NIH Due Dates 2027: All 33 Standard Deadlines With the Weekend and Holiday Shifts Applied

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) publishes its standard due dates as a table of months and days with no year attached, last updated March 24, 2026. That works until a date lands on a Saturday or a federal holiday, at which point the real deadline is a different day that NIH never prints. This page does the resolution for calendar 2027: every standard due date, the day of the week it falls on, and the business day it actually becomes. For how the cycles work and why resubmissions sit a month later, read our NIH funding cycles explainer; to compute a date for any year, use the NIH deadline calculator.

What are the NIH standard due dates for 2027?

The NIH standard due dates for 2027 are the 33 dates below, one per activity-code group per cycle, listed in the order they fall. Each date is the month and day from the NIH table, placed on the 2027 calendar, then moved to the next business day if it lands on a weekend or one of the eleven federal holidays OPM lists for 2027. Highlighted rows are the eight that move. The cycle column follows the NIH table, which is why the January, April and September small-business dates carry Cycles II, III and I.

How to read it: find your activity code and application type, then take the date in that row. Applications are due by 5:00 PM local time of the applicant organization. Dates derived 2026-10-11 from the NIH standard due dates table and the OPM 2027 federal holiday schedule.

Which 2027 NIH deadlines move, and why?

Eight NIH due dates move in 2027, six because they fall on a weekend and two because a federal holiday blocks the next working day. The rule comes from the NIH submission policies: when a submission date falls on a weekend, a Federal holiday, or a Washington, D.C. area Federal office closure, the application deadline is automatically extended to the next business day. The holidays are the eleven on the OPM 2027 federal holiday schedule verified 2026-10-11.

The two holiday cases are the ones worth knowing by heart. Independence Day 2027 falls on a Sunday, so OPM observes it on Monday, July 5, which is exactly the R01 and U01 renewal, resubmission and revision date; that deadline becomes Tuesday, July 6, 2027. NIH applied the same rule the last time the calendar lined up this way, in 2021, when the July 5 due date also moved to Tuesday, July 6. The second case is the September 5 small-business date: September 5, 2027 is a Sunday and Monday, September 6 is Labor Day, so SBIR and STTR applications are due Tuesday, September 7, 2027.

How does the late window work when a date moves?

The NIH late-submission window counts from the business day a due date moved to, not from the printed date. Under NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-26-064, effective for due dates on or after May 25, 2026, a late application must arrive within two calendar weeks of the due date, and when that date shifts for a weekend or holiday the two weeks start from the new business day verified 2026-10-11. For the new R01 date of June 5, 2027, a Saturday, the effective deadline is Monday, June 7, and the late window runs two weeks from June 7.

The late window is narrow in who may use it. NOT-OD-26-064 accepts three reasons: extenuating circumstances affecting a PD/PI on the application, NIH review service by a PD/PI within four calendar weeks of the due date, and documented federal system problems reported to the eRA Service Desk. Fellowship applications, the small-business codes (R41, R42, R43, R44, SB1, UT1 and U44) and any opportunity whose Key Dates say so are excluded entirely. The same notice ended Continuous Submission, with the last such applications accepted through August 10, 2026, so no 2027 cycle offers it.

Which 2027 cycle funds a project this fiscal year?

A 2027 Cycle I application is the one that can start inside calendar 2027. The NIH Review and Award Cycles table on the standard due dates page puts Cycle I scientific merit review in June to July, the Advisory Council round in August or October, and the earliest project start in September or December verified 2026-10-11. Cycle II applications (due from May 25 to August 12, 2027 for most codes) reach Council in January 2028 with an earliest start of April 2028, and Cycle III applications reach Council in May 2028 with an earliest start in July 2028.

Small-business applications run on a shifted clock. In the NIH SBIR, STTR and CRP table, the September date is Cycle I, with review in October to November, Council in January and an earliest start in April; the January date is Cycle II, with Council in May and an earliest start in July; the April date is Cycle III, with Council in August and an earliest start in September or December. The practical result: an SBIR founder who wants money in spring 2028 is working to the Tuesday, September 7, 2027 date. For the program itself, see our NIH SBIR and STTR guide and the NIH SBIR Phase I profile. Founders weighing grant money against the tax treatment of their own research spend can read CeoCult's breakdown of Section 174 R&D capitalization, and a company applying for the first time will need an employer identification number, which CeoCult covers in how to get an EIN.

How many NIH applications can one PI submit in 2027?

One principal investigator can submit at most six new, renewal, resubmission or revision applications to NIH across all council rounds in calendar 2027. That cap comes from NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-25-132, which took effect with the September 25, 2025 receipt date and applies to every activity code except T training grants and R13 conference grants verified 2026-10-11. The limit counts applications on which the person is PI or multiple PI, so a lab planning three R01 resubmissions and three R21s in 2027 has already used its year.

The cap changes how the calendar above should be read. With six slots, the useful question is no longer which date is next but which six dates carry the strongest applications, and a missed Cycle I date now costs a slot later in the year as well as four months. If you are deciding between mechanisms, our R01 versus R21 comparison and the NIH R01 profile cover budgets, page limits and review criteria.

Frequently asked questions

Bottom line

NIH's 2027 calendar has 33 standard due dates and eight of them are not the dates NIH prints. The ones to put in a calendar today: Friday, February 5 for a new Cycle I R01, Friday, March 5 for its resubmission, Tuesday, July 6 for a Cycle II R01 resubmission or renewal, and Tuesday, September 7 for SBIR and STTR, the last with no late window behind it. Every date moves again only if a Washington, D.C. closure intervenes, and each PI has six applications to spend across the year. Confirm your date inside your specific opportunity, then run it through our NIH deadline calculator, and see the R21 deadline guide for the exploratory-grant details.

1. NIH, Standard Due Dates (month and day by activity code; Review and Award Cycles table; page last updated March 24, 2026) verified 2026-10-11.
2. NIH, Submission Policies (weekend, Federal holiday and D.C. closure dates extend to the next business day) verified 2026-10-11.
3. U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Federal Holidays (2027 schedule, including observed dates) verified 2026-10-11.
4. NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-26-064 (late application policy, end of Continuous Submission) verified 2026-10-11.
5. NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-25-132 (six applications per PI per calendar year) verified 2026-10-11.
6. NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-17-041 (which OPM operating statuses move a due date) verified 2026-10-11.