Maximizing Investigators' Research Award

NIGMS intends to continue its flagship Maximizing Investigators' Research Awards (MIRA) program. MIRA provides support for the research in an investigator's laboratory that falls within the mission of NIGMS through a single grant award. The goal of MIRA is to increase the efficiency of NIGMS funding by providing investigators with greater funding stability and scientific flexibility, thereby enabling researchers to take on more ambitious and innovative studies, enhancing scientific productivity and the chances for important breakthroughs. The program will also help distribute funding more widely among the nation's highly talented and promising investigators. Over the past decade, MIRA has become the primary approach through which NIGMS supports fundamental, investigator-initiated research.

This NOFO encourages applications from eligible NIGMS-funded investigators and from NIH-defined New Investigators proposing research that is aligned with NIGMS's mission. The NOFO will also allow renewal applications from all current MIRA grantees, including those previously funded as Early-Stage Investigators (ESIs). NIGMS intends to reissue a separate NOFO to support ESIs through the MIRA program in the future.