70 - An Evaluation of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) New Innovators Award (DP2)

Abstract Information: The NIAID DP2 program was launched in 2019 to support exceptionally creative postdoctoral or newly independent Early-Stage Investigators (ESIs) who propose high-risk, high-reward research. To achieve this, the NIAID DP2 program aims to: 1) fund creative, novel, high-impact research within NIAID scientific priority areas, as well as 2) facilitate career movement of its awardees, for example postdoctoral researchers towards independent faculty positions. NIAID conducted a multi-method evaluation of its DP2 program to assess whether it was achieving its goals and to facilitate any necessary improvements moving forward. NIAID surveyed awardees for their perspectives and experiences with the NIAID DP2 award, including feedback on how the award impacted their career and research. NIAID also analyzed subsequent funding and publication data for NIAID DP2 awardees compared to other cohorts of National Institutes of Health ESI awardees. This poster describes the evaluation methodologies, notable findings, recommendations, and study limitations.

Relevance Statement: The NIAID DP2 program was launched in 2019 and began selecting applicants for awards in 2020. A primary goal of the program is to support exceptionally creative ESIs proposing highly innovative research in NIAID scientific priority areas. The program also aims to facilitate the career movement of awardees, including postdoctoral researchers towards independent faculty positions as well as newly independent researchers in their first year of a faculty position or equivalent. As the program is relatively new, limited time has passed for awardees to begin conducting their research and progress in their careers, making it challenging to assess program success. However, NIAID endeavored to obtain a preliminary understanding of the outcomes of the NIAID DP2 award on awardees’ research and career, as well as an understanding of how to improve the program. NIAID conducted a multi-method evaluation to assess initial program outcomes. This included surveying all awardees to assess how the program impacted their research and career, as well as gathering feedback on suggestions for improvement. NIAID also examined internal NIH data on subsequent funding and publications for all NIAID DP2 awardees compared to other similar cohorts, such as the R00 and R01-ESI grant awardees. Some of the notable findings from the evaluation include: 1. Survey respondents reported that the NIAID DP2 award effectively supported forward movement in their career and had a positive impact on their research. All respondents indicated that had they not received the NIAID DP2 award, they would not have been able to fully conduct research in the same scope as their award. 2. NIAID DP2 awardees were more likely to receive an NIH follow-up award (21%) than R00 (17%) or R01-ESI awardees (7%) in the first year after receiving their initial award. DP2 awardees were also more likely to get larger multi-project grants including project/center grants (P) or cooperative agreement grants. 3. NIAID DP2 awardees produced the fewest publications per awardee (µ=1 vs. µ =6 for R00 awardees and µ =3 for R01-ESI awardees). 4. Survey respondents’ most frequent suggestions for improvement were to 1) raise the visibility of awardees by publicly promoting award recipients, and 2) leverage a NIAID DP2 awardee network by facilitating meetings and research symposia and offering support for career development. The NIAID DP2 program offers an important opportunity for ESIs to pursue novel research with potential for high impact in NIAID priority areas. This evaluation provides important direct feedback to NIAID on the impact of the program on awardees’ research and career trajectories. By establishing these early measures, NIAID has the opportunity to assess how these perspectives, experiences, and outcome measures change over time. This evaluation also adds to the growing base of literature on evaluation methodologies to inform an early-stage program as it grows and develops, including incorporating the perspectives and experience of those most directly impacted by the evaluation.