600 in fiscal 2026. That was down from just under 58,500 in fiscal 2025 and about 64,000 in fiscal 2024.

NIH's fiscal 2026 policy notice set program-level funding at $47.5 billion, 1% above the prior year. However, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, signed Feb. 3, capped NIH's ability to obligate multiyear awards at the fiscal 2025 level. A 1% budget increase thus did not translate into an unrestricted increase in awards.

The divergence also reflects payment structure. Within RePORTER, annual payments on noncompeting continuation grants fell 10%, from 39,642 to 35,506, while competing renewals rose from 1,822 to 2,047. RePORTER and AAMC classify total grants differently, so their totals cannot be reconciled by simple addition.

Which grant programs gained ground?

NIH issued 4,960 new R01 awards, its standard mechanism for independent research projects, compared with 3,426 in fiscal 2025 and 4,547 in fiscal 2024. Competing research project grants rose to 11,519 from 9,103, according to RePORTER.

NIH says 1,648 early-stage investigators received R01-equivalent awards, 25% above the 10-year average of 1,323 and the highest number NIH has recorded. These researchers were within 10 years of completing graduate or clinical training and seeking a first major NIH grant; Science reported 1,144 recipients in fiscal 2025.

The institute-level new-award counts were uneven:

• The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases issued 2,106 new awards, up from 1,567.
• The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute issued 1,193, down from 1,285.
• The National Institute of Mental Health issued 650, up from 468 but below 845 in fiscal 2024.

These figures count awards, not their dollars. Without award-size distributions for the early-stage and institute programs, institutions cannot infer that their share of research support increased in proportion to the number of grants.

How did forward funding alter the payment stream?

AAMC found that multiyear-funded competitive research project grants received $1.9 billion in fiscal 2026, down from $2.1 billion in fiscal 2025 and above $964 million in fiscal 2024. They represented about 22% of competitive research project grants, compared with 25% in fiscal 2025 and about 10% in fiscal 2024.

Multiyear grants paid upfront do not produce annual continuation payments in later years. The likely consequence of fewer new grants in fiscal 2025 was fewer second-year payments in fiscal 2026, reducing the annual payment stream even as first-time awards recovered.

NIH committed $7.6 billion to new awards in fiscal 2026, up from $6.6 billion in fiscal 2025. Those commitments include future-year funding on grants paid upfront, a distinction that prevents direct comparison with annual continuation activity.

The average amount per new award nevertheless fell from about $587,000 to $556,000. For research administrators, a larger award pipeline therefore coexisted with smaller average first-time commitments and a 10% reduction in annual continuations.

What does the award timing show?

A 43-day government shutdown ran from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12, 2025, and NIH recorded no new awards in October or November that year. August and September then accounted for 6,018 new awards, or 44% of the fiscal-year total, making end-of-summer concentration the clearest feature of the award calendar.

For FY2027 planners, the relevant signal is a larger first-time pipeline paired with fewer annual payment events. Further RePORTER additions may lift the 13,686 headline, but they will not by themselves establish that the underlying payment structure has normalized.