# National Institutes of Health MERIT Award

The NIH MERIT award (Method To Extend Research in Time) Award (R37) was created by the National Institutes of Health in 1986. It is designed to provide stable, long-term funding support to outstanding, experienced investigators whose productivity is superior and who are deemed highly likely to continue to perform their research activities in an outstanding manner. The MERIT award provided funding for 5 years and could be renewed for up to 10 years. Unlike most NIH grant awards, the MERIT award cannot be applied for by the investigator. Researchers submitting an R01 that receives a fundable score are considered for the award. In 2018, the NIH began awarding MERIT awards to "Early Stage Investigators", who are in the first 10 years of their career.

## Notable MERIT award recipients

| Name | Institute | Year |
| Xiang-Jin Meng | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | 2024 |
| Joyce Huanhuan Chen | The University of Chicago | 2024 |
| Jamil S. Saad, PhD | University of Alabama at Birmingham | 2023 |
| Karen Pierce, PhD | University of California San Diego | 2023 |
| Karen Adolph | New York University | 2006 |
| Jeffery Alberts | Indiana University | 1998 |
| Susan Amara | National Institutes of Health | 2004 |
| Arnold Berk | UCLA | 2003 |
| Mark Blumberg | University of Iowa | 2014 |
| Gary Borisy | Northwestern University | 1989 |
| Joan Brugge | Harvard Medical School | 1987 |
| Joseph D. Brain | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health | 1987 |
| Donald S. Coffey | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine | 1988 |
| Chris Q. Doe | University of Oregon | 2013 |
| John Engelhardt | University of Iowa | 2005 |
| David L. Felten | Oakland University | 1989 |
| Andrew Feinberg | Johns Hopkins University | 2001 |
| Catherine Clarke Fenselau | Johns Hopkins University | 1991 |
| Jorge E. Galán | Yale University | 2000, 2015 |
| Ethel Gilbert | National Cancer Institute | 2003 |
| Patricia A. Grady | NIH | |
| Shiv I.S. Grewal | National Cancer Institute | |
| Alan Grodzinsky | MIT | 1994 |
| Curtis C. Harris | National Cancer Institute | 2009 |
| Eric Jacobsen | Harvard University | 2002 |
| Muhammad Ashraf | University of Cincinnati | 2003 |
| Lily Jan | UCSF | 2006 |
| Barbara B. Kahn | Harvard University | 2006 |
| Kenneth W. Kinzler | Johns Hopkins University | 2002 |
| Leonid Kruglyak | Princeton University | 2002 |
| Hsiang-fu Kung | National Cancer Institute | 1998 |
| M. Daniel Lane | Johns Hopkins School of Medicine | 1990 |
| Mitchell Lazar | University of Pennsylvania | |
| Xihong Lin | Harvard University | 2007 |
| Andrew D. Luster | Massachusetts General Hospital | |
| James L. Manley | Columbia University | |
| Sean J. Morrison | UT Southwestern | 2009 |
| Eric N. Olson | UT Southwestern | 2000 |
| Michele Pagano | NYU School of Medicine | 2006 |
| Pier Paolo Pandolfi | Harvard Medical School | 2005 |
| Peipei Ping | University of California, Los Angeles | 2010 |
| Carol Prives | Columbia University | 1996 |
| Alexander Raikhel | University of California Riverside | |
| Julius Rebek | Scripps Research Institute | 1996 |
| Clarice Reid | NHLBI | |
| Edward T. Ryan | Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard University | |
| Sandra Schmid | UT Southwestern | 2000 |
| John M. Sedivy | Brown University | 2009 |
| Edward I. Solomon | Stanford University | 1995, 2002 |
| Kevin Struhl | Harvard Medical School | 1993 |
| Suresh Subramani | UC San Diego | |
| Kenneth Thibodeau | National Archives and Records Administration | 2000 |
| Inder Verma | Salk Institute for Biological Studies | 1987 |
| Sean Whelan | Harvard Medical School | 2005 |
| William T. Wickner | Dartmouth Medical School | |
| Charles R. Wira | Dartmouth College | |
| George Woude | Van Andel Research Institute | 1982 |
| Hao Wu | Harvard Medical School | |
| Margaret C. Wu | National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute | 1989 |
| Nancy Zahniser | University of Colorado | |
| Patricia Spear | Northwestern University | 1987, 1999 |
| Dagmar Sternad | Northeastern University | 2022 |
| David A. Sinclair | Harvard Medical School | 2012 |
| BVV Prasad | Baylor college of medicine | 2003 |
| BVV Prasad | Baylor college of medicine | 2013 |