NIH F31 & F32 Deadlines: Dec 8, Apr 8, Aug 8 · Stipends

Training grants: the NIH T32 award history shows which institutes and schools hold T32 programs.

Use the current parent F31 announcement, PA-25-422 (opens in a new tab), or parent F32 announcement, PA-25-423 (opens in a new tab), to confirm institute participation and the exact application. The next standard cycle after December is April 8, 2027. NIH prohibits late fellowship submissions for due dates on or after May 25, 2026, so do not plan around a late window.

For FY2026, the F31 predoctoral stipend is $29,364. F32 postdoctoral stipends start at $63,480 and rise with relevant experience. The right route is not based on stipend alone. Confirm career stage, citizenship status, sponsoring organization, institute participation, and the current FORMS-I application before writing.

Choose the fellowship route before the due date

All three routes still require a candidate, sponsor, organization, and current notice check. The NIH grants hub compares fellowship routes with research and career awards when an individual fellowship is the wrong fit.

What NIH Notices Don't Tell You About F31 and F32

The official notices define eligibility, dates, and application requirements. They do not assemble the candidate's route decision in one place or reveal when an otherwise eligible application is aimed at a nonparticipating institute.

Based on our analysis of the 2 active parent announcements, linked 2026 notices, current forms, and the search questions leading readers to this guide, we found that institute participation is the first stop check, not a final administrative detail. The common mistake is to start from the F31 or F32 activity code and assume every NIH institute accepts the same parent application. That can fail because participation differs between PA-25-422 and PA-25-423 and can change through a notice.

For example, one applicant at a university could have a valid postdoctoral training plan in neuroscience and still choose the wrong route by selecting the parent F32 with NINDS, which doesn't participate in PA-25-423. Another candidate could reuse a lab's old five-criterion outline and spend pages answering a review structure NIH replaced for due dates on or after January 25, 2025.

Our advice is direct: you should confirm the institute and current forms package before drafting. Avoid treating sponsor reputation as a substitute for a documented training need, activity, milestone, and commitment. NIH's revised review instructions make that shortcut weaker, not stronger.

F31 and F32 deadline calendar

The parent announcements use the same 3-date standard receipt cycle. According to NIH, an application is due by 5:00 p.m. local time of the applicant organization. When a due date falls on a weekend or federal holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day.

These dates apply to the current parent announcements. An institute-specific NOFO can use a different schedule. NIH removed separate AIDS due dates (opens in a new tab); when standard dates apply, AIDS and non-AIDS applications use the same cycle. Always use the date shown for the exact funding opportunity in ASSIST, Grants.gov, or your institution's submission system.

The NIH late-submission policy in NOT-OD-26-064 (opens in a new tab) prohibits late submissions for fellowship applications with due dates on or after May 25, 2026. Registration problems, internal routing delays, and sponsor availability should therefore be resolved before the deadline day.

Stop before writing: does the intended institute participate?

The 2 parent announcements do not have identical institute lists. An NIH-wide activity code does not mean every institute accepts the parent application. Read the "Components of Participating Organizations" section in the exact NOFO.

The current parent F32 announcement does not list the National Cancer Institute or the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. NINDS also ended its own F32 announcement: according to NIH notice NOT-NS-26-002 (opens in a new tab), PAR-25-234's last receipt date was June 9, 2026. Do not assume that an earlier F32 page, a lab's prior award, or another institute's policy applies to a new submission.

Use this order:

1. Identify the institute that fits the proposed research and training, and compare its recent record in F31 success rates by institute.
2. Confirm that institute is listed in the active F31 or F32 announcement.
3. Read any institute-specific notes in the announcement.
4. Ask the listed scientific contact about fit when participation or assignment is uncertain.
5. Confirm the opportunity number in your institution's submission workspace.

This check can prevent weeks of work on an application that the intended institute will not accept under the parent announcement.

F31 and F32 success rates, FY2019 to FY2025

NIH funded 23.5% of reviewed F31 applications and 26.4% of reviewed F32 applications in FY2025, according to NIH Data Book table 203. Both rates fell from FY2024 (27.9% for F31 and 32.9% for F32). F31 awards dropped about 20%, from 1,057 to 849, while applications fell only 5%, from 3,795 to 3,607, so the predoctoral fellowship got harder to win without a surge in demand.

