It is critical that applicants follow the Research (R) Instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, except where instructed to do otherwise (in this FOA or in a Notice from the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts). Conformance to all requirements (both in the Application Guide and the FOA) is required and strictly enforced. Applicants must read and follow all application instructions in the Application Guide as well as any program-specific instructions noted in Section IV. When the program-specific instructions deviate from those in the Application Guide, follow the program-specific instructions. Applications that do not comply with these instructions may be delayed or not accepted for review.

Part 1. Overview Information
Part 2. Full Text of the Announcement

Section I. Funding Opportunity Description
Section II. Award Information
Section III. Eligibility Information
Section IV. Application and Submission Information
Section V. Application Review Information
Section VI. Award Administration Information
Section VII. Agency Contacts
Section VIII. Other Information

The Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) InitiativeSM is aimed at revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain. By accelerating the development and application of innovative technologies, researchers will be able to produce a new dynamic picture of the brain that, for the first time, will show how individual cells and complex neural circuits interact in both time and space. It is expected that the application of these new tools and technologies will ultimately lead to new ways to treat, cure, and even prevent brain disorders.

NIH is one of several federal agencies involved in the BRAIN Initiative. Planning for the NIH component of the BRAIN initiative is guided by the long-term scientific plan, BRAIN 2025: A Scientific Vision, which details seven high-priority research areas and calls for a sustained federal commitment of $4.5 billion over 12 years. This report can be found at http://braininitiative.nih.gov/ . This FOA and other BRAIN Initiative FOAs are based on careful consideration by the NIH of the recommendations of the BRAIN 2025 Report, and input from the NIH BRAIN Multi-Council Working Group (MCWG, Roster). Information about meetings of the MCWG are available at https://videocast.nih.gov/.

In addition to the National BRAIN initiative, the NIH continues to have a substantial annual investment in neuroscience research. The Institutes and Centers contributing to the NIH BRAIN Initiative support those research efforts through investigator-initiated applications as well as through specific FOAs. Potential applicants to this FOA are strongly encouraged to contact Scientific/Program staff if they have any questions about the best FOA for their research.

To enable rapid progress in development of new technologies as well as in theory and data analysis, the BRAIN Initiative encourages collaborations between neurobiologists and scientists from statistics, physics, mathematics, engineering, and computer and information sciences; and NIH welcomes applications from investigators in these disciplines.

NIH encourages BRAIN Initiative applications from investigators that are underrepresented in the biomedical, behavioral, or clinical research workforce (see data at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/showpub.cfm?TopID=2&SubID=27and the most recent report on Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering). Such individuals include those from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, those with disabilities, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

To achieve the goals of the program, the BRAIN Initiative will require a high level of coordination and sharing between investigators. By involvement as a cooperative agreement mechanism, it is expected that BRAIN Initiative awardees will cooperate and coordinate their activities after awards are made by participating in Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) meetings and in other activities.

This FOA is related to the Recommendations in Section III. 6 of the Final Report (http://www.nih.gov/science/brain/2025/index.htm) of the BRAIN working group. Specifically, this FOA solicits applications that will address the recommendations on ADVANCING HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE (Section III Implementation: Goals, Deliverables, Timelines and Costs, Part 6) of the Final Report.

The BRAIN Initiative seeks to understand the circuits and patterns of neural activity that give rise to mental experience and behavior, which will provide a foundation for understanding and treating diverse neurological, psychiatric, and behavioral disorders. Dynamic activity of ensembles of neurons in specially organized networks gives rise to the internal states we experience as sensations, perceptions, emotions, thoughts, and memories and to observable motor behavior. The activity of these networks is the substrate of cognitive processes such as attention, intention, reasoning, and decision making; of emotional states of happiness, sadness, and fear; of sensation such as touch, pain, hearing, olfaction, taste, and vision; and to motor behaviors such as balance and motor control. Dysfunction of these large systems of neurons due to disease, injury, or developmental anomaly is the basis of neural and mental disorders. Further, investigative studies of neural circuits in human subjects offer unique opportunities for mechanistic understanding of complex capabilities especially advanced in humans.

