A Victory for IDSA’s Workforce Advocacy: NIAID Announces Significant Payline Increases

A Victory for IDSA's Workforce Advocacy: NIAID Announces Significant Payline Increases

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has taken a major step to support the infectious diseases workforce by increasing interim paylines, or funding cutoff points, for research grants for fiscal year 2025. In a Dec. 17, 2024, update, NIAID increased paylines for all fellowship award (F) grant types. Notably, paylines for Mentored Research Scientist Career Development Awards (K01) and Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Development Awards (K08) jumped from 20 to 28 and 29, respectively - the highest levels for K awards since 2011. These grants support early career ID researchers and encourage recruitment into ID research careers.

This increase marks a significant win for IDSA's long-standing efforts to strengthen the pipeline of ID physician-scientists. In joint comments submitted last year on the NIAID strategic plan, IDSA and HIVMA stressed that strengthening the ID clinical and research workforce should be a priority.

"We are thankful for NIAID's action on paylines as a step to support the next generation of ID specialists, who will help lead research on some of the biggest challenges in public health and health care - including combatting antimicrobial resistance, addressing emerging global outbreaks and developing avenues to provide care to communities that are often overlooked," said IDSA President Tina Tan, MD, FIDSA, FPIDS, FACP. "Support for early career ID professionals is critical to build and sustain a sufficient cadre of ID physician-scientists for the future."

IDSA will continue to work with federal partners to maintain or further increase NIAID paylines and to continue implementing broader strategies to strengthen ID recruitment and retention and educate the public and policymakers on the value of ID physician-scientists.