National Institutes of Health Funding for RNA Vaccine Research
Anirudha S. Chandrabhatla, Adishesh K. Narahari, Kevin Jin, Benjamin Mazurek, Taison D. Bell
TL;DR
This study examines how the National Institutes of Health funds research on RNA vaccines.
Contribution
The paper provides an analysis of NIH funding trends and allocation for RNA vaccine research.
Findings
The study identifies patterns in NIH funding for RNA vaccine research.
It highlights the extent of federal investment in this area of biomedical research.
Abstract
This cross-sectional study describes the state of National Institutes of Health funding for research related to RNA vaccines.
Genes, proteins, chemicals, diseases, species, mutations and cell lines named across the full text — each resolved to its canonical identifier and authoritative record.
| Category | Grants, No. | Grant type, No. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U | R (Non-R01) | R01 | P | K | F | Other | ||
| Viruses | ||||||||
| COVID-19 | 29 | 5 | 7 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| HIV | 24 | 3 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Influenza | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hepatitis | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Influenza and tuberculosis | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Zika | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Paramyxoviruses and bunyaviruses | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dengue | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Chikungunya | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dengue and zika | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Orthobunya | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Phenuiviruses | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Coxsackie | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Respiratory viruses | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| RSV and hMPV | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Beta coronavirus | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Coronavirus (general) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| HSV | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| RNA technology | 46 | 2 | 20 | 15 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Cancer | ||||||||
| Solid tumors | 8 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Melanoma | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Cancer (general) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pancreatic cancer | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Kaposi sarcoma | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lung and prostate cancer | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sarcoma | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Breast cancer | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Myeloma | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Other | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tick-borne illnesses | 5 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Cardiovascular | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lymphangioleiomyomatosis | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Alzheimer | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Retinal disease | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Allergy | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ARDS | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| DVT | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Bacteria | ||||||||
| Tuberculosis | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Salmonella | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lyme | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Syphilis | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nontuberculous mycobacteria | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Group A | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pertussis | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Parasite | ||||||||
| Malaria | 6 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
|
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Schistosomiasis | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Leishmaniasis | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Fungi | ||||||||
|
| 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Coccidioidomycosis | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Category | Grants, No. | Funding, $ | Publications, No. | Citations, No. | Publications, No. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Human | Animal | Cell or molecular | |||||
| Viruses | |||||||
| Overall | 75 | 967 910 599 | 921 | 64 294 | 473 | 132 | 316 |
| COVID-19 | 29 | 510 221 666 | 578 | 46 456 | 368 | 26 | 184 |
