Federal Research Digest | Proposed NIH Cap on RPGs
June 17, 2026
Dear Colleagues,
Many of you have reached out with questions and concerns about the NIH’s recent request for Information (RFI) on a proposed cap on the number of simultaneous Research Project Grants (RPGs) an individual PI may hold. My office is actively engaged with other UCSF stakeholders to provide an institutional response, and we will be working with department leadership to speak directly with those who may be impacted.
The proposed cap would apply to RPGs, not all NIH grants, and only to investigators serving as Principal Investigators (PIs) or Multiple Principal Investigators (MPIs) on the main grant. Serving as the PI of a career development or training grant, for example, would not apply.
Assessing potential impact is complicated by how NIH awards are reported in NIH RePORTER and other public databases. One award can be listed several times (i.e., have multiple projects), and every listing is not an individual award. As a result, some publicly available analyses may overestimate the number of those impacted.
UCSF has conducted an internal analysis indicating that a cap of three simultaneous RPGs would affect 21 awards across 15 PIs. While this would directly affect a relatively small number of UCSF investigators, proposals that impact access to research funding are important to our entire community. UCSF believes that NIH policies must preserve peer review as the primary determinant of which investigators receive NIH research awards.
The NIH is seeking feedback on three questions:
- Whether a cap should be implemented.
- The optimal number at which the cap should be set (i.e., two, three, or four RPGs).
- How a cap should be implemented for investigators who currently exceed the selected threshold.
Those who wish to provide comments can do so via this NIH form. Your active engagement with the RFI process helps strengthen UCSF’s advocacy on behalf of the research community.
I will continue to provide updates as they develop. Please reach out to [email protected] with any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Hal
Harold R. Collard, MD, MS
Vice Chancellor for Research
Professor of Medicine and Health Policy