NINDS Landis Award for Outstanding Mentorship (2026): Up to $100,000 per Mentor

NINDS Landis Award for Outstanding Mentorship (2026): Up to $100,000 per Mentor

Historical reference: the 2026 NINDS Landis Award cycle is closed. The official NIH page lists the prize competition deadline as May 29, 2026, and does not announce a subsequent NINDS Landis round. This page describes the closed cycle for reference; it is not an invitation to submit a late application.

The NINDS Landis Award for Outstanding Mentorship recognizes faculty mentors whose work has helped develop future leaders in neuroscience. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke created the award in 2017. For the 2026 competition, NINDS used a prize-competition format rather than the older administrative-supplement model. The purpose was to recognize excellent mentoring and training and to encourage institutions to support the career development of current or additional students and post-doctorates under an outstanding mentor’s guidance.

The official NIH challenge page records a total cash-prize pool of $500,000. It describes up to five monetary prizes of $100,000 each. The money is awarded to an eligible institution on behalf of the selected mentor, rather than paid directly to the individual mentor. The page also notes that prize payments may be subject to federal income taxes and that NIH may cancel, suspend, or modify the competition, or make no award if no submission is judged worthy.

Because the 2026 deadline has passed and no next NINDS cycle is announced on the official source, the page is marked as a historical reference. The date in the front matter is the real final competition deadline, not a projected date for a future round.

Key details table

What the 2026 competition was

The Landis Award was not a travel fellowship, trainee stipend, or seed grant for a proposed experiment. It was a recognition competition focused on the mentor’s record of developing trainees and strengthening research training. NINDS described the award as a way to make the value of mentorship visible alongside research accomplishments. The competition also aimed to identify mentoring approaches that could be shared with the neuroscience community through activities such as webinars and blog posts.

The 2026 format differed from a conventional NIH research application in several important ways:

1. Trainees began the process. Current or former research trainees submitted nominations based on first-hand knowledge of the faculty member’s mentoring. The official instructions said nominations should come directly from trainees and should not be solicited by the faculty mentor or institution.
2. Nomination was only an eligibility stage. A mentor needed at least two trainee-submitted nominations, and still had to meet the stated mentor and institution rules, before NINDS would invite a full submission.
3. The institution received the prize. An eligible institution had to approve participation and agree to accept the cash prize for the mentor. This made institutional review part of the submission rather than an administrative detail after selection.
4. The evidence concerned mentoring. The requested materials addressed mentoring philosophy, trainee outcomes, research quality, career development, and the mentor’s contribution to a strong training environment. This was not a project proposal seeking money for a new experiment.

The 2026 opportunity therefore fit established NINDS-funded faculty with a long record of direct research mentorship and an institution prepared to review and administer a prize. It did not offer an open application route for mentors who had not first been nominated.

2026 eligibility requirements

The official source separated mentor eligibility from institutional eligibility. The following requirements describe the closed 2026 cycle and should not be treated as automatic eligibility for a future year.

Mentor requirements

The mentor had to satisfy all of the applicable rules below:

• The mentor had received at least two nominations submitted by trainees. That threshold supported an invitation but did not remove the other eligibility checks.
• The mentor was an established faculty member in a tenure-track or equivalent position, with more than 20 years since the start of the first tenure-track or equivalent faculty position. For this cycle, the official page defined that as a start date in calendar year 2005 or earlier.
• The mentor was listed as PI or mPI on an active FY26 NINDS R01, R35, U01, U54, P01, DP1, DP2, or equivalent NINDS award with a four- to five-year duration. “Active” was defined on the source as active on October 1, 2025.
• The mentor was not a previous Landis Award recipient.
• The mentor registered to participate under the NIH rules published in the announcement.

The nomination description also required that the candidate have a tenure-track position at an eligible institution incorporated in, and maintaining its primary place of business in, the United States. The official rules governed the complete determination of eligibility, so a strong mentoring record alone was not enough.

Institution requirements

The employing institution had to review and approve the mentor’s participation and agree to accept the prize on the mentor’s behalf. It also had to be an eligible institution incorporated in and maintaining a primary place of business in the United States. Since the prize was paid to the institution, an invited mentor needed an authorized institutional official to sign the required letter on official letterhead. The source’s rules and exclusions controlled any additional institution or personnel questions.

How the 2026 application process worked

There is no remaining application step for this closed cycle. For archival purposes, the process was as follows.

1. Trainee nomination for eligibility

Current or former trainees submitted the initial nomination through the official form. The nomination had to be based on first-hand knowledge of the faculty member’s mentorship. The instructions specifically said that the mentor and institution should not solicit the nomination. Nominations had to arrive by April 24, 2026, at 5 PM Eastern Time.

The nomination stage was the right place to describe specific mentoring practices and outcomes, such as how the mentor supported research rigor, helped a trainee progress toward a career, or created a stronger research-training environment. A general endorsement without first-hand examples would not address the purpose of the competition as well as a concrete account of the trainee’s experience.

