National Trends in NIH Funding and Clinician-Scientist Participation Across Diagnostic Radiology, Interventional...

To identify trends in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to clinician-scientists in radiology relative to overall funding in the field, and funding in radiology sub-specialties.

Data was obtained from the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditure and Results (RePORTER) database for NIH grants issued from 2012 to 2025 principal investigators (PIs) under "Radiation-Diagnostic/Oncology". This was cross-linked with data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to identify clinician-scientists in diagnostic and interventional radiology, and radiation oncology. Grants were attributed to the specialties of all clinician PIs, including Contact PIs and multiple PIs (MPIs). Number of physicians, sex, new grants awarded, grant mechanisms and funding amounts were analyzed for the three sub-specialties.

Among 14,105 unique NIH-funded projects in the Radiation-Diagnostic/Oncology category, 437 of 3434 investigators (12.7%) across all PI roles were clinicians. Female representation among funded diagnostic radiologists increased from 11 of 64 (17.2%) in 2012 to 30 of 108 (27.8%) in 2025. Diagnostic radiologists comprised 64 of 96 funded clinicians (66.7%) in 2012 and 108 of 230 (47.0%) in 2025, and led radiation oncology in both investigator count and funding in every year. Diagnostic radiology funding rose from $39.9 million in 2012 to $87.9 million in 2025, while radiation oncology funding rose from $14.3 million to $67.3 million. Among 42 new K-series awards, radiation oncology received 28 (66.7%).

NIH grant-funding to physicians in "Radiation-Diagnostic/Oncology" has increased over time, but remains a small proportion of overall funding in this category.