Executive Summary: 4th Annual NIH Workshop for Early Career Investigators in HIV

Elisabet Caler, Ph.D., NIH Office of AIDS Research
David Chang, Ph.D., NIH Office of AIDS Research
Vasudev Rao, M.B.B.S., M.S., National Institute on Mental Health
Elaine Wong, M.S., National Institute on Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Introduction

The 4th Annual National Institutes of Health (NIH) Workshop for Early Career Investigators (ECIs)¹ in HIV was held on September 26, 2025. The workshop was designed to strengthen the HIV research enterprise and support a sustainable and multidisciplinary workforce by providing ECIs with information on NIH HIV research priorities, funding mechanisms, and career development resources. Supporting the next generation of HIV researchers is central to the missions of NIH and the Office of AIDS Research (OAR), particularly during a period of rapid scientific change and ongoing challenges in the HIV field.

The workshop was informed by prior listening sessions with ECIs, which identified persistent barriers such as limited access to mentoring and training, lack of clarity around funding pathways, and the need for improved communication and feedback from NIH. In response, OAR continues to coordinate resources to sustain the full HIV research pipeline, from basic and translational science to behavioral and implementation research, and to support investigators whose work addresses the needs of communities most affected by HIV.

Session 1: NIH HIV Research Priorities and Policy Updates

More than 20 NIH institutes, centers, and offices (ICOs) currently support HIV-related research. OAR coordinates this work across ICOs, establishes NIH-wide HIV research priorities, and ensures that the HIV research portfolio supports high-impact science with the potential to improve public health outcomes. Presenters emphasized crosscutting principles that guide the NIH HIV research program, including the importance of multidisciplinary approaches, attention to populations disproportionately affected by HIV, and engagement in multisectoral partnerships.

NIH’s growing emphasis on implementation science was highlighted, reflecting the need to bridge the gap between evidence-based interventions and real-world practice. At the same time, NIH continues to support a comprehensive HIV research portfolio that includes fundamental discovery and clinical research. Presenters reviewed recent changes to grant structures and the peer-review framework and introduced the NIH Highlighted Topics resource, which identifies areas of particular interest within NIH ICOs.

NIH policy updates discussed during the session included changes to indirect cost rate caps, limits on the number of applications per principal investigator per year, restrictions on the use of artificial intelligence in application development, updates to inclusion policies, and changes to the structure of foreign subawards. The NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy applies to all NIH-funded research that generates scientific data. NIH reaffirmed its support for animal research while encouraging the use of nonanimal approaches, including new approach methodologies, when appropriate. Additional opportunities for ECIs, such as NIH Loan Repayment Programs and the Office of Disease Prevention’s Early Stage Investigator Lecture Award, were also highlighted. ECIs were encouraged to engage with mentors, program officers, and partners across sectors to support career development.

Session 2: Preparing a Responsive Grant Application

This session focused on practical guidance for developing competitive grant applications. Presenters reviewed funding mechanisms most relevant to ECIs and encouraged investigators to identify gaps and priorities by reviewing notices of funding opportunities, institute council-approved grants, OAR strategic priorities, and resources such as NIH RePORTER and ClinicalTrials.gov. The NIH RePORTER Matchmaker tool was highlighted as a resource for identifying program officers aligned with an investigator’s research interests.

Key recommendations for grant writing included:

• Allowing sufficient preparation time;
• Using clear, concise, and consistent language;
• Ensuring alignment between specific aims and research strategy;
• Employing appropriate conceptual frameworks and statistical power; and
• Addressing potential threats to internal validity.

An overview of the NIH grant review and funding process clarified the roles of applicants, reviewers, program officers, and institutes. ECIs were encouraged to routinely consult the NIH grants website and to contact program officers throughout the application process.

The resubmission process was also reviewed, with emphasis on the fact that resubmissions are common and often successful. ECIs were advised to discuss summary statements with program officers to determine whether reviewer concerns can be adequately addressed. Strategies to strengthen resubmissions included adding new preliminary data, revising study design and methods, clarifying hypotheses and rationale, improving alignment between aims and strategy, and updating the literature. Reviewers assess resubmissions independently of the original application.

Session 3: Breakout Rooms

Participants engaged in small group discussions with NIH staff across nine breakout rooms focused on the following topics:

• Epidemiology, surveillance, data science, and artificial intelligence applications;
• Implementation, behavioral, and social sciences research;
• Prevention, vaccines, and diagnostics;
• Clinical research, therapeutics, and HIV across the lifespan;
• Comorbidities, coinfections, and complications;
• Basic and translational science, including pathogenesis, reservoirs, and cure research;
• Training, fellowship, and career development (T/F/K) applications;
• NIH HIV Research 101: orientation and fundamentals; and
• ECI listening sessions.

Session 4: Support During Career Transitions

NIH programs that support career development across training and early faculty stages were reviewed, including trainee-specific awards, career development mechanisms, and payline considerations for ECIs. Presenters also discussed less common funding mechanisms, such as cooperative agreements and NIH Director’s Awards that are open to or targeted toward early stage investigators. The importance of strong mentoring relationships was emphasized, particularly for navigating career transitions and assessing long-term opportunities within the field.

Two ECIs who recently achieved research independence—Violeta (Vee) Rodriguez, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Justin Knox, Ph.D., M.P.H., Associate Professor at Columbia University—shared their career trajectories and lessons learned related to identifying funding opportunities, building mentoring networks, and navigating professional challenges. Key themes included purposeful career planning, engagement in diverse activities aligned with career goals, and consideration of nontraditional career pathways. Persistence, effective use of available resources, and willingness to pursue opportunities despite uncertainty were highlighted as critical to career advancement.

Conclusion

The 4th Annual NIH Workshop for ECIs in HIV reflected NIH OAR’s deliberate and responsive efforts to address challenges identified by ECIs during an extraordinary period for HIV research. In direct response to ECI feedback regarding uncertainty around funding pathways, evolving policies, limited mentoring, and broader disruptions to the research environment, the workshop provided targeted information on NIH priorities and policy changes, practical guidance on developing and resubmitting grant applications, and structured opportunities for direct engagement with NIH staff. Through these efforts, OAR reaffirmed its commitment to sustaining the full HIV research pipeline, reducing barriers to career advancement, and investing in the next generation of HIV researchers.

ECIs are encouraged to remain engaged with NIH and to contact [email protected] to connect with program officers and ongoing opportunities.

View the recording of the workshop on YouTube.

Read the Workshop Agenda.

¹ Early stage investigators (ESIs) are defined by NIH as those individuals who have completed a terminal degree within the past ten years but have not yet secured substantial NIH funding. OAR uses the umbrella term of early career investigator (ECI) to refer to this group as well as other researchers, including those junior investigators who are early in their careers and may have received some NIH funding but have not yet been promoted to associate or full professor.