While research using non-invasive imaging and stimulation methods is typically considered non-significant risk by Institutional Review Boards and does not require an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) from the FDA, opportunities for research involving invasive, higher-resolution stimulating/recording devices for human neuroscience research often have limited time windows. These opportunities are mostly restricted to patients undergoing neurosurgical procedures or implantation for less than 30 days with devices such as ECoG/EEG grids and indwelling penetrating arrays. Among the few stimulating/recording devices that are FDA market-approved for implantation for greater than 30 days are the electrodes for Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson and Essential Tremor or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and recent stimulating/recording systems for intractable epilepsy. These inherent challenges associated with research using invasive devices in the human nervous system therefore require a greater degree of planning and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Investigations within the human brain offer revolutionary, but challenging, opportunities for experimental investigation of how the brain senses, thinks, perceives, remembers, plans, registers emotions, activates movements, and makes decisions. Invasive surgical procedures provide the unique ability to record and stimulate neurons within precisely localized brain structures in humans. However, human studies using invasive technology are often constrained by a limited number of patients and resources available to implement complex experimental protocols and are rarely aggregated in a manner that addresses research questions with appropriate statistical power. Therefore, this FOA seeks applications to assemble integrated, multi-disciplinary teams to develop exploratory research efforts to overcome these fundamental barriers. Projects should investigate high-impact questions in human neuroscience and the biological basis of disorders of the human nervous system. Designs should be offered to turn early-stage, range-finding data into mechanistic models and hypotheses, including validation of biological presumptions. Research designs can be offered as pilot projects, exploratory research or activities to establish feasibility, proof-of-principle and early-stage development of technologies or approaches in human neuroscience. Studies that offer planning and development for high temporal resolution of behavioral quantification integrated with invasive recording of brain activity is encouraged, especially those that would transition to utilization in naturalistic environments outside of strict laboratory settings. It is expected that projects funded under this FOA will build teams and data that can later compete for a phase II of continued funding under new or ongoing FOAs of the BRAIN Initiative or other programs.

An additional goal of this FOA within the NIH BRAIN portfolio is to support human research studies that seek to understand complex human behaviors by precisely measuring and analyzing behavior with high temporal resolution during neural recordings in naturalistic settings. This can be made possible through utilization of rapid advances in neural recording technology, wearables, computational capability, and analytical approaches. Projects that include this goal should demonstrate feasibility or show proof-of-concept that will lead to realization of methodologies for monitoring behavior outside of constraining laboratory settings.

Projects should engage multidisciplinary teams consisting of clinicians, scientists, device engineers, data/computational scientists, regulatory specialists, and/or ethics specialists. Teams may be assembled within a single institution, but because of the likelihood of a limited number of patients at any single research center, integration of research teams across sites is strongly encouraged.

In the interest of iterative models of discovery, limited support for complementary animal studies may be allowed only if they validate or inform these empirical studies of human physiology. Applicants are expected to employ approaches guided by specified theoretical constructs, and are encouraged to employ quantitative, mechanistic models where appropriate.

We anticipate that implantable devices for most of these applications will rely on existing technology sufficiently advanced for an IRB Non-Significant Risk designation, or an FDA IDE without needing significant additional pre-clinical testing on the device. We also anticipate that newly IDE-approved devices may become available over the course of these awards. NIH BRAIN is supporting new device development and regulatory approval through other NIH BRAIN initiatives, including the availability of template Memoranda of Agreements (MOUs), Confidential Disclosure Agreements (CDAs) and Collaborative Research Agreements (CRAs) with various private and commercial device providers that may facilitate awardees to adopt novel technologies to fit their needs (see http://braininitiative.nih.gov/ for up to date information and NIH Scientific/Research contacts). Where appropriate, applicants are encouraged to anticipate potential and alternative plans for adopting newly available technologies. Further, use of the cooperative agreement mechanism will allow awardees to negotiate the incorporation of new technologies by working through NIH Program staff in collaboration with technology providers.

