NIH to block visa researchers from career-launch award
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- NIH plans to limit eligibility for its "Pathways to Independence" (K99/R00) award to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and non-citizen nationals, according to an internal presentation viewed by STAT.
- The K99/R00 award has historically been one of the few NIH funding programs open to international scientists on visas.
- The award provides two years of postdoctoral funding followed by three years of support as an independent lab head.
- Experts quoted in the report warn that without this pathway, even the most promising international scholars will struggle to establish research careers in the United States.
Why it matters: The change eliminates one of the few NIH funding routes available to visa-holding international scientists, and experts in the report warn the most promising scholars will struggle to establish independent careers in the U.S. without it. For NIH-funded labs, the policy narrows a historically important pipeline of early-career postdoctoral talent.
