NIMH Payline 2026: No Cutoff, 9.3% New R01 Odds

To compare NIMH with other institutes, open the NIH and NSF funding odds tracker.

NIMH Payline 2026: There's No Number to Look Up

NIMH's FY2026 policy lists 7 decision points and no percentile. Grantsights checked the NIMH FY2026 funding policy (opens in a new tab) for a cutoff, a range or an ESI bonus expressed in points, and found none. The page describes a judgment call, made application by application.

That fits NIH's direction. Since the Unified Funding Strategy took effect, the NIH funding decisions page (opens in a new tab) (revised November 21, 2025) has said that ICs "will no longer employ these cutoff points in overall impact scores to determine which applications to fund." Each institute's policy page also carries a continuing resolution banner citing NOT-OD-26-131, which for the current year means FY2027.

So the honest answer to "what's the NIMH payline" is that there isn't one to find. A percentile number posted on a lab wiki or forum isn't an NIMH figure, and this page doesn't invent one. What NIMH does publish, through the NIH Data Book, is how many applications it reviewed and how many it funded. That's the number to plan around.

How NIMH Decides: The 7 Points on Its Policy Page

NIMH names 7 considerations for individual projects in FY2026. They aren't ranked or weighted:

The second point matters more than applicants expect. Because NIMH reads the full peer review record, a percentile that sits next to a summary statement full of unresolved weaknesses is weaker than the same percentile with minor critiques. Read the summary statement guide before you decide what a near-miss means.

NIMH also says it will prioritize funding for early stage investigators under the Next Generation Researchers Initiative. It gives no ESI percentile and no ESI target rate. Your ESI flag lives in eRA Commons, and it's worth checking before the review date; the new investigator guide covers how ESI status is set.

NIMH R01 Success Rates, FY2021 to FY2025

NIMH's new R01 success rate held between 19.1% and 21.2% for four years, then fell to 9.3% in FY2025. Here are the official rates from NIH's success-rate tables (opens in a new tab):

Source: NIH Data Book table 206 for R01 and R21 rows, table 217 for all research project grants (RPGs). FY2026 isn't published.

The FY2025 drop came from both directions. New R01 applications rose from 1,647 to 1,823, while new R01 awards fell by half, from 340 to 169. Renewals were hit just as hard: NIMH funded 22 of 124 competing renewals in FY2025, against 46 of 125 in FY2024. A common mistake is assuming a funded renewal is safe ground. At NIMH in FY2025, it wasn't.

Money followed the counts. According to NIH Data Book table 206, NIMH's combined R01 and R37 funding fell from $274.8 million in FY2024 to $140.6 million in FY2025. Over the same year the mean award went up, to $717,108 from $699,146. NIMH paid fewer grants, not smaller ones.

These are application odds. NIH's success rate definition (opens in a new tab) merges an A0 and an A1 that land in one fiscal year into a single application, and it scores an R56 conversion as a funded R01. A PI who submits more than once a year will see a different personal rate than the table shows.

What Your NIMH Percentile Still Tells You

In FY2025, 1,823 new R01 applications competed for 169 NIMH awards, according to NIH Data Book table 206. Without a cutoff, your percentile is still the single best clue you have, but it answers a narrower question than it used to.

A percentile ranks your application against others reviewed in the same study section over recent rounds. It's built from the overall impact score, and the NIH score explainer shows how. What it can't tell you any more is whether NIMH will reach your rank. Under a payline system, a score inside the line was close to a promise. Under NIMH's 7-point approach, two applications at the same percentile can land on opposite sides of the funding decision because one fits a Highlighted Topic and the other sits in a crowded part of the portfolio.

Two habits help. First, read your summary statement for the weaknesses reviewers called major, since NIMH says it reads the review in its entirety. Second, ask your program officer a specific question: is NIMH still weighing this application for the current fiscal year, or is a resubmission the better route? Program staff can't promise an award, but they can tell you whether the application is still on the list.

Don't confuse an interim impression with a final answer, either. NIH's success rates count an application funded late in the year or converted to an R56 as a funded application, so a quiet spring isn't a rejection.

R21, R03, R56 and RF1 at NIMH

NIMH's R21 success rate fell to 9.0% in FY2025 (63 of 701), from 15.6% a year earlier, per NIH Data Book table 206. That's below the new R01 rate, so moving a project from R01 to R21 didn't buy better odds that year. The R21 grant guide covers when the smaller mechanism still makes sense.

R03 numbers are small at NIMH: 12 of 86 in FY2025 (14.0%) and 11 of 52 in FY2024 (21.2%). R56 bridge awards shrank from 22 in FY2021 to 5 in FY2025, so a near-miss R01 has fewer fallback routes than it did.

