Key Dates

Related Announcements

PA-20-183 - Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Required, Mechanistic Studies Only)

PA-20-185 -  NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

PA-18-350 - NIMH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant (R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

PA-20-184 - NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Basic Experimental Studies with Humans Required)

PA-20-196 -  NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Basic Experimental Studies with Humans Required)

PA-18-358  - NINDS Exploratory Neuroscience Research Grant (R21- Clinical Trial Optional)

PA-20-200 -  NIH Small Research Grant Program (Parent R03 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

PAR-18-714 - Academic Research Enhancement Award for Undergraduate-Focused Institutions (R15 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

PAR-20-093 - Silvio O. Conte Centers for Basic Neuroscience or Translational Mental Health Research (P50 Clinical Trial Optional)

PAR-18-555 - Understanding and Modifying Temporal Dynamics of Coordinated Neural Activity (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)

PAR-18-554 - Understanding and Modifying Temporal Dynamics of Coordinated Neural Activity (R21 Clinical Trial Optional)

PAR-19-027 - Basic Neurodevelopmental Biology of Circuits and Behavior (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

PAR-19-028 - Basic Neurodevelopmental Biology of Brain Circuits and Behavior (R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

PAR-19-344 - Explainable Artificial Intelligence for Decoding and Modulating Neural Circuit Activity Linked to Behavior (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)

Issued by

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Purpose

Overview

The Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies^® (BRAIN) Initiative is aimed at revolutionizing neuroscience through development and application of innovative technologies to map neural circuits, monitor and modulate their activity, and understand how they contribute to thoughts, sensations, emotions, and behavior. Since its inception in 2013, the BRAIN initiative has supported over 500 projects for over $1 billion to develop new technologies and tools to image, stimulate, record, manage data and analyze complex signals from multiscale brain circuits. The NIH BRAIN initiative is presently at a critical juncture, embarking on its second phase through the recommendations of the pending BRAIN 2.0 report. Part III of the draft BRAIN report from June 2019 moves beyond a consideration of technology development to consider the critical importance of technology dissemination. Thus, development of new technologies under the BRAIN initiative is critical for the advancement of basic, translation and clinical neuroscience toward better understanding of origins, treatment and ultimately prevention of mental disorders.

Goal

NIMH has a vested interest in ensuring that BRAIN technologies become rapidly integrated into mental health relevant research projects. The goal of this NOSI is to express NIMH’s interest in leveraging these developments to understand nervous system function in the service of cognition, social, or affective processing. NIMH encourages the use of network- or cell-type-specific manipulations to causally probe circuit function. Applicants are encouraged to propose research to understand functioning of brain circuits in healthy subjects as well as translational work.

For the purposes of this NOSI, NIMH is particularly interested in BRAIN tools that allow large, population-scale in vivo recording, imaging, or circuit manipulation during cognitive, social, or affective behavior. The notice encourages collaborations with BRAIN Initiative investigators.

Research Objectives

In order to significantly improve our understanding of the neural circuits that subserve cognitive functions, emotion regulation and social affective processes, NIMH is encouraging the submission of applications proposing to use the following types of tools/technologies developed in the BRAIN Initiative:

• Technologies that enable causal in vivo behavioral neuroscience experimental designs to probe functions of neural circuits implicated in the above-mentioned behavioral domains
• Technologies that analyze and manipulate complex circuits with a goal to provide comprehensive circuit diagrams
• Technologies that monitor neural activity and in vivo behaviors
• Interventional tools
• Technologies that allow examination of developmental time course and/or sex differences in mental health-relevant circuit function
• Computational modeling approaches and data analysis

For a list of BRAIN Initiative technologies and tools that could potentially be applied in NIMH research applications, see https://braininitiative.nih.gov/funding/funded-awards. For a list of NIMH strategic research priorities, see https://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/strategic-planning-reports/index.shtml

Application and Submission Information

This notice applies to due dates on or after January 25, 2020 and subsequent receipt dates through May 8, 2023. 

Submit applications for this initiative using one of the following funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) or any reissues of these announcement through the expiration date of this notice.

• PA-20-183 Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Required, Mechanistic Studies Only)
• PA-20-185 NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PA-20-184 NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Basic Experimental Studies with Humans Required)
• PA-18-350 NIMH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant (R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PA-20-196 NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Basic Experimental Studies with Humans Required)
• PA-18-358  NINDS Exploratory Neuroscience Research Grant (R21- Clinical Trial Optional)
• PA-20-200 NIH Small Research Grant Program (Parent R03 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PAR-18-714 Academic Research Enhancement Award for Undergraduate-Focused Institutions (R15 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PAR-20-093 Silvio O. Conte Centers for Basic Neuroscience or Translational Mental Health Research (P50 Clinical Trial Optional)
• PAR-18-555 Understanding and Modifying Temporal Dynamics of Coordinated Neural Activity (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)
• PAR-18-554 Understanding and Modifying Temporal Dynamics of Coordinated Neural Activity (R21 Clinical Trial Optional)
• PAR-19-027 Basic Neurodevelopmental Biology of Circuits and Behavior (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PAR-19-028 Basic Neurodevelopmental Biology of Brain Circuits and Behavior (R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PAR-19-344 Explainable Artificial Intelligence for Decoding and Modulating Neural Circuit Activity Linked to Behavior (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) 

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and the funding opportunity announcement used for submission must be followed, with the following additions:

• For funding consideration, applicants must include “NOT-MH-21-115” (without quotation marks) in the Agency Routing Identifier field (box 4B) of the SF424 R&R form. Applications without this information in box 4B will not be considered for this initiative.

Applications nonresponsive to terms of this NOSI will not be considered for the NOSI initiative.

Inquiries

Scientific/Research Contact(s

Cathleen Hsu
NIMH/Division of Neuroscience and Basic Behavioral Science
Telephone: 301-443-1576
Email:TechToolsBRAIN.NOSI@mail.nih.gov

Peer Review Contact(s)

Examine your eRA Commons account for review assignment and contact information (information appears two weeks after the submission due date).

Financial/Grants Management Contact(s)

Tamara Kees
NIMH/Grants Management Branch
Telephone:301-443-8311
Email: tkees@mail.nih.gov