2. Invitation after eligibility review

NINDS planned to send invitations to eligible nominees on May 1, 2026. The invitation depended on receiving at least two nominations and meeting the eligibility rules. A nomination did not itself create a prize submission or guarantee that the mentor would be invited.

3. Institutional approval and mentor submission

An invited mentor had to submit a signed Participation and Consent form confirming institutional approval. The package also required a letter from an authorized institutional official on official letterhead. That letter had to state that the institution had reviewed and agreed to the competition’s rules, terms, and conditions and would accept the prize if the mentor won.

The mentor submission package listed by NINDS contained:

• A statement of the mentor’s approach and philosophy, one to three pages, addressing the judging criteria.
• An up-to-date curriculum vitae. The source expressly required a CV rather than an NIH biosketch.
• Two representative papers published in the past five years, supplied as PDFs, with different trainees as primary authors. The papers were intended to demonstrate the scientific rigor and quality of work done by those trainees.
• The number of an active FY26 NINDS grant on which the mentor was PI or mPI.
• A list of all current and former trainees, with brief descriptions of accomplishments such as later positions, fellowships, grants, and papers connected to the mentor’s environment.
• Eight to ten recommendation letters from current and/or former research trainees with first-hand knowledge of the mentor’s activities.

The recommendation letters had to be original documents composed entirely by the individual referee and submitted directly by that referee to the NIH Box account linked in the invitation email. Clinical mentoring was not relevant for this award because the letters had to come from research trainees. Once ten letters had been received, additional letters would not be considered. The trainees who submitted the initial nominations could also submit recommendation letters.

All materials were to be uploaded to the NIH Box account provided in the invitation email by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on May 29, 2026. The official page allowed materials and reference letters to be emailed as a backup, although it said that route was not preferred. The email address listed for questions and the backup submission route was LandisMentorAward@nih.gov. Only complete submissions confirmed to meet all eligibility requirements would proceed to review and judging.

Review timeline and judging criteria

The official 2026 timeline listed these milestones:

• Eligibility nominations: February 27, 2026 through April 24, 2026.
• Invitations to eligible nominees: anticipated May 1, 2026.
• Prize competition deadline: May 29, 2026.
• Pre-screening and initial review: June 1 through June 26, 2026.
• Judging and final selections: June 29 through July 24, 2026.
• Anticipated winner announcement: August 21, 2026.

The source described four areas for judging: cultivating scientific excellence and rigor in mentees; investing in scientific and professional development and career progress; contributing to mentees’ contributions to science; and contributing to excellence in research training. A useful submission would therefore connect mentoring actions to specific trainee experiences and outcomes rather than presenting a general statement about being a supportive supervisor.

The competition was also designed to share effective mentoring approaches. The official page said prize winners would be publicized by NINDS and that their approaches could be organized and disseminated through activities such as webinars and blog posts. The winner announcement was anticipated for August 21, 2026, after the listed judging period; the source did not provide a winner list in the material reviewed for this archive entry.

Practical archive notes

The most important lesson from the 2026 rules is that this award was nomination-led and evidence-heavy. A mentor could not substitute a self-submitted research proposal for the trainee nomination. A trainee could not make an ineligible mentor eligible by writing a strong letter. An institution could not wait until after selection to decide whether it would accept the money. Each stage had a separate purpose and a separate failure point.

For future reference, anyone looking for a new Landis opportunity should check the NINDS or NIH challenge pages rather than reusing the dates or eligibility assumptions in this 2026 archive entry. The official source reviewed here gives no next-round deadline. The 2026 dates, FY26 grant-status rule, 2005-or-earlier faculty-start rule, and requested submission materials belong to this closed cycle. They should not be copied into a future year without a new official announcement.

The same caution applies to the prize amount. The 2026 page describes up to five $100,000 prizes and a $500,000 total pool, with funds paid to eligible institutions on behalf of mentors. It does not establish that a later cycle will use the same amount, number of prizes, eligibility window, or submission package. This page preserves those details because they are useful for understanding the historical competition, not because they remain open.

The official page’s contact address remains useful for questions about the historical rules, but it should not be treated as evidence that submissions are still being accepted. The page also makes clear that NIH retains discretion to change or cancel the competition and may decline to award a prize. Those provisions reinforce why a future applicant must read a newly published announcement before relying on this archive.

Quick reference for readers arriving after the deadline

• The last published 2026 nomination deadline was April 24, 2026, at 5 PM Eastern Time.
• The last published 2026 full-submission deadline was May 29, 2026, at 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
• The 2026 competition required at least two trainee nominations before an eligible mentor could be invited.
• The 2026 mentor had to be more than 20 years from the first tenure-track or equivalent faculty appointment, with a start year in 2005 or earlier.
• The 2026 mentor had to hold the qualifying active FY26 NINDS award status described above.
• The prize was up to $100,000 per mentor, paid to the eligible institution, with up to five prizes.
• The official NIH page reviewed for this entry states that the competition is closed.

Do not use this page to submit a nomination or full package after the listed dates. Use the official NIH page above to check whether NINDS publishes a new Landis announcement in a later cycle.