NIH paylines by institute — who still publishes one, and what replaced it.
A payline is a percentile (or priority score) at or below which an institute intends to fund applications, absent a substantive reason not to. Most lists you'll find online quote numbers from a fiscal year that has closed. This page reports what NIA, NIAID, and NHLBI currently publish — including the significant FY2026 shift away from score cutoffs — with a link to the source for every claim.
For fiscal year 2026, none of these three institutes publishes a percentile payline. NIAID explicitly retired the score cutoff; NHLBI states it has never operated a strict cutoff for FY2026; NIA describes case-by-case decisions. If a site quotes you a "2025 NIA payline," it is quoting something NIA did not publish. Paylines are also set per fiscal year and can change mid-year under a continuing resolution — verify against the linked NIH funding-policy page before you make a decision that depends on it.
NIA
No published paylineNational Institute on AgingCase-by-caseNIA's FY2026 policy lists the factors behind funding decisions — peer-review merit, alignment with NIA mission and AD/ADRD milestones, portfolio and geographic balance, existing NIH support of the PI and institution, career stage (ESI/NI/At-Risk), and fiscal stewardship — with no percentile cutoff. Budget expectations are explicit: no inflationary escalation, and an expectation to reduce competing awards by 16% on average (excluding R03, R21, R15, R36, and NI/ESI applications). AD/ADRD applications compete within a separate congressional appropriation. Contact a program officer 8–12 weeks early if any year requests ≥$2M direct costs.NIAID
Payline retired for FY2026National Institute of Allergy and Infectious DiseasesNo score cutoffNIAID was for years the institute most associated with a published payline. Under the FY2026 Unified Grants Funding Strategy, NIAID states it will no longer use a score cutoff as the basis for funding. Decisions weigh peer review, PI status (New, Early-Stage, Established, At-Risk), scientific portfolio balance against the NIAID Strategic Plan, and the investigator's other active funding and level of effort. Single-project investigator-initiated grants above $1M direct costs get additional levels of review. Select R01s are multi-year funded for a maximum of 4 years; unsolicited domestic R21/R03s are multi-year funded for the full project duration.NHLBI
No payline for FY2026National Heart, Lung, and Blood InstituteFY2025: R01 12th pctl · ESI 22nd pctlNHLBI's FY2026 policy states plainly that it supports a broad portfolio and therefore does not have a payline or strict score cutoff; decisions rest on merit, Advisory Council recommendations, strategic priorities, portfolio balance, workforce development, and public-health impact. FY2025 was different: NHLBI published paylines with selective pay for some mechanisms — R01 at the 12th percentile, R01 ESI at the 22nd percentile, K awards at priority score 30, F30 at priority score 20, F31/F32/F33 at the 35th percentile, R15 and R43 at priority score 30 — and zones of consideration for others. Competing R01s are generally funded up to four years, with ESI and accrual-driven clinical studies excepted.
Funded-award records show which institutes, activity codes, and budget sizes are moving. That is a live signal; a retired payline is not. Our Winner Intelligence explorer is built on award records drawn from NIH RePORTER.
With cutoffs gone, program staff discretion matters more, not less. Portfolio balance, your other active support, and career stage are named decision factors at all three institutes — a PO can tell you how your application sits against them.
NIA expects to reduce competing awards by about 16% on average and forbids inflationary escalation; NHLBI and NIAID also bar escalatory costs. Build a budget that still executes the aims after a reduction.
Does NIA publish a payline?
No. NIA has not published a percentile payline in its FY2026 funding policy. It describes case-by-case decisions weighing peer review, mission alignment, portfolio balance, investigator context, and available appropriations — plus an expectation of reducing competing awards by about 16% on average.
What is the NIAID payline for 2026?
There isn't one. Under the FY2026 NIAID Unified Grants Funding Strategy, NIAID states it will no longer use a score cutoff as the basis for funding decisions. Peer review remains a key driver alongside investigator status, portfolio balance, and other active funding.
Does NHLBI have a payline?
Not for FY2026. NHLBI's FY2026 policy states it does not have a payline or strict score cutoff. In FY2025 NHLBI did publish paylines for some mechanisms — R01 at the 12th percentile and R01 ESI at the 22nd percentile — alongside zones of consideration for others.
If there is no payline, how do I know if my score is fundable?
Use percentile as a signal, not a verdict, and talk to your program officer after the summary statement posts. Historical award percentiles for your institute and activity code — visible in funded-award records — are a better benchmark than a published cutoff that no longer exists.
"While peer review remains a key driver of funding decisions, NIAID will no longer use a score cutoff as the basis for funding." The FY2026 Unified Grants Funding Strategy replaces the payline with a set of named decision factors.
"The NHLBI supports a broad research portfolio and therefore does not have a 'payline' or strict cutoff in scores that it will fund." The FY2025 archive on nhlbi.nih.gov is where the 12th-percentile R01 / 22nd-percentile ESI figures come from.
NIA's published policy is a factor list, not a cutoff — and it states the average competing-award reduction expectation of 16% and the separate AD/ADRD and HIV allocations that change how applications compete.
The FY2025 guidelines are the source for the payline-with- selective-pay table: R01 12th percentile, R01 ESI 22nd percentile, K awards priority score 30, F30 priority score 20, F31/F32/F33 35th percentile, R15 and R43 priority score 30. Treat these as historical reference for FY2025 awards.
We will not invent a payline for an institute that does not publish one, and we will not present a closed fiscal year's cutoff as this year's. Where the honest answer is "there is no number," that is what this page says. For a data-grounded read on what your target institute is actually funding, see Winner Intelligence or the IC-by-IC guide.