Notice Number: NOT-NS-18-008

Key Dates
Release Date: September 12, 2017

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
National Eye Institute (NEI)
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

Purpose

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. NIH has issued a variety of Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) that will support projects that apply technologies to understand neural circuit function in the context of specific circuits, resulting in a diverse portfolio of research into the fundamental biology of nervous system function.

The purpose of this announcement is to notify the research community that NIH welcomes BRAIN Initiative applications targeting central nervous system nociceptive and pain circuits, as appropriate to the goals and requirements of specific BRAIN Initiative FOAs. Pain conditions represent an important public health problem and NIH continues to support research into pain pathologies through normal Institute and Center appropriations. However, pain and nociception are also components of normal nervous system function, and the BRAIN Initiative is committed to understanding pain circuits along with brain circuits underlying other sensory, motor, cognitive and emotional functions. It is expected that the unique opportunities of the BRAIN Initiative will enable production of detailed maps of pain circuits, and the adoption of powerful new tools for monitoring and modulating pain circuit activity, leading to significant advances in the understanding of pain and nociception.

For a list of past and open BRAIN Initiative FOAs, see https://braininitiative.nih.gov/funding/. For information on goals and requirements of specific BRAIN FOAs, contact Scientific/Program staff listed in the text of the respective announcements.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

James Gnadt, PhD
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Telephone: 301-496-9964
Email: BRAINCircuits@NIH.GOV