The list below includes representative, but not exhaustive, examples of activities that could be considered responsive to this FOA. Applications may:

• Offer exploratory and pilot studies, and feasibility, proof-of-principle and early-stage technology development. Note that this re-issue of the prior RFA-NS-17-019, as a 2-year award, emphasizes early-stage, limited-scale studies that will establish feasibility and preliminary data for competition in future, larger-term BRAIN Initiative FOAs in Research Opportunities Using Invasive Technologies in the Human Brain.
• Integrate non-invasive technologies to image and/or to perturb the nervous system for use in conjunction with the invasive implants in order to cross spatial and temporal scales.
• Seek to acquire approvals necessary for multi-modal techniques used in combination.
• Offer planning and range-finding empirical designs when they are used to develop testable theories and hypotheses as a launch point for further studies with statistically-powered hypothesis testing.
• Offer the combination of quantitative psychophysics and behavioral assays in combination with brain recording or stimulating that tests mechanistic hypotheses.
• Utilize approved, chronic implants, (e.g., DBS implants; FDA-approved indwelling electrodes) to address mechanistic hypotheses about brain function, plasticity, etc.
• Utilize neural recording technology, wearables, computational capability, and/or analytical approaches to enable the study of complex human behaviors in naturalistic settings

The list below includes representative, but not exhaustive, examples of topics that could be considered responsive to this FOA.

• Investigative studies for understanding the neurobiology of cognitive functions specially advanced in humans.
• Approaches to understanding network coding of sensory information.
• Paradigms to assess motor coding during complex behaviors.
• Approaches to understand neural circuitry associated with diverse social behaviors.
• Changes in circuit functions underlying the brain's ability to store information and to learn new behaviors (plasticity).
• New approaches to capture and assess information processing across brain regions during memory consolidation, memory retrieval, spatial/relational processing, attention, or planning.
• Assessment of distributed representations and information processing underlying advanced mental processes such as language, decision making, numerical cognition, reasoning, and metacognition.
• Investigation of distributed circuits that contribute to the coordination of motivational states and reward behavior.
• Empirical and analytical approaches to understand how behavioral states are emergent properties of the interaction of neurons, circuits, and networks.
• Projects that aim to link measured behavioral domains in real-time with brain activity recordings in laboratory and real-world settings.
• Studies to understand the neurobiology of pain and nocioception as a sensory modality, along with other sensory, motor, cognitive and emotional functions.

The following are non-responsive for this program:

• Studies designed primarily to develop or improve disease/disorder therapeutics or devices. For device development, applicants are encouraged to consider other BRAIN FOAs noted on the NIH BRAIN Initiative website. For disease/disorder therapeutics, applicants should consult the websites of the appropriate NIH Institute.
• Studies for which the primary goal is to achieve regulatory approval of neurotechnology (see http://braininitiative.nih.gov/ for other BRAIN FOAs supporting this activity, and the NIH bioengineering grant program http://www.ninds.nih.gov/research/bioengineering/index.htm) or the peripheral nervous system (see NIH SPARC http://commonfund.nih.gov/sparc/index)
• Imaging approaches not coupled with intra-cranial recording or stimulating
• Implementing rehabilitation therapies
• Definitive clinical trials of therapeutic devices or therapeutic interventions, such as a traditional feasibility study and/or pivotal trial (see http://www.fda.gov/downloads/MedicalDevices/DeviceRegulati%20onandGuidance/GuidanceDocuments/UCM279103.pdf2 for the definition of an early feasibility study, feasibility study and pivotal trial)
• Projects focused on augmentation of neural function in healthy individuals
• Projects focused on routine clinical care.

See Section VIII. Other Information for award authorities and regulations.

NIH grants policies as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement will apply to the applications submitted and awards made in response to this FOA.