RF1 awards are a different case. Table 206 shows NIMH funded 7 of 7 RF1 applications in FY2025 and 28 of 29 in FY2023. Those applications were already chosen for multi-year funding, so the ratio isn't a competition rate. Grantsights analysis of NIH RePORTER found 6 new NIMH RF1 awards in FY2025 (median total obligated $3,104,370) and 6 in FY2026 (median $2,778,902). NIH's FY2025 by-the-numbers post (opens in a new tab) links some award count changes to "more awards being forward funded than previous years." At NIMH, RePORTER shows only 2 multi-year funded new R01 or R37 awards in FY2025, so the RF1 and R01 records don't show forward funding on a large scale.

FY2026 Award Records: Budgets Right at $500,000

RePORTER records pulled by Grantsights list 246 new NIMH R01 and R37 awards for FY2026. That's up from 169 in FY2025 but still below 347 in FY2024. RePORTER lists awards, not applications, so these counts can't be read as success rates.

Grantsights analysis of these records found 102 of 240 FY2026 single-year awards at $500,000 or more in first-year direct costs, a pattern the policy page never mentions. The median first-year direct cost at NIMH sits within $2,000 of $500,000 in all three years, and about 4 in 10 single-year awards reach $500,000 or more. For contrast, only 14 of 308 single-year new NINDS awards in FY2026 reached that level (see the NINDS payline page), so NIMH pays large budgets far more often. Don't underestimate the scope reviewers expect, though: a budget that size needs aims that clearly justify it.

Two budget rules on the policy page shape what happens after the award. NIMH expects to pay non-competing continuations at 100% of the negotiated level, which is better than the 90% some institutes pay during a continuing resolution. But NIMH doesn't add inflationary increases to future years on any research grant, competing or non-competing. Salaries and supply costs that rise in years 2 through 5 have to come out of the same total, so build the out-year budget flat and say how you'll absorb cost growth. The modular budget guide explains how each budget format handles out-years.

Timing varied by year. In FY2026, the largest award months were August (64), September (50) and July (48), with 33 in March. In FY2025, the pattern was front-loaded: 30 awards in December 2024, 26 in April 2025 and 23 in November 2024. If you're holding a margin score in spring, the late-summer months are still ahead.

One university in Connecticut, Yale, led FY2026 with 11 new NIMH R01 and R37 awards, followed by the University of California, San Francisco (10). By state, California (48) and New York (31) led. In FY2024, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill led with 14. Before choosing a study section, pull NIMH-funded abstracts close to your aims on NIH RePORTER (opens in a new tab); the R01 winners and award history page adds a cross-institute view.

NIMH Fellowship and Career Award Odds

NIMH's K99 success rate fell to 6.1% in FY2025 (6 of 98), from 17.1% the year before. Every mechanism in the table below dropped. Figures are from NIH Data Book tables 203 and 204:

This is a red flag for trainees who assumed fellowships were insulated from the R01 squeeze. At NIMH they weren't. The K23 remained the strongest large-volume option at 20.0%, and the K08 rate rests on small numbers. A postdoc planning a K99 should note that NIMH's FY2025 K99 rate (6.1%) was below its new R01 rate (9.3%). If your project could sit at another institute, check the F31 success rate by institute and K award success rates comparisons first.

What NIMH's Policy Page Doesn't Tell You

NIMH's policy page runs to 7 decision points and 2 budget sentences, and it leaves out most of what an applicant wants to know:

Three gaps stand out. NIMH says it applies "NIH cost management guidelines" but gives no reduction percentage, so you can't model your award size from the page. It names researchers "at risk of losing NIH funding" as a consideration without defining the term. And it gives no sign of how far past a typical score NIMH reaches for a Highlighted Topic or portfolio gap. Your program officer is the only source for those answers, and a call before resubmission is worth more here than at an institute with a published cutoff.

Next Action Table for NIMH Applicants

NIMH's 9.3% new R01 rate in FY2025 means most applications that looked competitive in FY2024 missed. Match your situation to a move:

An NIMH A1 deserves a full pass through the resubmission guide. NCI and NHLBI publish more numeric guidance than NIMH; see the NCI payline and NHLBI payline pages. Related neuroscience institutes: NINDS payline and NIDA payline. Mental health foundations and state programs fund work NIMH passes on, and Grantsights grant search lists them.

Sources

• NIMH FY2026 funding policies and considerations (opens in a new tab)
• NIH funding decisions and the Unified Funding Strategy (opens in a new tab)
• NIH Data Book success-rate tables (opens in a new tab) (tables 203, 204, 206 and 217)
• NIH success rate definition (opens in a new tab)
• NIH, Fiscal Year 2025 By the Numbers (opens in a new tab)
• NOT-OD-26-059, fiscal policies for FY2026 (opens in a new tab)
• NIH RePORTER (opens in a new tab)

Related Guides

• NIH paylines explained
• NIH R01 grant success rate data
• NIH fellowship grants: F31 and F32
• NIH K99/R00 winners and award history
• NIH modular budget guide