{"id":27927,"date":"2026-09-02T19:08:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T19:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/educational-research\/?p=27927"},"modified":"2026-09-02T19:08:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T19:08:31","slug":"nih-guidance-on-the-multiple-pd-pi-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/educational-research\/2026\/09\/02\/nih-guidance-on-the-multiple-pd-pi-model\/","title":{"rendered":"NIH Guidance on the Multiple PD\/PI Model"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is encouraging researchers to carefully consider whether the<a href=\"https:\/\/grants.nih.gov\/news-events\/nih-extramural-nexus-news\/2026\/08\/when-are-two-heads-better-than-one-considerations-when-using-the-nih-multiple-principal-investigator-model\"> Multiple Program Director\/Principal Investigator (MPI) model<\/a> is appropriate for their proposed research. The model is intended for projects in which scientific leadership, responsibility, and accountability are genuinely shared among investigators. PD\/PI designation should reflect a substantive leadership role, not simply recognize collaborators or strengthen an application, and NIH data show no meaningful review advantage for MPI applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers should also consider career implications, particularly for Early Stage Investigators (ESIs), as MPI applications receive ESI consideration only when all PD\/PIs qualify. Teams using the MPI model must also develop a clear Leadership Plan defining roles, decision-making, communication, and conflict resolution. NIH emphasizes that applicants should choose the leadership structure that best serves the science, recognizing that collaborative research does not necessarily require multiple PD\/PIs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Additional Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>NIH Grants Policy Statement:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/grants.nih.gov\/grants\/policy\/nihgps\/HTML5\/section_9\/9_multiple_program_director_principal_investigator_applications_and_awards.htm\">Multiple Program Director\/Principal Investigator Applications and Awards<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>FAQs:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/grants.nih.gov\/faqs#\/multiple-principal-investigators.htm\">Multiple PD\/PIs<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>National Institute of General Medical Sciences:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nigms.nih.gov\/grants\/Pages\/Considerations-for-Multiple-Principal-Investigator-Applications\">Considerations for Multiple Principal Investigator (MPI) Applications<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/books\/NBK617869\/\">Introduction &#8211; The Science and Practice of Team Science<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Visit <a href=\"https:\/\/grants.nih.gov\/news-events\/nih-extramural-nexus-news\/2026\/08\/when-are-two-heads-better-than-one-considerations-when-using-the-nih-multiple-principal-investigator-model\">the NIH website<\/a> for additional information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[169],"class_list":["post-27927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-bulletin","tag-september-2026"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.0 (Yoast SEO v22.0) - 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