Higher Education Institutions

• Public/State Controlled Institutions of Higher Education
• Private Institutions of Higher Education

The following types of Higher Education Institutions are always encouraged to apply for NIH support as Public or Private Institutions of Higher Education:

• Hispanic-serving Institutions
• Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
• Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs)
• Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions
• Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs)

Nonprofits Other Than Institutions of Higher Education

• Nonprofits with 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
• Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)

For-Profit Organizations

• Small Businesses
• For-Profit Organizations (Other than Small Businesses)

Governments

• State Governments
• County Governments
• City or Township Governments
• Special District Governments
• Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Federally Recognized)
• Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Other than Federally Recognized)
• Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government
• U.S. Territory or Possession

Other

• Independent School Districts
• Public Housing Authorities/Indian Housing Authorities
• Native American Tribal Organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
• Faith-based or Community-based Organizations
• Regional Organizations

Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions) are not eligible to apply.
Non-domestic (non-U.S.) components of U.S. Organizations are eligible to apply.
Foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are allowed.

Applicant Organizations

Applicant organizations must complete and maintain the following registrations as described in the SF 424 (R&R) Application Guide to be eligible to apply for or receive an award. All registrations must be completed prior to the application being submitted. Registration can take 6 weeks or more, so applicants should begin the registration process as soon as possible. The NIH Policy on Late Submission of Grant Applications states that failure to complete registrations in advance of a due date is not a valid reason for a late submission.

• Dun and Bradstreet Universal Numbering System (DUNS) - All registrations require that applicants be issued a DUNS number. After obtaining a DUNS number, applicants can begin both SAM and eRA Commons registrations. The same DUNS number must be used for all registrations, as well as on the grant application.
• System for Award Management (SAM) (formerly CCR) Applicants must complete and maintain an active registration, which requires renewal at least annually. The renewal process may require as much time as the initial registration. SAM registration includes the assignment of a Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) Code for domestic organizations which have not already been assigned a CAGE Code.
• NATO Commercial and Government Entity (NCAGE) Code Foreign organizations must obtain an NCAGE code (in lieu of a CAGE code) in order to register in SAM.
• eRA Commons - Applicants must have an active DUNS number and SAM registration in order to complete the eRA Commons registration. Organizations can register with the eRA Commons as they are working through their SAM or Grants.gov registration. eRA Commons requires organizations to identify at least one Signing Official (SO) and at least one Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) account in order to submit an application.
• Grants.gov Applicants must have an active DUNS number and SAM registration in order to complete the Grants.gov registration.

Program Directors/Principal Investigators (PD(s)/PI(s))

All PD(s)/PI(s) must have an eRA Commons account. PD(s)/PI(s) should work with their organizational officials to either create a new account or to affiliate their existing account with the applicant organization in eRA Commons. If the PD/PI is also the organizational Signing Official, they must have two distinct eRA Commons accounts, one for each role. Obtaining an eRA Commons account can take up to 2 weeks.

Any individual(s) with the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research as the Program Director(s)/Principal Investigator(s) (PD(s)/PI(s)) is invited to work with his/her organization to develop an application for support. Individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups as well as individuals with disabilities are always encouraged to apply for NIH support.

For institutions/organizations proposing multiple PDs/PIs, visit the Multiple Program Director/Principal Investigator Policy and submission details in the Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) Component of the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide.

This FOA does not require cost sharing as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

Applicant organizations may submit more than one application, provided that each application is scientifically distinct.

The NIH will not accept duplicate or highly overlapping applications under review at the same time. This means that the NIH will not accept:

• A new (A0) application that is submitted before issuance of the summary statement from the review of an overlapping new (A0) or resubmission (A1) application.
• A resubmission (A1) application that is submitted before issuance of the summary statement from the review of the previous new (A0) application.
• An application that has substantial overlap with another application pending appeal of initial peer review (see NOT-OD-11-101).

Buttons to access the online ASSIST system or to download application forms are available in Part 1 of this FOA. See your administrative office for instructions if you plan to use an institutional system-to-system solution.

It is critical that applicants follow the Research (R) Instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, including Supplemental Grant Application Instructions except where instructed in this funding opportunity announcement to do otherwise. Conformance to the requirements in the Application Guide is required and strictly enforced. Applications that are out of compliance with these instructions may be delayed or not accepted for review.

For information on Application Submission and Receipt, visit Frequently Asked Questions Application Guide, Electronic Submission of Grant Applications.

