Notice Number: NOT-MH-17-003

Key Dates
Release Date: December 5, 2016

Issued by
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
National Eye Institute (NEI)
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 Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

Purpose

This Notice announces the reissue of a joint initiative, Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS), among nine National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorates and Offices (DOs), and nine participating National Institutes of Health (NIH) Institutes and Centers (ICs).  The CRCNS announcement is released under NSF 16-607 (https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2016/nsf16607/nsf16607.htm). This announcement supersedes NSF 15-595:  Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS) Innovative Approaches to Science and Engineering Research on Brain Function. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium f r Bildung und Forschung, BMBF http://www.bmbf.de/), the French National Research Agency (Agence Nationale de la Recherche, ANRS http://www.agence-nationale-recherche.fr), and the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF http://www.bsf.org.il) are now formal partners in this program, along with the NSF and the NIH.  At NIH, CRCNS is now affiliated with the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research (http://neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov).

Computational neuroscience provides a theoretical foundation and a rich set of technical approaches for understanding the complex neurobiological systems, building on the theory, methods, and findings of computer science, neuroscience, and numerous other disciplines.  Through the CRCNS program, participating NSF DOs, NIH ICs, BMBF, ANRS and BSF support innovative interdisciplinary collaborative research to make significant advances in the understanding of structures and functions of the nervous system, mechanisms underlying nervous system disorders, and computational strategies used by the nervous system.

The participating agencies recognize the need for research that focuses on integrating computational models and methods with neuroscience.  This solicitation is designed to encourage new collaborations at this interface.  Appropriate scientific areas of investigations are those that are currently supported by NSF and NIH, or related to the missions of the two agencies.  By participating in this broadly based program of cooperation between agencies, the NIH will focus on creating new research teams of biomedical and quantitative scientists to explore questions directly relevant to the missions of participating NIH ICs.

Two classes of proposals will be considered in response to this solicitation:
Research proposals - describing collaborative research projects
Data Sharing Proposals - to enable sharing of data and other resources
Domestic and international projects will be considered. As detailed in the solicitation, international components of collaborative projects may be funded in parallel by the participating agencies.  Opportunities for parallel funding are available for US-German Research Proposals, US-German Data Sharing Proposals; US-French Research Proposals, US-French Data Sharing Proposals, US-Israeli Research Proposals, US-Israeli Data Sharing Proposals, and multilateral proposals involving the United States and 2 or more partnering countries (Germany, France, and/or Israel).

Appropriate scientific areas of investigations are those related to the mission of participating funding agencies.  Questions concerning a particular project’s focus, direction and relevance to a participating funding agency should be addressed to the appropriate person in the list of agency contacts in the NSF Program Solicitation (NSF 16-607, https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2016/nsf16607/nsf16607.htm ).
The computational research supported under this program must have impact on, and relate to biological processes, and optimally generate hypotheses that are testable in biological studies.  It is expected that:  (1) applications will include collaborations among computational and/or modeling experts, theorists, and experimental neuroscientists; (2) collaborations will involve a dynamic and, possibly, a protracted period of model or theory development and refinement, and intense interaction among scientists and engineers from different disciplines; (3) the development and testing of new models or theories will provide a framework for the design of experiments and the generation of new hypotheses that can help reveal mechanisms underlying normal or disease states of the nervous system, and (4) the development and distribution of professional quality software tools (e.g., modeling algorithms and analytic tools).

Award Information
Award sizes for research projects are expected to range from approximately $100,000 to $250,000 per year in direct costs, with durations of three to five years.  Many awards will be on the smaller end of this range; no award will exceed $250,000 per year in direct costs.  Applicants are strongly discouraged from requesting greater budgets than are necessary for the activities being proposed.  It is estimated that data sharing projects will range from approximately $25,000 to $100,000 in cumulative award size for a one- to three-year project.  Estimated program budget, number of awards and average award size and duration are subject to the availability of funds.

Upon conclusion of the review process, meritorious applications may be recommended for funding by either the participating NSF DOs or NIH ICs, at the option of the agencies, not the applicant.  Data sharing proposals will be funded only by NSF.  Subsequent grant administration procedures will be in accordance with the individual policies of the awarding agency.

Eligibility Information
Limit on Number of Proposals per PI or Collaborator: 2
In response to this solicitation, an investigator may participate as PI or Collaborator in no more than two proposals per review cycle.  In the event that a PI or Collaborator does appear in either of these roles on more than two proposals, all proposals that include that person as a PI or Collaborator will be returned without review.  This limit applies to all PIs and Collaborators, based inside or outside of the United States.

Proposal Preparation and Submission Instructions
Applications submitted in response to this announcement should be prepared and submitted in accordance with the general guidelines contained in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG).  Applications must be submitted to the NSF, not to the NIH.  The complete text of the GPG is available electronically on the NSF Web Site at: http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=gpg.   Applicants are reminded to identify the announcement number (16-607) in the program announcement block on the NSF Cover Sheet for Proposal to the National Science Foundation.  Compliance with this announcement is critical to determining the relevant proposal processing guidelines.  Failure to submit this information may delay processing.

Budgetary Information
Cost sharing is not required by NSF in proposals submitted under this Program Solicitation.  Budgets should include travel funds for the PI and team members to attend an annual CRCNS Principal Investigators' meeting.

NIH Process
For those proposals that are selected for potential funding by participating NIH ICs, the PI will be required to resubmit the proposal in an NIH-approved format directly to the Center for Scientific Review (http://www.csr.nih.gov/) of the NIH.  PIs invited to resubmit to NIH will receive further information on resubmission procedures from the NIH.  An applicant will not be allowed to increase the proposed budget or change the scientific content of the application in the resubmission to the NIH.  The applicants will be expected to utilize the Multiple Program Director/Principal Investigator option at the NIH (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/multi_PI/) as appropriate.  These NIH applications will be entered into the NIH IMPAC II system.  The results of the review will be presented to the involved IC's National Advisory Councils for the second level of review.  Subsequent to the Council reviews, NIH ICs will make their funding determinations and selected awards will be made.  Subsequent grant administration procedures for NIH awardees, including those related to New and Early Stage Investigators (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/new_investigators/) will be in accordance with the policies of NIH.  Applications selected for NIH funding will use the NIH R01 funding mechanism.

Inquiries

Written and telephone inquiries are encouraged.  Please see the NSF program announcement for names and contact information for each of the participating NSF DOs and/or NIH ICs at https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2016/nsf16607/nsf16607.htm