Analysis of NIH K99/R00 Awards and the Career Progression of Awardees

Abstract

Postdoctoral research fellows are highly skilled and trained researchers within the academic biomedical research workforce. Those that aspire to continue academic research careers typically seek tenure-track faculty positions as a principle investigator. In the United States of America, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) sponsors a Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) mechanism designed to facilitate the transition from postdoctoral fellow to faculty by providing 5-years of funding support during the postdoctoral and faculty phases. This makes postdoctoral fellows with K99/R00 awards attractive candidates for institutions looking to hire faculty because it shows that the candidate has a track record of NIH funding and the institution gets a significant amount of funds in the form of indirect costs once the R00 phase is awarded. This analysis explores how many K99 recipients successfully converted to R00 awards from 2007 to 2022. This analysis also examines which institutions these conversions occurred at and how often postdoctoral fellows with K99 awards were retained at their home institution for the R00 portion of the award or moved to a different institution. The findings of this analysis show that ~170 K99 awardees convert to R00 each year and between 20-35% of those are retained at the institution they received their K99 award at for the R00 phase.

Guide to assembling a successful K99/R00 application

“…2). Most K99/R00 awardees successfully find tenure-track positions, and the majority secure R01-equivalent funding by the end of the R00 period [1,2] (Fig. 3); however, the authors, long-term standing reviewers for the NHLBI Mentored Transition to Independence (MTI) study section, observed many promising applications that failed because of poor grantsmanship.…”