Although a letter of intent is not required, is not binding, and does not enter into the review of a subsequent application, the information that it contains allows IC staff to estimate the potential review workload and plan the review.

By the date listed in Part 1. Overview Information, prospective applicants are asked to submit a letter of intent that includes the following information:

• Descriptive title of proposed activity
• Name(s), address(es), and telephone number(s) of the PD(s)/PI(s)
• Names of other key personnel
• Participating institution(s)
• Number and title of this funding opportunity

The letter of intent should be sent to:

James Gnadt, PhD
Telephone: 301-496-9964
6001 Executive Blvd
North Bethesda, MD 20892
Email: [email protected]

All page limitations described in the SF424 Application Guide and the Table of Page Limits must be followed.

The following section supplements the instructions found in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and should be used for preparing an application to this FOA.

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.

Other Attachments:

Applicants are required to include the following items: Team Management Plan and Clinical Protocol Synopsis. These items must be uploaded as separate attachments in pdf format with filenames that correspond to the individual items (Team Management Plan, and Clinical Protocol Synopsis). Applications lacking these required items will be deemed incomplete and will not be reviewed.

Team Management Plan: The team management plan must not exceed one page; applications that exceed this limit will be withdrawn. NIH strongly encourages applicants to form multidisciplinary teams that consist of clinicians, scientists, device engineers, mathematicians, statisticians, data scientists, regulatory specialists and/or ethics specialists, as appropriate. This multidisciplinary team should be able to address the details of the plans and experiments, and to execute the research strategy. An organizational structure that clearly defines the team structure and relationships among the various components must be described in the team management plan and illustrated in an organizational chart. This plan should also describe the governance and organizational structure of the leadership team, without repeating information from the Multiple PD/PI Plan if submitted, and the research project, including communication plans, processes for making decisions on scientific direction, and procedures for resolving conflicts. For publications, policies to address the ordering and recognition of authors, and decisions about what material to publish, consistent with the interests of commercial partners (where applicable), should be presented.

The team management plan should establish a Scientific Steering Group that consists of representatives from each of the partnering organizations and meets regularly to discuss project status, problems, and directions. Those individuals identified in the team management plan, who together would have the intellectual and leadership responsibilities, would likely be members of the Scientific Steering Group. Plans for enhancing the abilities and opportunities for investigators to work across disciplinary boundaries should also be included.

Clinical Protocol Synopsis: The clinical protocol synopsis must not exceed six pages; applications that exceed this limit will be withdrawn. The clinical protocol synopsis must include the following information:

• Compliance with HIPAA and informed consent must be explicitly described.
• A list of participant eligibility criteria
• How recruitment and retention plans will accommodate access to the appropriate brain areas of recording, including a discussion of the availability of participants for the proposed study and the ability of enrollment sites to recruit and retain the proposed number of participants, including women and minority participants.
• Participant recruitment and retention plans, including a discussion of the availability of participants for the proposed study and the ability of enrollment sites to recruit and retain the proposed number of participants meeting the eligibility criteria, including women and minority participants. Data supporting recruitment and retention estimates must be provided.
• A description of all assessments including clinical, laboratory, physiological, behavioral, patient-centered, or other outcomes addressing the primary and secondary research questions.
• Discussion of the potential biases in the study and how they will be addressed
• Statistical Methods: Discussion of sample size and power calculations where hypothesis testing is explicit, study outcome measures, plans for interim and final analyses, methods of bias control, and methods for handling missing data. Examples of the critical elements of a well-designed clinical study are summarized on the NINDS website. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/funding/transparency_in_reporting_guidance.pdf.
• Data Management and Quality Control: Details of efficient data management and methods for monitoring quality, methods for monitoring the quality and consistency of intervention administration, and methods for ensuring participant confidentiality. Applicants are expected to incorporate data elements from the NINDS Common Data Elements (CDE) Project in their data collection forms (see http://www.commondataelements.ninds.nih.gov)
• Discussion of the challenges expected in implementing the studies and how these might be overcome

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.