Grantsights analysis of table 203 shows F32 applications fell by about a third over the period, from 1,775 in FY2019 to 1,210 in FY2025, while the F32 rate stayed between 26.4% and 32.9%. Fewer postdocs are applying, but that hasn't raised the odds: FY2025's 26.4% was below FY2019's 28.8%.

F32 rates by institute vary more than the average suggests. Among institutes that reviewed at least 25 F32 applications in FY2025:

Two cautions before you read this as your odds. First, a red flag on the NCI row: the current parent F32 announcement doesn't list NCI or NINDS, so their FY2025 rows describe announcements you may not be able to use now. Check participation (above) before comparing rates. Second, an institute with 40 to 90 applications can move 10 points in a year on a few awards. For F31 rates by institute, see F31 success rates by institute; for the NIH-wide view across mechanisms, see NIH paylines in FY2026.

F31 vs F32 eligibility

The first eligibility split is 1 career-stage question: is the candidate still enrolled in the research doctorate, or has the candidate completed it?

The parent F31 permits a candidate to be enrolled at a domestic or foreign institution. It also permits eligible foreign sponsoring organizations. Foreign training needs a detailed explanation of why the proposed setting offers a clear scientific advantage over available domestic training. The citizenship rule still applies to the candidate by the time of award.

For F32, NIH expects the fellowship to add training that is distinct from the candidate's doctoral experience. A candidate who remains at the doctoral institution must explain why the same setting is appropriate and how the postdoctoral plan provides a genuinely new training experience.

Eligibility can also depend on the institute, the candidate's degree, prior NRSA support, and the research area. Treat the comparison table as a routing screen, then read Section III of the exact NOFO.

If neither route fits, use the NIH grants guide to compare research, fellowship, training, and career-development mechanisms. The NIH R01, R21, R03, and K comparison is useful when the applicant's real question is training support versus research-project or career-development support.

FY2026 F31 and F32 stipend amounts

The FY2026 notice contains 1 predoctoral level and 8 postdoctoral experience levels. According to NIH NOT-OD-26-044 (opens in a new tab), the predoctoral stipend is $29,364 and the zero-year postdoctoral stipend is $63,480.

Predoctoral F31 stipend

Postdoctoral F32 stipend

The NIH notice also sets these FY2026 amounts:

The stipend is not a negotiated salary line. NIH applies the published level based on career stage and relevant experience. Your institution can explain payroll, benefits, tax handling, and any supplementation policy. Do not use an older tax article or another institution's practice as a substitute for advice specific to your situation.

Current FORMS-I fellowship sections and page limits

The current package gives 3 pages to Candidate's Goals, Preparedness, and Potential and 3 pages to Training Activities and Timeline. According to NIH, applications using FORMS-I follow the PHS Fellowship Supplemental Form instructions (opens in a new tab). Older guides often name retired attachments or use old page limits.

NIH's fellowship page-limit table (opens in a new tab) controls when it differs from an old checklist. The candidate also needs an ORCID iD linked to the eRA Commons personal profile.

Reference letters are submitted separately through eRA Commons, not as part of the application package. NIH requires at least three and accepts no more than five. Referees should not include the sponsor or a co-sponsor. Follow the current NIH reference-letter instructions (opens in a new tab), and verify receipt before the deadline.

The three current scored review criteria

NIH revised fellowship review for applications due on or after January 25, 2025. Reviewers now score:

1. Candidate's Preparedness and Potential
2. Research Training Plan
3. Commitment to Candidate

The older five-criterion model is no longer the right structure for a 2026 application. NIH's reviewer guidance (opens in a new tab) also directs reviewers away from using the reputation of a sponsor or institution as a proxy for training quality.

That changes the writing task. A famous lab name is not an answer to a training gap. The application needs to show what the candidate can do now, what the candidate must learn next, which activities deliver that growth, and how the sponsor will provide time, access, feedback, and oversight.

The three-document alignment test

Grantsights uses a simple consistency check across the current application. This is our editorial framework, not a separate NIH scoring rule.

Run the test row by row. If a candidate goal has no activity, it is only an aspiration. If an activity has no sponsor commitment, delivery is uncertain. If the sponsor promises training that does not answer a stated need, the documents tell different stories.

A clean application should let a reviewer trace each major development goal through all three documents.

For more detail on responding after review, use the grant reviewer comments guide. It explains how to turn a summary statement into a response matrix without claiming that every requested change should be accepted.

