Age of Principal Investigators at the Time of First R01 Remains Level with Recent Years in FY 2023

In 2021, we reported that the age at which a researcher is designated on an NIH award for the first time had increased since 1995 and plateaued in the 2010s. We showed that the median age for PhDs first designated on an award remained around 41 in recent years while the median age of MDs and MD-PhDs was 44. There were no appreciable differences between researchers identifying as male or female. Today we are sharing an update on these data for fiscal years (FYs) 2021 – 2023, with the addition of information related to race, ethnicity, and disability status. We have heard concerns about the rising age at which early career researchers are first supported on an NIH award. Some concerns have centered on the ways competitive funding and academic hiring impact early career scientists pursuing independent research careers. For simplicity in this post, we refer to investigators receiving awards, but recognize that NIH makes R01-equivalent awards to institutions (not individual researchers). Table 1 shows the age of investigators upon receiving their first R01-equivalent grant for FYs 2021 through 2023 disaggregated by their terminal degree. Between FYs 2021 and 2023, the median age for PhDs receiving their first award was 41 while the median age for MDs and MD-PhDs remained around 44. The difference between these groups may be due to the additional time spent by physicians in clinical training after receiving their degrees. Table 1. Age at Receiving first R01 Equivalent...
Source: NIH Extramural Nexus - Category: Research Authors: Tags: blog Open Mike biomedical research workforce Early Stage Investigators Funding data Source Type: funding