National Institute of
General Medical Sciences

Grant applications are reviewed in standing study sections. The abstract and specific aims can be used to match with study sections through the Assisted Referral Tool at the Center for Scientific Review or the RePORTER Matchmaker Tool. Reviewers are asked to consider the following review criteria:

Review Criteria

• Intended for high-risk projects that are not ready for testing biological hypotheses
• Applications should be innovative and rigorous, with measurable intermediate and final objectives
• Risk in the R21 can be mitigated with theoretical evaluation, alternative approaches, and well-described criteria for success and failure
• Feasibility in the R01 can be demonstrated with unpublished data for prototype development
• Project objectives should gain new technological knowledge over state of the art
• Innovation is measured by the increment of advance over state of the art
• The significance should describe how the technical advance would impact future NIGMS biological research

A few example areas of NIGMS research supported by Technology Development Projects

R21 areas

R01 areas

The examples illustrate the variety of grant applications received so far but do not indicate a preference for research areas.

Review Criteria and a Few Example Research Areas for Technology Development

Technology Career Funding Opportunities

Technologists can use the Parent R01 for long-term career support. Alternately, promising technologists can be supported through NIGMS’ Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (R35, MIRA) for early stage or for established investigators with prior NIGMS R01 support. Product feasibility and commercial development can be supported through the SBIR/STTR program. Established technology developers might consider the P41 Biomedical Technology Research Resource program for large-scale, sustained technology platform development and dissemination to the biomedical community.