A source-backed submission sequence

1. Confirm the mechanism and institute

Use the active F31 or F32 announcement, not the activity-code label alone. Confirm the candidate's stage, citizenship timing, prior NRSA support, intended institute, trial status, and sponsoring organization.

2. Confirm registrations and profiles

The applicant organization must maintain the registrations required by the NOFO. The candidate needs an eRA Commons account with the correct role and an ORCID iD linked to the personal profile. Registration delays are generally not accepted as a late-submission reason.

3. Build the training logic before drafting prose

List the candidate's preparation, development needs, proposed activities, milestones, sponsor actions, and research connection. Use the three-document alignment test to find gaps.

4. Map every attachment to FORMS-I

Create the institutional checklist from the current opportunity package. Remove retired attachment names from any reused lab template. Check the live page-limit table before final formatting.

5. Request references early

Select three to five eligible referees who can assess the candidate. Give them the opportunity number, due date, and NIH submission instructions. Because letters arrive separately, the candidate and institution should verify their status in eRA Commons.

6. Validate before the institutional cutoff

Check identifiers, institute assignment, attachment names, page limits, PDF rendering, reference status, and system warnings. Your sponsored-research office may set an internal deadline earlier than NIH's 5:00 p.m. local cutoff.

NRSA payback for F32

Predoctoral NRSA support creates 0 months of payback obligation. For postdoctoral NRSA recipients, the first 12 months of support create the obligation. Months 13 and later of continued postdoctoral NRSA training offset that obligation month for month.

The current NIH Grants Policy Statement payback section (opens in a new tab) controls the details. A postdoctoral fellow receiving the initial 12 months must complete the required payback agreement. If the fellowship ends before continued NRSA support offsets the obligation, other qualifying health-related research, training, or teaching service may be used under NIH policy. Review the agreement and ask the grants office or awarding institute about individual circumstances before accepting the award.

Resubmissions

NIH permits 1 resubmission of an unfunded application. The A1 includes a one-page introduction that responds to the prior review. A resubmission cannot be filed before the summary statement for the prior application is available, and NIH does not accept duplicate or highly overlapping applications under review at the same time.

Do not assume that changing a title or a few sentences creates a new application after an A1. Use NIH's current resubmission policy and the scientific contact when the distinction between a new application and a resubmission is unclear.

F31 and F32 decision checklist

Use the parent F31 when all of these are true:

• The candidate is enrolled in an eligible PhD or equivalent research degree program.
• The proposed work is a research training experience, not only dissertation project support.
• The candidate can meet the citizenship rule by award.
• The intended institute participates in the active announcement.
• The sponsor and institution can provide the proposed training.

Use the parent F32 when all of these are true:

• The candidate will hold the qualifying doctoral degree before activation.
• The proposal adds a distinct postdoctoral training experience.
• The candidate can meet the citizenship rule by award.
• The intended institute participates in the active F32 announcement.
• Prior postdoctoral NRSA support leaves enough time under the aggregate limit.
• The candidate understands the postdoctoral payback terms.

If the career stage or institute does not fit, compare the NIH K award hub, the K99/R00 guide, and the T32 training grant guide. A candidate who needs another mentored route can also use the NIH K01 guide. A dual-degree candidate should check the F30 route rather than assuming the parent F31 is interchangeable.

Sources

• Parent F31, PA-25-422 (opens in a new tab)
• Parent F32, PA-25-423 (opens in a new tab)
• Current NIH parent announcements (opens in a new tab)
• FY2026 NRSA stipend and allowance levels, NOT-OD-26-044 (opens in a new tab)
• NINDS F32 announcement early expiration, NOT-NS-26-002 (opens in a new tab)
• NIH standard due dates, including the F-series cycle (opens in a new tab)
• NIH removal of separate AIDS due dates, NOT-OD-26-029 (opens in a new tab)
• Current fellowship reviewer guidance (opens in a new tab)
• FORMS-I Fellowship Supplemental Form (opens in a new tab)
• NIH Data Book table 203, fellowship applications, awards, and success rates by institute (opens in a new tab)
• NIH application page limits (opens in a new tab)
• NIH fellowship reference letters (opens in a new tab)
• NIH Grants Policy Statement, NRSA payback (opens in a new tab)

Last verified: September 24, 2026. Recheck the active announcement and linked notices before submission.