Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant (R21)
Short, higher-risk projects: feasibility work, new measures, early-stage intervention development. No preliminary data required, which is what makes it the usual first NIH grant for a social work researcher.
- Indicative award
- up to $275k (total award)Combined direct costs across the two years, with no single-year ceiling inside that total.
- Timing
- Several times a yearSeveral times a year · Feb, Jun, OctNo specific published date recorded. This funder publishes a cycle rather than a date, and this database does not invent one.Standard NIH due dates three times a year — but not every institute participates.
- Who can apply
- Early-career faculty, Any faculty rank
- Eligibility
- Institution applies. Confirm the target institute accepts R21s under the parent announcement; several do not, and that is not obvious from the announcement itself.
- SSWR clusters
- Special Interest Groups
- Topics
- feasibility · pilot · measure development · intervention development
- Apply at
- https://grants.nih.gov/funding/activity-codes/R21
- This entry
- Curated by the working group. Written 2026-08-07. The funder link has not yet been machine-checked.
Amounts and dates on this page are indicative and are maintained by people rather than scraped. Funders change ceilings, windows and eligibility without notice; confirm all details at the source above before applying.
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