| HIV | 24 | 172 558 770 | 159 | 9114 | 58 | 44 | 57 |
| Influenza | 6 | 11 122 504 | 62 | 5340 | 26 | 10 | 26 |
| Hepatitis | 2 | 3 396 620 | 5 | 44 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Influenza and tuberculosis | 1 | 1 989 733 | 0 | 0 | NA | NA | NA |
| Zika | 1 | 1 768 228 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Paramyxoviruses and bunyaviruses | 1 | 82 150 482 | 5 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| Dengue | 1 | 2 268 440 | 10 | 286 | 0 | 9 | 1 |
| Chikungunya | 1 | 599 938 | 0 | 0 | NA | NA | NA |
| Dengue and zika | 1 | 3 590 945 | 6 | 69 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Orthobunya | 1 | 468 636 | 5 | 15 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Phenuiviruses | 1 | 88 217 304 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Coxsackie | 1 | 433 175 | 0 | 0 | NA | NA | NA |
| Respiratory viruses | 1 | 2 120 971 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| RSV and hMPV | 1 | 2 142 166 | 1 | 18 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Beta coronavirus | 1 | 55 999 996 | 48 | 2407 | 8 | 20 | 20 |
| Coronavirus (general) | 1 | 23 236 986 | 18 | 135 | 2 | 5 | 11 |
| HSV | 1 | 5 624 039 | 19 | 389 | 4 | 8 | 7 |
| RNA technology | 46 | 511 826 431 | 641 | 43 209 | 339 | 132 | 192 |
| Cancer | |||||||
| Overall | 19 | 75 051 791 | 482 | 34 242 | 339 | 41 | 102 |
| Solid tumors | 8 | 14 264 322 | 26 | 292 | 11 | 5 | 10 |
| Melanoma | 3 | 2 141 708 | 11 | 65 | 3 | 6 | 2 |
| Cancer (general) | 2 | 2 076 954 | 5 | 16 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Pancreatic cancer | 1 | 408 331 | 6 | 43 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Kaposi sarcoma | 1 | 2 397 203 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Lung and prostate cancer | 1 | 2 660 172 | 14 | 317 | 4 | 1 | 9 |
| Sarcoma | 1 | 19 509 478 | 252 | 9203 | 208 | 11 | 32 |
| Breast cancer | 1 | 597 289 | 0 | 0 | NA | NA | NA |
| Myeloma | 1 | 30 996 334 | 168 | 24 306 | 109 | 16 | 42 |
| Other | |||||||
| Overall | 13 | 28 268 022 | 79 | 1178 | 2 | 67 | 10 |
| Tick-borne illnesses | 5 | 20 840 310 | 68 | 1049 | 2 | 58 | 8 |
| Cardiovascular | 2 | 2 322 704 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Lymphangioleiomyomatosis | 1 | 1 305 047 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Alzheimer | 1 | 835 417 | 0 | 0 | NA | NA | NA |
| Retinal disease | 1 | 294 052 | 0 | 0 | NA | NA | NA |
| Allergy | 1 | 461 270 | 0 | 0 | NA | NA | NA |
| ARDS | 1 | 2 057 699 | 9 | 129 | 0 | 8 | 1 |
| DVT | 1 | 151 523 | 0 | 0 | NA | NA | NA |
| Bacteria | |||||||
| Overall | 11 | 40 699 227 | 90 | 2622 | 27 | 36 | 27 |
| Tuberculosis | 4 | 6 658 815 | 2 | 25 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
|
| 1 | 19 808 108 | 61 | 2412 | 25 | 16 | 20 |
| Salmonella | 1 | 225 839 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Lyme | 1 | 3 240 479 | 10 | 107 | 1 | 8 | 1 |
| Syphilis | 1 | 4 663 782 | 4 | 11 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Nontuberculous mycobacteria | 1 | 950 092 | 0 | 0 | NA | NA | NA |
| Group A | 1 | 1 030 794 | 0 | 0 | NA | NA | NA |
| Pertussis | 1 | 4 121 318 | 11 | 64 | 0 | 9 | 2 |
| Parasite | |||||||
| Overall | 10 | 10 708 200 | 82 | 2930 | 17 | 50 | 15 |
| Malaria | 6 | 4 925 109 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
|
| 1 | 457 123 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Schistosomiasis | 1 | 300 000 | 0 | 0 | NA | NA | NA |
| Leishmaniasis | 1 | 769 366 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
|
| 1 | 4 256 602 | 79 | 2922 | 17 | 47 | 15 |
| Fungi | |||||||
| Overall | 4 | 15 005 207 | 47 | 558 | 5 | 36 | 6 |
|
| 2 | 3 879 407 | 30 | 465 | 4 | 22 | 4 |
|
| 1 | 269 800 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| Coccidioidomycosis | 1 | 10 856 000 | 13 | 90 | 1 | 10 | 2 |
| Total | 178 | 1 649 469 477 | 2342 | 149 033 | 1180 | 494 | 668 |
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Taxonomy
TopicsViral Infections and Immunology Research · Earthquake and Disaster Impact Studies · Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy
Introduction
National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding is critical for biomedical research. There has been increased scrutiny on funding for RNA-based vaccine research, potentially threatening decades of progress. We assessed the state of NIH funding for research related to RNA vaccines.
Methods
This cross-sectional study was deemed exempt from institutional review board review and informed consent by the University of Virginia because the study solely uses publicly available data. This study is reported following the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) reporting guideline for cross-sectional studies.
NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results was queried for active extramural grants with the search term RNA and vaccine or RNA vaccine or RNA-vaccine. Grants were reviewed to ensure relevance to RNA vaccines. The following were collected for each grant: grant number, title, institution, funding, funding NIH institution, publications, citations, and publication distribution across human, animal, and cell or molecular.^1,2^ Grants were categorized into study area based on project abstracts. Analyses were conducted using Python version 3.14 (Python Software Foundation) from August to December 2025.
Results
A total of 178 active NIH grants with start years between 1997 and 2025 were included, accounting for 139 million) (Table 1), followed by R21s (26 grants; 4 million). The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was the most common awarding institute (110 grants; 512 million), and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (10 grants; 968 million), RNA technology (46 grants; 75 million) (Table 2). The grants produced 2342 publications and 149 033 citations. Publications spanned the cell, animal, and human research spectrum (Table 2). There were no patents linked to the grants. Overall, 236 publications (11%) were clinical trials or practice guidelines. In addition, 787 publications (35%) were cited 5949 times in clinical trials or practice guidelines. Of 75 grants studying viruses, 71% were related to either COVID-19 (29 grants) or HIV (24 grants) (Table 2). Grant funding was distributed across the US. The top 3 states in terms of funding were Washington (16 grants; 407 million), and North Carolina (13 grants; $226 million). In total, 18 grants were awarded to 15 unique small businesses across genomics, biomaterials, and chemical manufacturing through the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer mechanisms.
Discussion
In this cross-sectional study, we describe the state of NIH funding for RNA vaccine research in a time of scrutiny on this science. Most grants were studying vaccines for viruses, although there was significant investment to develop RNA technology in general and vaccines for cancer and bacterial, fungal, and parasitic infections.
COVID-19–related research accounted for 29 of 75 grants studying viral vaccines, reflecting the prioritization of this research during the pandemic.^3^ Still, the approximately $510 million funding in these grants was much less than the tens of billions estimated to have been spent on COVID-19 hospitalizations.^4,5^ We found that NIH funding supported other high-impact applications of RNA vaccines, from HIV and hepatitis to highly contagious tropical viruses. Our analyses also revealed considerable efforts studying RNA vaccines for noninfectious diseases. Oncology was the most prominent example, with grants spanning solid and hematologic malignant neoplasms. RNA vaccines for cancer represent a novel frontier that could be paradigm-shifting, with multiple promising phase 1 and 2 trials.^6^
The grants we analyzed have resulted in strong scientific output, with more than 2300 publications and nearly 150 000 citations across basic, translational, and clinical research. The clinical impact of this work was apparent, with 10% of publications classified as and 35% being cited in clinical trials or practice guidelines. Even more, 18 grants through Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer underscores how this funding supports biotech entrepreneurship.
RNA vaccine research has implications for millions of people in the US and billions worldwide. Our findings underscore the role of NIH funding in shaping RNA vaccine technology beyond COVID-19 to include other infectious and chronic diseases. We did not evaluate non-NIH federal funding and could not link funding explicitly to specific therapeutics on the market. Funding decisions for RNA vaccine research needs scrutiny before potentially eliminating decades of progress.
The reference list from the paper itself. Each links out to its DOI / PubMed record.
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- 2Chandrabhatla AS, Narahari AK, Mehaffey JH, Schaff DL, Kron IL, Brayman KL. National Institutes of Health funding for abdominal organ transplantation research has declined: a 30-year analysis. Transplantation. 2022;106(10):1909-1911. doi:10.1097/TP.000000000000408235175240 PMC 9378811 · doi ↗ · pubmed ↗
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- 5Kapinos KA, Peters RM Jr, Murphy RE, Hohmann SF, Podichetty A, Greenberg RS. Inpatient costs of treating patients with COVID-19. JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(1):e 2350145. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.5014538170519 PMC 10765267 · doi ↗ · pubmed ↗
- 6Sayour EJ, Boczkowski D, Mitchell DA, Nair SK. Cancer m RNA vaccines: clinical advances and future opportunities. Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 2024;21(7):489-500. doi:10.1038/s 41571-024-00902-138760500 · doi ↗ · pubmed ↗