Key Dates

Related Announcements

RFA-NS-22-026: "BRAIN Initiative: Targeted BRAIN Circuits Projects- TargetedBCP (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)"

RFA-NS-22-027: "BRAIN Initiative: Targeted BRAIN Circuits Planning Projects – TargetedBCPP (R34 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)"

RFA-NS-22-028: "BRAIN Initiative: Exploratory Team-Research BRAIN Circuit Programs - eTeamBCP (U01 Clinical Trials Optional)"

RFA-NS-22-039: "BRAIN Initiative: Team-Research BRAIN Circuit Programs - TeamBCP (U19 Basic Experimental Studies with Humans Required)"

RFA-NS-22-040:"BRAIN Initiative: Team-Research BRAIN Circuit Programs - TeamBCP (U19 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)"

RFA-NS-22-041: "BRAIN Initiative: Research Opportunities Using Invasive Neural Recording and Stimulating Technologies in the Human Brain (U01 Basic Experimental Studies with Humans Required)"

Issued by

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

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)

All applications to this funding opportunity announcement should fall within the mission of the Institutes/Centers. The following NIH Offices may co-fund applications assigned to those Institutes/Centers.

Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR)

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 behaviors. 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 interoceptive processes and circuits, as appropriate to the goals and requirements of specific BRAIN Initiative FOAs. For this NOSI, interoception includes the processes by which an organism senses, interprets, integrates, and regulates signals originating within itself and represents its internal states. Interoception includes the processes by which an organism senses, interprets, integrates, and regulates internal signals. Here, the action of “sensing” denotes communication from physiological systems outside of the central nervous system (CNS) to the CNS, through the commonly called ascending or afferent pathways, whereas the action of “regulating” refers to the communication from the brain to other physiological systems via descending or efferent pathways. The CNS, especially the brain, is primarily responsible for interpreting and integrating these signals into a representation of the internal world as well as the generation of regulating signals. The systems involved in sensing signals about the internal environment include not only the peripheral nervous system and the CNS but also components of the peripheral internal organs such as vascular, endocrine, and immune systems.

Although implicated in a variety of neurologic and psychiatric disorders, interoception is part of normal nervous system function and is therefore of interest to the BRAIN Initiative. It is expected that the unique opportunities of the BRAIN Initiative will enable production of detailed maps of dynamic interoceptive circuits, and the adoption of powerful new tools for monitoring and modulating interoception circuit activity, leading to significant advances in the understanding of sensory processing and interoception within the CNS of animal models or appropriate human subjects. This NOSI is focused on the basic and fundamental science of central nervous system circuits whereas the ‘Promoting Research on Interoception and Its Impact on Health and Disease’ Notice of Special Interest emphasizes the interests of the 7 participating NIH Institutes and Centers (NOT-AT-21-002).

For a list of relevant BRAIN Initiative FOAs, see the table below. For information on goals and requirements of specific BRAIN FOAs, contact the Scientific/Program staff listed in the text of the respective announcements.

Responsiveness Criteria

Studies focusing solely on circuits or mechanisms outside the central nervous system will be deemed non-responsive and returned without review.

Application and Submission Information

This notice applies to due dates on or after June 15, 2023 and subsequent receipt dates through October 3, 2024.

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.

• RFA-NS-22-026: "BRAIN Initiative: Targeted BRAIN Circuits Projects- TargetedBCP (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)"
• RFA-NS-22-027: "BRAIN Initiative: Targeted BRAIN Circuits Planning Projects – TargetedBCPP (R34 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)"
• RFA-NS-22-028: "BRAIN Initiative: Exploratory Team-Research BRAIN Circuit Programs - eTeamBCP (U01 Clinical Trials Optional)"
• RFA-NS-22-039: "BRAIN Initiative: Team-Research BRAIN Circuit Programs - TeamBCP (U19 Basic Experimental Studies with Humans Required)"
• RFA-NS-22-040: "BRAIN Initiative: Team-Research BRAIN Circuit Programs - TeamBCP (U19 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)"
• RFA-NS-22-041 "BRAIN Initiative: Research Opportunities Using Invasive Neural Recording and Stimulating Technologies in the Human Brain (U01 Basic Experimental Studies with Humans Required)"

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-AT-23-003” (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.

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