NIH PA-24-193: Pathway to Independence (K99/R00, Independent Clinical Trial Required)
A parent NIH career-transition award for mentored postdoctoral researchers who propose to lead an independent clinical trial, clinical trial feasibility study, or separate ancillary study and transition to independent research. The next new-application receipt date is October 12, 2026.
NIH PA-24-193: Pathway to Independence (K99/R00, Independent Clinical Trial Required)
NIH PA-24-193 is a two-phase career-transition grant for a postdoctoral researcher who needs additional mentored preparation before moving into an independent research position. This particular parent announcement is for candidates who will serve as the lead investigator of an independent clinical trial, a clinical trial feasibility study, or a separate ancillary study to an existing trial. It is not the right announcement for someone who will merely gain experience on another investigator’s trial; NIH directs those applicants to the companion announcement for clinical trials that are not independently led.
The next new-application receipt date listed by NIH is October 12, 2026. The preceding June 12, 2026 receipt date has passed. NIH’s table then lists February 12, 2027 as the following new-application date, and the announcement expires May 8, 2027. Applications are due by 5:00 p.m. local time of the applicant organization. Because the October receipt date is still the next open new-application date at this update, this page is an active listing rather than an archive entry.
Important NCI correction: The National Cancer Institute no longer accepts applications under PA-24-193. NCI ended its participation effective December 31, 2024, including for resubmissions. NCI applicants proposing an independent clinical trial should use PAR-25-313, the NCI K99/R00 announcement that replaced this parent mechanism for that use case. PA-24-193 remains the verified parent source for the other participating NIH Institutes and Centers listed in its announcement.
Key details
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Funding opportunity number | PA-24-193 |
| Award activity | K99/R00 Career Transition Award/Research Transition Award |
| Funding instrument | Grant |
| Clinical-trial requirement | Required: the candidate must propose an independent clinical trial or an eligible clinical-trial feasibility or ancillary study |
| Award structure | Up to 5 years total: up to 2 years of K99 support followed by up to 3 years of R00 support |
| Budget approach | Salary and research costs are requested at the level provided by the awarding Institute or Center; the announcement does not state one fixed program-wide total |
| Next new-application date | October 12, 2026 |
| Following new-application date | February 12, 2027 |
| Announcement expiration | May 8, 2027 |
| Submission time | 5:00 p.m. local time of the applicant organization |
| Geographic scope | U.S. applicant organizations; foreign components may be allowed under NIH rules |
What the award is designed to do
The K99/R00 is built around a deliberate transition. During the mentored K99 phase, the candidate completes the research and career development needed to become competitive for a tenure-track or equivalent faculty position. During the R00 phase, the candidate receives independent research support after moving to an approved independent position. The phases are intended to be continuous, so the application should explain not only why more training is needed now but also how that training will produce a credible independent program.
NIH describes the K99 phase as supporting up to two years of mentored postdoctoral research training and career development. The R00 phase can provide up to three years of independent research support, subject to satisfactory progress in the K99 phase and an approved independent tenure-track or equivalent faculty position. A candidate who becomes independent before a K99 award is made is not eligible to receive either phase under this mechanism.
The clinical work must be central to this transition. The candidate is expected to be the lead investigator of the proposed independent clinical trial, a clinical trial feasibility study, or a separate ancillary clinical study. A proposal that only places the candidate on a trial led by a mentor does not meet the purpose of PA-24-193. A proposal that is entirely preclinical or that has no NIH-defined clinical-trial component should be reviewed against a different K99/R00 announcement before any application effort is committed.
Eligibility in practical terms
The candidate must hold a clinical or research doctorate, such as a Ph.D., M.D., D.O., D.D.S., D.M.D., D.V.M., or another equivalent doctoral degree recognized by NIH. The candidate must be in a mentored postdoctoral training position when applying and must be able to show why at least twelve months of additional mentored research and career development are needed. NIH says the strongest applications generally propose one to two years of substantive mentored preparation before the transition.
The standard postdoctoral research-experience limit is four years at the relevant application due date, whether the application is new or a resubmission. The calculation concerns research experience, not every period of clinical training. NIH allows limited treatment of childbirth, parental, medical, military, and other well-justified leave under its eligibility rules. Those circumstances should be documented and discussed with the relevant Institute or Center before submission; they should not be assumed to create an automatic extension without confirmation.
Prior independence is a major exclusion. A candidate who has held an independent research faculty or tenure-track-equivalent position in academia, industry, or elsewhere is not eligible. NIH also excludes candidates who have already served as an independent PD/PI on specified NIH research or career-development awards, or on other peer-reviewed research grants above the stated direct-cost threshold. A clinical faculty role that denotes clinical independence but not research independence may be treated differently, so clinician-scientists should obtain an Institute or Center eligibility opinion when the appointment is unusual.
There is no citizenship requirement for K99 candidates. A candidate who is not a U.S. citizen may apply, but temporary-visa status must allow the proposed work at the applicant institution during the K99 phase and at the R00 institution during the independent phase. The institutions are responsible for documenting that continuity. Candidates must also commit at least 75% of full-time professional effort, or nine person-months, to the career-development program. Other duties may use the remaining effort only when they do not interfere with the proposed development plan.
The K99 applicant organization must be a qualifying U.S. organization. Non-domestic organizations and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to apply. Foreign components may be permitted, but NIH states that it will not issue awards to domestic or foreign entities involving foreign subawards or subcontracts. The R00 host must be able to support the candidate’s independent appointment and research. Federal agencies such as the NIH intramural program have only the eligibility described for the mentored phase, while the R00 eligibility of other organizations depends on the appointment and its ability to support independent NIH research.
