Division of Sponsored Programs

Supporting Fairness and Originality in NIH Research Applications

NIH is providing guidance to researchers on the appropriate usage of artificial intelligence (AI) to maintain the fairness and originality of NIH’s research application process. NIH is also instituting a new policy limiting the number of applications that NIH will consider per Principal Investigator per calendar year.

Policy

NIH will not consider applications that are either substantially developed by AI, or contain sections substantially developed by AI, to be original ideas of applicants. If the detection of AI is identified post award, NIH may refer the matter to the Office of Research Integrity to determine whether there is research misconduct while simultaneously taking enforcement actions.

NIH will only accept six new, renewal, resubmission, or revision applications from an individual Principal Investigator/Program Director or Multiple Principal Investigator for all council rounds in a calendar year. This policy applies to all activity codes except T activity codes and R13 Conference Grant Applications.

Effective Date

This policy is effective for applications submitted to the September 25, 2025, receipt date and beyond.

National Institutes of Health
NOT-OD-25-132
July 17, 2025

Revision: NIH Policy and Guidelines on the Inclusion of Women and Minorities as Subjects in Clinical Research

The purpose of this Notice is to inform the research community that NIH is revising the NIH Policy and Guidelines on the Inclusion of Women and Minorities as Subjects in Clinical Research to align with Executive Order 14168 “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

Revisions are primarily focused on promulgating the use of “sex” instead of “sex/gender” and updating race and/or ethnicity information to align with Office of Management and Budget’s Statistical Policy Directive No. 15: Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity. The revised Policy is now titled, "NIH Policy and Guidelines on the Inclusion of Women and Members of Racial and/or Ethnic Minority Groups in Clinical Research."

Effective Date

The Policy and Guidelines will apply to all grants, cooperative agreements, contracts, other transactions, and intramural studies 30 days after publication of this notice. The revised Policy is effective 30 days after the date of publication of this notice, at which time it will replace NOT-OD-18-014 and NOT-OD-02-001.

National Institutes of Health
NOT-OD-25-131
July 17, 2025