Applications to this FOA should assemble integrated, multi-disciplinary teams of clinicians, scientists, device engineers, mathematicians, statisticians, data scientists, regulatory specialists and/or ethics specialists, as appropriate, to propose innovative research plans within the context of the unique research opportunities offered by these clinical procedures. These teams may be assembled within a single university or medical center, or may comprise integrated teams across multiple institutions to aggregate these limited opportunities to address high-impact neuroscience questions.

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed, with the following additional instructions:

Research Strategy: Harmonization of recruitment and methods (including collection, curation, and analysis) across multiple sites should be well planned and described as appropriate and consistent with achieving the goals of the program. Projects should be offered as pilot or exploratory research activities that will build teams and data that will later compete for continued funding under new or ongoing FOAs of the BRAIN initiative or under NIH Institute and Center appropriations.

The aims of this application must investigate fundamental questions in human neuroscience. While fundamental basic research often generates insights relevant to disorders of the nervous system, this RFA is not intended to generate research that is explicitly disease-therapeutic.

All applications are required to include the following points, which must be incorporated within the page limits of the Research Strategy:

• Statement of the neurobiological, neurological or mental health questions to be addressed, including the theoretical and conceptual framework that drives the research design and questions, and discussion of the analytical methods for interpreting the results.
• Description of how studies in the brain tissues potentially affected by the disease or disorder can adequately address the research questions and mechanisms posed, including comparison to complementary studies in animals if appropriate and feasible.
• Description of recording/manipulation methods that will be employed or developed to approach the questions as a functional system, and how the invasive intervention and/or the implantation of foreign (device) materials may confound the interpretation of results.
• If complementary animal studies are proposed, then anticipated or contingent, non-human, experimental components must be adequately described and justified
• Where the adoption of newly developing technology pending FDA-approved is anticipated, reasonable description as an alternative methodology (to the extent that details are available), along with potential advantages and pitfalls, is required.
• Description of a timeline for completion of tractable research goals, strategic goals and key stages of progress for the project, especially in terms of participant accrual.
• Applicants must address the technical and procedural aspects specific to invasive studies in human patients, and the strategic plans for addressing functional studies of a specified neural system in the context of patients with neural dysfunctions and invasive device interventions.
• Projects are allowed to include early-stage research and planning efforts. Thus, preliminary data on feasibility are allowed but not required. However, a sound rationale should be offered as to why the approach and the research team are the most appropriate, and likely to generate exceptionally high impact if successful.

Neuroethical considerations: Applications must include this section that describes and discusses the informed consenting of research subjects who can expect no direct benefit from engaging in the investigative research proposed, considerations of FDA-defined conditions of non-significant risk/significant risk beyond established standards of clinical care, ethical and practical considerations of invasive device maintenance and explanation, and other ethical issues specific to invasive human neuroscience research.

Protection of Human Subjects: Assurance of the protection of human participants and the biohazard safety of employees (if applicable) must be provided for the overall study and for each clinical site. The applicant must discuss any issues which might lead to concern for the welfare of participants. Additionally, the human subjects section of the application must address data security measures and confidentiality.

Long-Term Plan for Patients: Applicants must describe a plan for the care of patients at the end of the study and after the study period, if appropriate. These plans may vary from project to project, but examples might include 1) explant of indwelling devices once the approved study period is complete, 2) surgical removal of batteries and capping the exposed metals from leads/IS-1 connectors, 3) manufacturer-supported device maintenance for patients responding to therapy, 4) manufacturer support for filing of compassionate use exemptions for device maintenance, etc.

