NIH Director's Transformative Research Award Program

Overview

Highlights

Karl DeisserothEdward S. Boyden
Two HRHR researchers awarded world’s largest brain research prize

Americans, Karl Deisseroth, a 2005 Pioneer Awardee, and 2012 Transformative Research Awardee, and Edward S. Boyden, a 2007 New Innovator, and 2012 Transformative Research Awardee and four European scientists were awarded the 2013 prize for their contributions to the development of “optogenetics.”

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CLARITY: fully-assembled biology
Research enhances CLARITY of the brain in neurological disease

NIH Director’s Transformative Research Awardee, Dr. Karl Deisseroth, has developed a new technology, which allows researchers to fluorescently tag small molecules and specific cell types to visualize individual molecular interactions as well as entire cellular networks in 3-D form providing insight at both the molecular and whole system level that was not previously possible.



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Stem Cell
Novel stem cell technique creates neurons

Drs. Kang Zhang and Sheng Ding, funded in part by the NIH Director’s Transformative R01 (T-R01) Award program, have unlocked the key to transforming human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into a type of precursor cell that can be produced in large quantities and has the potential to become many different types of brain cells. Their findings, published in the May 17, 2011 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, represent a huge leap forward in stem cell science.



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Transformative Research Projects Program

Program Description

The Common Fund's NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award initiative, formerly known as the Transformative Research Project (TR01), is created specifically to support exceptionally innovative and/or unconventional research projects that have the potential to create or overturn fundamental paradigms. These projects tend to be inherently risky and may not fare well in conventional NIH review. As compared to the other NIH Director’s Awards - the Pioneer, New Innovator Award, and Early Independence Awards - the primary emphasis of the Transformative Research Awards initiative is to support research on bold, paradigm-shifting, but untested ideas, rather than to support exceptionally creative individuals who wish to pursue new, potentially high impact research directions.

To facilitate submission and identification of bold, high impact ideas that are compelling despite the risks involved, the Transformative Research Awards initiative is also piloting novel approaches to application instructions and review. Applicants are instructed to focus their research strategies on significance and innovation without expectations of providing preliminary data. The review uses a multi-phase, Editorial Board style process with explicit emphasis maintained on significance and innovation.

The NIH encourages Transformative Research Award applications from investigators in all disciplines relevant to the NIH mission, including the biological, behavioral, clinical, social, physical, chemical, computational, engineering, and mathematical sciences. Applications from individual investigators or teams of investigators are welcome. Large budget requests, up to the entire funds set aside for the initiative, will be considered.


INQUIRIES

For more information about the Transformative Research see the 2013 Frequently Asked Questions, or e-mail your questions to Transformative_Awards@mail.nih.gov.


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Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives  •  National Institutes of Health  •  Bethesda, Maryland 20892