NIH K23 Winners and Award History 2026

According to NIH's K23 activity-code page (opens in a new tab), K23 supports clinically trained professionals who have committed to patient-oriented research. NIH describes the route as a supervised study and research period of at least 3 years and up to 5 years. According to NIH RePORTER (opens in a new tab), public K23 records show funded project numbers, institutions, principal investigators, fiscal years, award amounts, and institute funding.

Grantsights analysis of the June 16 pull found a simple public pattern: K23 winner history is a candidate, patient-oriented research, mentor, and clinical setting signal. A candidate with strong science but no clear patient-oriented research frame may be closer to K08, K01, K99/R00, R03, R21, or R01. A candidate with a clear patient-facing question, protected time, and mentor coverage may fit K23 well.

Where official sources stop: NIH pages explain the K23 route, and RePORTER lists funded projects, but neither source decides whether a candidate should choose K23. Grantsights adds the decision layer: recipient pattern, IC mix, award amount, trial-lane split, and adjacent-route checks.

Based on our review of NIH career-award routes, the common mistake is treating K23 as a generic early-career K award. K23 is narrower. It is for patient-oriented research candidates. If the application cannot explain the patient link, mentor coverage, protected effort, and path to independence, the project may be on the wrong K route.

June 2026 K23 Winner Snapshot From RePORTER

In the FY2025 pull, 8 awards from the high-award sample show how patient-oriented career records appear in public NIH data.

This K23 preview shows selected high-award FY2025 patient-oriented research career-award records from the Grantsights pull. It is a public sample, not the full record set. Seven of these eight rows are Type 4 (extension or multi-year) records at two to four times the FY2025 median, so don't read them as a typical K23 budget.

According to the Grantsights RePORTER pull, the FY2025 K23 record set had a median award amount of $182,165 and an average award amount of $176,547. That is a project-record view, not a salary-cap promise. A K23 applicant still needs to check the exact NOFO, institute salary rules, research-development support, effort expectations, and clinical-trial lane.

The public pattern is different from K01. K01 winner history is often a broader mentored research-scientist signal. K23 winner history is more tied to clinical training and patient-oriented research. A candidate can have a strong mentor and still miss K23 fit if the project is mostly bench, data-only, or methods work without a patient-oriented frame.

Next route: Use the NIH K23 not-allowed record, NIH K23 clinical-trial-required record, NIH grants guide, R01/R21/R03/K comparison, NIH K01 award-history page, and the free Grantsights grant search before assigning writing time.

2024 To 2025 K23 Award-History Movement

Across 2 years, the pull returned 2,805 K23 project records and nearly $490.5M in public project-year award amounts.

According to NIH success-rate tables, applicants should keep RePORTER records separate from success rates. RePORTER shows funded project records. Success-rate tables show applications, awards, and funded rates where NIH publishes them. Do not read the 1,381 FY2025 project records as an odds statement.

Our analysis is that a K23 applicant should use winner history as a fit screen, not a template. Do not copy a winner topic. Compare candidate stage, patient-oriented research design, sponsor environment, trial lane, institute, and likely next grant.

Top K23 States And Institutes In The FY2025 Pull

These 5 sources of comparison, state, IC, institution, award amount, and route lane, are more useful than a single recipient example.

The state pattern does not mean geography wins by itself. It points to clinical-research environment and sponsor depth. A candidate outside Massachusetts or California can still be competitive, but the application has to show clinical access, patient population, mentor coverage, protected time, and institutional support.

3 K23 Recipient Lessons From The FY2025 Pull

These 3 route lessons are the fastest public screen before a clinician-investigator spends a full cycle on the wrong K route.

The first lesson is that K23 award history rewards clinical environment. The top organizations by FY2025 record count include Massachusetts General Hospital, UCSF, Johns Hopkins, University of Michigan, Brigham and Women's Hospital, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Pittsburgh. A smaller institution can compete, but the application must make the clinical setting and mentor structure easy to trust.