Data and Safety Monitoring Plan: For exploratory clinical studies, it generally will be acceptable for the data and safety monitoring to be conducted by an investigator-appointed Study Monitoring Committee (SMC), an Independent Medical Monitor (IMM), or, for single-site studies involving low risk, the Program Director/Principal Investigator and his/her IRB. However, NIH may decide to establish an independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) depending on the score and risk of the study. Applicants should refer to NIH s policy on data and safety monitoring (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-00-038.html) as well as the NINDS Guidelines for Data and Safety Monitoring (http://www.ninds.nih.gov/research/clinical_research/policies/data_safety_monitoring.htm)

Resource Sharing Plan: Individuals are required to comply with the instructions for the Resource Sharing Plans as provided in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, with the following modification:

All applications, regardless of the amount of direct costs requested for any one year, should address a Data Sharing Plan, including description of plans for accommodating research-community input and requests for collecting and disseminating data that will be valuable to the wider research community beyond the primary outcomes. IRB-compliant plans for sharing de-identified data for maximizing and expanding dissemination of data collected from this valuable resource should be included in the research plan, including statements of cooperation to join a future collaborative consortium of awardees to maximize the data sharing (including collection, curation, analysis and sharing) for this unique population of human subjects.

Applicants are welcome to consider editing this example data sharing plan, https://grants.nih.gov/grants/sharing_example_data_sharing_plan.doc to include the sharing of all the tool deliverables from this FOA (e.g. theories, models, methods, software, etc.).

Awards made under this FOA will encourage that data be shared using appropriate standards in an appropriate repository. For example, the NIH BRAIN Initiative will be supporting candidate activities and repositories through 3 BRAIN Informatics FOAs (RFA-MH-17-255, RFA-MH-17-256, and RFA-MH-17-257). Project-specific details will be established at the time of award. Budgets should include sufficient resources to prepare and disseminate data.

Appendix:

Do not use the Appendix to circumvent page limits. Follow all instructions for the Appendix as described in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide.

When conducting clinical research, follow all instructions for completing PHS Inclusion Enrollment Report as described in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide.

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.

See Part 1. Section III.1 for information regarding the requirement for obtaining a unique entity identifier and for completing and maintaining active registrations in System for Award Management (SAM), NATO Commercial and Government Entity (NCAGE) Code (if applicable), eRA Commons, and Grants.gov

Part I. Overview Information contains information about Key Dates and times. Applicants are encouraged to submit applications before the due date to ensure they have time to make any application corrections that might be necessary for successful submission. When a submission date falls on a weekend or Federal holiday, the application deadline is automatically extended to the next business day.

Organizations must submit applications to Grants.gov (the online portal to find and apply for grants across all Federal agencies). Applicants must then complete the submission process by tracking the status of the application in the eRA Commons, NIH’s electronic system for grants administration. NIH and Grants.gov systems check the application against many of the application instructions upon submission. Errors must be corrected and a changed/corrected application must be submitted to Grants.gov on or before the application due date and time. If a Changed/Corrected application is submitted after the deadline, the application will be considered late. Applications that miss the due date and time are subjected to the NIH Policy on Late Application Submission.

Applicants are responsible for viewing their application before the due date in the eRA Commons to ensure accurate and successful submission.

Information on the submission process and a definition of on-time submission are provided in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide.

This initiative is not subject to intergovernmental review.

All NIH awards are subject to the terms and conditions, cost principles, and other considerations described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

Pre-award costs are allowable only as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

Applications must be submitted electronically following the instructions described in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide. Paper applications will not be accepted.

Applicants must complete all required registrations before the application due date. Section III. Eligibility Information contains information about registration.

For assistance with your electronic application or for more information on the electronic submission process, visit Applying Electronically. If you encounter a system issue beyond your control that threatens your ability to complete the submission process on-time, you must follow the Guidelines for Applicants Experiencing System Issues. For assistance with application submission, contact the Application Submission Contacts in Section VII.

Important reminders:

All PD(s)/PI(s) must include their eRA Commons ID in the Credential field of the Senior/Key Person Profile Component of the SF424(R&R) Application Package. Failure to register in the Commons and to include a valid PD/PI Commons ID in the credential field will prevent the successful submission of an electronic application to NIH. See Section III of this FOA for information on registration requirements.

The applicant organization must ensure that the DUNS number it provides on the application is the same number used in the organization’s profile in the eRA Commons and for the System for Award Management. Additional information may be found in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide.

See more tips for avoiding common errors.

