NIH K08 Winners and Award History 2026

This guide is for: Physician-scientists, veterinarian-scientists and other clinically trained researchers weighing a K08, along with their division chiefs and mentors, who want to see the real size and shape of the K08 winner pool before committing protected time to an application.

Last updated: October 12, 2026

Full answer: NIH made 236 new K08 awards in FY2026, according to a Grantsights pull of NIH RePORTER on October 12, 2026, up from 196 in FY2025. The median first-year award was $181,048 in total cost. Nearly half of new awards (47%) were A1 resubmissions, and California, Massachusetts and New York held 46% of them. NCI, NHLBI and NIAID funded the most. RePORTER lists funded projects, not applications, so none of this is a success rate.

NIH K08 Winners and Award History: FY2019 to FY2026 RePORTER Data

Data note: Grantsights pulled NIH RePORTER project search API records for activity code K08 in fiscal years 2019 through 2026 on October 12, 2026. New awards are project numbers starting with "1" (new applications and A1 resubmissions), deduplicated by application ID. Amounts are RePORTER's award_amount, the total cost (direct plus indirect) obligated for the fiscal year. Medians exclude a few records under $1,000 that look like adjustments. FY2026 ended September 30, 2026, and RePORTER had loaded K08 records through October 3, 2026.

According to NIH, the parent K08 notice for projects without an independent clinical trial (PA-24-182) gives clinically trained scientists 3 to 5 years of protected, mentored research time. Candidates must commit at least 75% of full-time professional effort, or 9 person-months, and hold a full-time appointment at award. The notice expires May 8, 2027.

Grantsights analysis of 8,466 K08 RePORTER records over eight fiscal years shows a mechanism that's stable in size and heavy on resubmissions. New awards have stayed between 196 and 242 a year. In five of the eight years, at least half of new awards were A1s. A K08 is usually a two-round effort, and departments that budget protected time for only one round are planning against the record.

How Many K08 Awards NIH Makes Each Year

According to NIH RePORTER, new K08 counts moved in a narrow band from FY2019 to FY2026.

The median award hasn't kept pace with inflation. It was $176,148 in FY2019 and $181,048 in FY2026, a rise of under 3% over seven years. Most K08 money is salary, and institute salary limits have moved slowly, so the gap between what the K08 pays and what a clinician-scientist earns tends to widen. The candidate's department usually covers that difference, which is worth confirming in writing before you apply.

FY2026 awards arrived late in the year: 94 of 236 (40%) had August or September notice dates.

K08 Award Amounts in Detail

Specifically, the FY2026 median new K08 had $167,637 in direct cost and $181,048 in total cost. K08 indirect costs are limited to 8% of modified total direct costs.

Two FY2026 NIMH records, at Massachusetts General Hospital ($790,560) and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia ($721,440), are far above everything else. Amounts that large for a K08 look like more than one year funded at once. They aren't typical and shouldn't shape a budget.

The parent notice lets each institute set its own salary and research development limits. The research development money pays for supplies, equipment, technical staff, travel and coursework, but not mentor salary. Total federal salary can't exceed the NIH salary cap, which is $228,000 from January 1, 2026. Check the institute-specific table linked from the notice before you set the budget.

Where K08 Awards Go

According to NIH RePORTER, UCSF made the most new K08s in both FY2025 and FY2026.

The K08 is a hospital-heavy award. Independent hospitals held 49 of the 236 FY2026 awards (21%) and schools of medicine 150 (64%). Children's hospitals and cancer centers appear often in the institution list because the K08 suits pediatric subspecialists and oncologists who run labs.

UCSF's jump from 4 new K08s in FY2024 to 21 in FY2026 is the biggest single-institution change. Sloan Kettering went from 1 to 10 in a year. Small numbers make one institution's count swing, so use these as signs of a strong local pipeline, not as stable rankings.