The second lesson is that the comparison set should start inside the target institute. According to the Grantsights pull, NHLBI had 296 FY2025 K23 records, while NIDDK and NIMH each had 172. A cardiology applicant should not benchmark against a broad K23 list when NHLBI-specific records are available.

The third lesson is that K23 does not fix an unclear patient-oriented research case. If the project reads like a lab mechanism study, general methods project, or data science project with no patient-facing question, K23 may not be the route even if the candidate is clinically trained.

For example, an investigator following a cohort of asthma patients with mentor coverage, cohort access, and a clear independence path may fit K23. A candidate building a general computational method with no patient-facing question may need K01, K25, R03, R21, or R01 instead. Write the patient-oriented research sentence before the aims page. If that sentence is vague, the route is not ready.

Parent K23 Trial-Lane Split

There are 3 routes to check before drafting: no-trial, trial-required, and institute-specific K23 paths. The separate basic experimental studies with humans (BESH) lane has closed.

K23 winner-history searches often hide a practical problem: the candidate may not know which parent K23 lane applies.

According to NIH, applicants should read the exact opportunity for participating organizations, eligible candidates, clinical-trial status, and application details. A K23 winner page should not send a candidate straight into drafting. It should send the candidate into route confirmation.

What K23 Winner Patterns Say About Fit

Use these 5 questions to decide whether the winner pattern supports K23 or points to another NIH route.

K23 is a mentored patient-oriented research route. Use the public winner pattern differently than a project-grant list.

The biggest mistake is reading K23 winners as proof that a topic wins. The topic is only one signal. K23 review also asks whether the candidate, career plan, sponsor environment, research plan, and institute mission work together.

What Official Sources Do Not Tell You

These 5 sources show why public K23 records need a decision layer before the team chooses a notice.

Grantsights data adds the missing public screen. We use source method, award history, winner pattern, institute mix, trial-lane split, and adjacent-route checks to move from "who won K23?" to "is K23 the right next application?"

Apply, Wait, Or Skip

Use these 5 routes after the candidate has checked patient-oriented research fit, mentor coverage, and trial lane.

For broader mechanism choice, compare this page with the NIH K01 winner-history page, NIH R21 winner-history page, NIH R01 success-rate data, and NIH R01, R21, R03, and K awards comparison. Do not read K23 in isolation when the candidate may fit another K or R route better.

What This Public Page Covers

This public page gives 5 source signals: record count, selected recipients, award amount, state mix, and institute mix.

This page shows recent counts, selected records, state mix, institute mix, and career-stage implications. Grantsights doesn't sell a K23 report. For the full record set, per-institute slicing, or a specific mentor's history, search NIH RePORTER (opens in a new tab) directly; it's free.

Use this page to decide whether K23 should remain on the shortlist. If you're also weighing non-NIH funding, the free Grantsights grant search and eligibility checker cover federal and other programs.

Sources

These 8 sources anchor the public K23 winner-history page.

• NIH K23 activity code - grants.nih.gov (opens in a new tab)
• NIH RePORTER search - reporter.nih.gov (opens in a new tab)
• NIH RePORTER API - api.reporter.nih.gov (opens in a new tab)
• NIH success-rate tables - report.nih.gov (opens in a new tab)
• PA-24-185 Parent K23 clinical trial not allowed - grants.nih.gov (opens in a new tab)
• PA-24-184 Parent K23 clinical trial required - grants.nih.gov (opens in a new tab)
• PA-24-186 Parent K23 basic experimental studies with humans (expired May 25, 2026) - grants.nih.gov (opens in a new tab)
• NOT-OD-26-067 Implementation of changes for BESH - grants.nih.gov (opens in a new tab)

Related Guides

These 6 related guides keep K23 award-history intent inside the NIH career-award cluster.

• NIH K01 career-development award guide
• NIH grants complete guide
• NIH R01, R21, R03, and K awards comparison
• NIH K01 award-history page
• NIH R21 award-history page
• Free grant databases
• NIH K08 award history
• NIH K99/R00 award history