The National Institutes of Health (NIH) May 9 issued its fiscal year (FY) 2018 stipend levels for trainees receiving Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Awards (NRSAs). NIH will increase NRSA stipends by approximately two percent on average across stipend levels for undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows. Predoctoral yearly stipends have increased to $24,324, and stipends for seven postdoctoral fellow career levels start at $48,432 for the first year and increase to $59,736 at seven years. Amounts for tuition remain unchanged, but the training related expenses and institutional allowance for postdoctoral fellows are increased by $1000 each.
In an Open Mike blog post, NIH Deputy Director of Extramural Research Mike Lauer, MD, explained these changes and also noted that NIH is currently reviewing the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine latest recommendations on postdoctoral stipend increases for post-docs in its Next Generation Researchers report, released April 12, 2018. AAMC supports regular increases to funding for NIH and other Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agency grants to strengthen the research workforce. Sustained growth in the overall NIH budget would permit further increases in the training budget and stipend levels