Which Institutes Fund K08s

Nineteen institutes made new K08 awards in FY2026. NCI and NHLBI traded the top spot across the three years.

NCI's dip to 20 in FY2025 and recovery to 49 in FY2026 is the sharpest move. It's consistent with FY2025 award delays rolling into FY2026, though RePORTER can't confirm that. Across all three years, the top four institutes (NCI, NHLBI, NIAID and NIDDK) made more than half of new K08s. A candidate whose work fits a smaller institute should call that institute's career-development program officer early, because a handful of awards a year leaves little room.

K08 Eligibility, Effort and Due Dates

NIH's standard due dates put K-series new applications on February 12, June 12 and October 12, with resubmissions a month later. A weekend or federal holiday moves the date to the next business day.

Pain researchers should know that NIH ended the HEAL PainCare clinician K08/K23 program early in January 2026 (NOT-NS-26-030). The parent K08 is still open to pain topics through a participating institute.

What NIH RePORTER Doesn't Tell You About K08 Winners

RePORTER shows the 236 awards. It doesn't show how many K08 applications NIH received, so it can't produce a success rate. The NIH K-award success rates by institute page covers those published rates.

The 75% effort rule is where many K08 plans fail. A surgeon or interventional specialist has to cut clinical work to a quarter of full time for 3 to 5 years, and the department has to agree in writing. Reviewers read the chair's letter closely. A vague promise of "protected time" is a red flag.

Grantsights checked the notice split in RePORTER against the two parent notices: 224 of 236 FY2026 awards came through the no-trial notice, so the trial-required K08 is a small door. If your project would make you the lead on a clinical trial, compare the K23 before forcing it into a K08.

Is the K08 Worth 3 to 5 Years of Reduced Clinical Work?

At a $181,048 median first-year award, the K08 rarely covers a clinician-scientist's full salary at 75% effort, especially in procedural specialties. The money isn't the point. The award buys guaranteed research time during the years when clinical pressure is highest, and a funded K is one of the strongest signals a department can show when it protects a junior faculty member's lab.

The K08 is worth it when three things are true: the department will cover the salary gap, the mentor has trained K awardees before, and the candidate has a research direction that can produce R01-level preliminary data within the award period. If any one of those is missing, the honest answer is to wait. A K08 awarded to a candidate who then can't protect the time tends to end without an R01, and the eligibility rules bar former K08 PIs from the other mentored K awards listed in the notice, so there's no second try at a mentored K.

For clinicians who already have independent preliminary data and strong lab support, an R21 or R01 may be the better route. The K08 eligibility rules allow R03 and R21 holders to apply, so an R21 first doesn't close the door. Run the numbers on both paths with your division chief: protected time, salary support, and how many cycles each route is likely to take, given that about half of recent K08 winners needed an A1.

Should You Apply for a K08 Now?

Apply with a plan for two rounds. The data says most winners need one. Use the first summary statement to fix the career development plan as much as the science.

Read the NIH K23 award history to see how the patient-oriented track compares, and the NIH K01 award history for the non-clinical counterpart. For the jump after a K08, the NIH R01 award history shows what the next award looks like. The NIH R01, R21, R03 and K awards comparison sets out the differences side by side. To search other open NIH funding, use the free Grantsights NIH grant search.

To run your own check, open the NIH RePORTER project search, filter to activity code K08 and your target institute, and read the abstracts of the last three years of awards in your specialty.

Sources

• Parent K08, independent clinical trial not allowed (PA-24-182) - grants.nih.gov
• Parent K08, independent clinical trial required (PA-24-181) - grants.nih.gov
• NIH standard due dates - grants.nih.gov
• NIH RePORTER project search - reporter.nih.gov
• NIH RePORTER API - api.reporter.nih.gov

Related Guides

• NIH K-award success rates by institute
• NIH K23 winners and award history
• NIH K01 winners and award history
• NIH R01 winners and award history
• NIH R01, R21, R03 and K awards comparison