Related Announcements

None

Issued by

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Purpose

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is issuing this Notice to provide potential applicants additional time to develop responsive applications to upcoming initiatives that encourage research addressing the quickly evolving data related to mental health in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Funding Opportunity Announcements are expected to be published in early March and we will accept applications for FY22 funding. In addition, a Notice of Special Interest is expected to be published in January 2022 and applications will be accepted through 2024. If sufficient funds are available, the goal is to begin awarding grants in August 2022.

The importance of expanding research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health is prioritized by the substantial funding proposed in the Fiscal Year 2022 budgets from both the House and Senate. Although funds have not yet been appropriated and NIMH operates under a Continuing Resolution which maintains funding at the previous year’s level, NIMH acknowledges the contribution that new research could make to understand, prevent, and treat mental illness in the context of the pandemic.

This Notice encourages investigators to acquire and review pilot data to support accelerated research project grants to address the ongoing challenges that SARS-CoV-2 and the secondary impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic pose to mental health. Research areas supported under this program include basic, translational, and services and intervention research to provide an evidence base to understand how mental illness contributes to COVID-19 risk and mortality, how incident mental illness develops with COVID-19, and the development of scalable interventions to meet the public mental health needs of the pandemic among those who survive infection from the SARS-CoV-2 virus and broader populations impacted by stress, disruptions, and loss of lives in the pandemic. Research addressing the intersection of COVID-19, mental health, and HIV treatment and prevention are also relevant. Given the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on populations who experience health disparities as well as preexisting mental health disparities, NIMH is particularly interested in projects that focus on those populations most in need. Proposed research should reflect the highest impact and feature rigorous methods including sufficient power, and consideration of urgent public health needs.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Division of AIDS Research

Pim Brouwers, Ph.D.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Telephone: 301-640-6134
Email: ebrouwer@mail.nih.gov

Division of Neuroscience and Basic Behavioral Science

Susan Koester, Ph.D.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Telephone: 301-443-3563
Email: koesters@mail.nih.gov

Division of Services and Intervention Research

Adam Haim, Ph.D.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Email: haima@mail.nih.gov

Division of Translational Research

Susan Borja, Ph.D.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Telephone: 310-443-1252
Email: susan.borja@nih.gov

Center for Global Mental Health Research

Leonardo Cubillos, MD, MPH
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Email: leonardo.cubillos@nih.gov