Career Level: Junior Faculty

  1. High School & Undergraduate Student
  2. Doctoral & Medical Student
  3. Post
    Doctorate
  4. Junior
    Faculty
  5. Established Investigator

Career Development Awards (K-series) are available for individuals just beginning their faculty appointments who have protected time for research. NIDDK supports K awards for both Ph.D. researchers and physician scientists.

Contact NIDDK training program staff with questions well in advance of deadlines. 

Awards that are for the training or career development of a single applicant.

  1. Supports basic scientists (non-clinicians) as they transition to independence and develop their careers with the support of a mentor.

  2. Supports early clinician scientists who are transitioning to independence in a junior faculty position while pursuing a basic or clinical research project and developing their career.

  3. Supports the career development of investigators who have made a commitment to focus their research endeavors on patient-oriented research. Supports early clinician scientists who are transitioning to independence in a junior faculty position and developing their career while pursuing a clinical research project that involves direct patient contact and the support of a mentor(s).

  4. Supports highly productive postdoctoral fellows pursuing  mentored research projects while looking for faculty appointments. 

  5. NIH may repay up to $35,000 of your qualified student loan debt per year, including most undergraduate, graduate, and medical school loans if you are actively engaged in clinical research.

  6. NIH may repay up to $35,000 of your qualified student loan debt per year, including most undergraduate, graduate, and medical school loans if you are actively engaged in research related to a pediatric disease or disease model.

  7. Supports research projects that can be completed in a 2-yr time frame. NIDDK does not participate in the parent NOFO for R03s, but issues NOFOs for specific audiences, e.g. NIDDK- supported K01, K08, and K23 awardees.

  8. A program to invite eligible institutions to submit a pre-application (also known as a "white paper" or "précis") to facilitate certain approaches or economies, such as reducing burden on the applicant community, for a funding opportunity

Awards that are under the direction of a senior faculty member who is responsible for selecting trainees or scholars. View our institutional training program locations.

  1. Award to an institution to support several individuals as they transition from fellowship to faculty while pursuing a research project with the help of a mentor(s).

  2. Supports partnerships between American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) tribes or tribally-based organizations and institutions that conduct intensive academic-level biomedical, behavioral and health services research.

  3. Individual investigator-initiated research projects for faculty at MSIs to conduct research of limited scope in environments with limited research infrastructure/facilities.

Awards to support a diverse scientific workforce.

  1. Supports partnerships between American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) tribes or tribally-based organizations and institutions that conduct intensive academic-level biomedical, behavioral and health services research.

  2. Individual investigator-initiated research projects for faculty at MSIs to conduct research of limited scope in environments with limited research infrastructure/facilities.

See About Funding Mechanisms for an overview of mechanisms commonly used by NIDDK to fund researchers.