July 2025

On July 17, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released a policy that addresses concerns about potential increases in research grant applications linked to the use of artificial intelligence (AI), titled “Supporting Fairness and Originality in NIH Research Applications.”

In introducing the policy, NIH noted an observed increase in grant proposals developed by individual principal investigators (PIs) who may have used AI to develop proposals. To address these concerns, the policy provides two updates to the NIH research grant application process.

First, under the policy NIH will not consider an application to be “original” if the proposal or specific parts of the proposal are deemed to be significantly developed by AI. NIH will also consider actions to determine research misconduct if the significant use of AI is identified in the post-award phase.

Second, the policy will limit research grant applications to six per calendar year by each prospective PI. Such applications include new proposals, renewals, resubmissions, and revisions.

The policy goes into effect on September 25.