Not every NIH Institute and Center participates in every parent announcement. A candidate should compare the scientific mission and requirements of a participating Institute or Center with the proposed trial before preparing the application. The PA-24-193 page links to the current table of Institute-specific information, requirements, and staff contacts. NCI is specifically excluded from this parent now; NCI applicants must follow PAR-25-313 instead.
Budget and award period
PA-24-193 does not provide a single fixed award amount that applies to every applicant. The official award section says that budgets are composed of salary and other program-related expenses, with salary and research costs requested to the level provided by the awarding Institute or Center. The total project period may not exceed five years. That is the useful planning boundary: up to two years for K99 and up to three years for R00, with the actual budget shaped by the relevant Institute or Center and the approved career-development and research plan.
For the K99 phase, the budget must support the mentored research and career-development work. NIH identifies allowable uses for clinician-scientists that can include career-development tuition and fees, research supplies, equipment, technical personnel, travel to research meetings or training, and statistical services. Salary for mentors and administrative assistants is not allowed under the stated program terms. The K99 phase also uses an 8% modified-total-direct-cost rate for extramural indirect costs. R00 indirect costs are reimbursed at the extramural sponsoring institution’s rate.
The application should therefore separate what is needed to become independent from what will be conducted after the transition. The K99 budget needs enough detail for each budget period. For the R00 phase, the announcement allows a total requested amount for each budget period rather than the same itemization required for the K99 budget. Applicants should still make the clinical operations, analysis, personnel, and institutional support assumptions transparent and should confirm Institute-specific limits before finalizing figures.
How to prepare the October application
1. Confirm the Institute or Center and clinical-trial fit
Start with the participating-Institute table and the program contacts. Confirm that the proposed science falls within the mission of a participating Institute or Center and that the candidate, rather than only a mentor, will lead the independent clinical trial, feasibility study, or ancillary study. This check is especially important for cancer-focused applications because NCI’s replacement route is PAR-25-313, not PA-24-193.
2. Resolve eligibility and registrations early
Confirm the doctorate, postdoctoral research-experience calculation, mentored status, effort commitment, appointment history, and visa documentation. The applicant organization must maintain the registrations required by the NIH application guide, including the System for Award Management, Unique Entity Identifier, eRA Commons, and Grants.gov path. All required registrations must be complete before submission. NIH does not treat late registration as a reason to waive the receipt deadline.
3. Build one K99-to-R00 research and career plan
Explain which skills, methods, clinical-trial experience, and mentoring activities are needed during K99 and how they support the independent R00 program. The research plan should show continuity without making the two phases indistinguishable. Define the candidate’s leadership role, the mentor’s role, the clinical setting, the participant or population plan, intervention and monitoring approach, feasibility risks, and the analysis strategy. The trial should not appear as an add-on to a general postdoctoral project.
4. Follow the correct application instructions
Use the Career Development K instructions in the NIH How to Apply application guide together with the program-specific requirements in PA-24-193. NIH lists three electronic submission routes: NIH ASSIST, an institutional system-to-system solution, or Grants.gov Workspace, with eRA Commons used to track the application. The institution should choose the route early enough to resolve account, permission, and validation issues before the receipt date.
The K99 budget must include itemized information for each budget period. Reference letters are submitted through the eRA Commons Submit Referee Information link rather than through Grants.gov. Complete the required research, career-development, mentoring, responsible-conduct, data-management, and clinical-trial materials under the applicable K instructions and page limits. NIH may reject incomplete or noncompliant applications before review.
5. Submit before 5:00 p.m. local time and inspect the result
The new-application receipt date is October 12, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. local time for the applicant organization. NIH encourages early submission so that errors found during electronic checks can be corrected by the deadline. After submission, the institution and candidate should view the application in eRA Commons, confirm that the complete application is present, and correct any errors before the receipt time. A corrected application submitted after the deadline is late.
Review and transition considerations
Reviewers will need to see a credible scientific plan, a serious career-development structure, and a feasible path from mentored work to independence. The application should make the candidate’s development needs concrete rather than describing mentorship as a general benefit. It should also explain why the proposed clinical trial is appropriate for the candidate’s transition and how the K99 period creates capabilities that will matter in the R00 phase.
Clinical-trial feasibility deserves the same care as the career narrative. Address recruitment, participant safety, intervention delivery, data quality, statistical assumptions, oversight, and the limits of the proposed setting. If the project is an ancillary study, define how it remains a separate study and how access to the existing trial will be governed. If it is a feasibility study, state what feasibility questions will be answered and how those results inform the independent program.
The R00 transition is not automatic merely because a K99 application is funded. It depends on satisfactory K99 progress and an approved independent position. The application should identify the milestones that demonstrate readiness, the resources needed at the future host institution, and the scientific independence that will distinguish the R00 program from the mentor’s work.
Quick checklist
- Use the official PA-24-193 page for the October 12, 2026 receipt date, the February 12, 2027 follow-on date, and the May 8, 2027 expiration.
- Confirm that the selected Institute or Center participates and that the candidate will lead an independent clinical trial, feasibility study, or ancillary study.
- If the application is for NCI, stop and use PAR-25-313 instead of PA-24-193.
- Check the four-year postdoctoral research-experience rule, any documented qualifying leave, prior independence, doctorate, visa, and 75% effort requirements.
- Complete SAM, UEI, eRA Commons, and Grants.gov preparations before drafting the final submission package.
- Prepare the K99 and R00 phases as one connected transition plan, with an itemized K99 budget and an allowable R00 budget format.
- Submit electronically early enough to inspect the application in eRA Commons and correct errors before 5:00 p.m. local time on October 12, 2026.
The official announcement remains the controlling source for Institute-specific requirements, application forms, page limits, and any later notices. This page is a planning summary; applicants should reread PA-24-193 and consult the relevant Institute or Center before submission.