Upon receipt, applications will be evaluated for completeness and compliance with application instructions by the Center for Scientific Review and responsiveness by components of participating organizations, NIH. Applications that are incomplete, non-compliant and/or nonresponsive will not be reviewed.

Prior Consultation with Scientific/Research Staff

Consultation with relevant Scientific/Research staff at least 10 weeks prior to the application due date is strongly encouraged. This is not the same as the Letter of Intent and should be included as a separate communication to the Scientific/Research Contacts, see Section VII. If requested by the applicants, program staff can advise whether the proposed project meets the goals of this FOA and the mission of the BRAIN initiative, and discuss responsiveness questions. Program staff will not evaluate the technical and scientific merit of the proposed project; technical and scientific merit will be determined during peer review using the review criteria indicated in this FOA. During the consultation phase, if the proposed project does not meet the programmatic needs of this FOA, applicants will be strongly encouraged to consider other FOAs.

Applicants are required to follow the instructions for post-submission materials, as described in the policy.

Only the review criteria described below will be considered in the review process. As part of the NIH mission, all applications submitted to the NIH in support of biomedical and behavioral research are evaluated for scientific and technical merit through the NIH peer review system.

For this particular announcement, note the following:

Does the proposal investigate fundamental questions in human neuroscience? While fundamental basic research often generates insights relevant to disorders of the nervous system, this RFA is not intended to generate research that is explicitly disease-therapeutic.

If complementary animal studies are proposed, then anticipated or contingent, non-human, experimental components must be adequately described and justified.

The BRAIN Initiative invites applications with high levels of innovation, which assumes some degree of risk. Reviewers should evaluate whether a sound rationale has been provided as to why the research approach is the most appropriate, and likely to generate an exceptionally high impact if successful. Although reviewers will consider feasibility, they will not penalize unavoidable risks that are intrinsic to new and innovative approaches.

In addition to the review criteria below, reviewers will assess the technical, procedural and ethical aspects specific to invasive studies in human patients, and the strategic plans for addressing functional studies of a specified neural system in the context of patients with neural dysfunctions and invasive device interventions.

Because projects are expected to include early-stage research and planning efforts, preliminary data on feasibility are not required, and should be considered within the context of the specific stage of proposed studies. Reviewers will consider feasibility, but will not penalize well-reasoned justifications of new and innovative approaches.

In the interest of the possibility of adopting new and developing technologies during the award, when applicants offer anticipated or alternative, newly developed, IDE-approved devices in the research plan, reviewers should assess feasibility, risk and opportunity, along with strategic contingencies.

Reviewers will provide an overall impact score to reflect their assessment of the likelihood for the project to exert a sustained, powerful influence on the research field(s) involved, in consideration of the following review criteria and additional review criteria (as applicable for the project proposed).

Reviewers will consider each of the review criteria below in the determination of scientific merit, and give a separate score for each. An application does not need to be strong in all categories to be judged likely to have major scientific impact. For example, a project that by its nature is not innovative may be essential to advance a field.

Does the project address an important problem or a critical barrier to progress in the field? Is there a strong scientific premise for the project? If the aims of the project are achieved, how will scientific knowledge, technical capability, and/or clinical practice be improved? How will successful completion of the aims change the concepts, methods, technologies, treatments, services, or preventative interventions that drive this field?

Does the project investigate high-impact questions in human neuroscience as appropriate for the goals of this FOA and the BRAIN Initiative? Does the project offer the theoretical and conceptual framework that drives the research design and questions, and discussion of the analytical methods for interpreting the results?

Are the PD(s)/PI(s), collaborators, and other researchers well suited to the project? If Early Stage Investigators or those in the early stages of independent careers, do they have appropriate experience and training? If established, have they demonstrated an ongoing record of accomplishments that have advanced their field(s)? If the project is collaborative or multi-PD/PI, do the investigators have complementary and integrated expertise; are their leadership approach, governance and organizational structure appropriate for the project?

Does the project engage multidisciplinary teams consisting of clinicians, scientists, device engineers, data/computational scientists, regulatory specialists, and/or ethics specialists, as appropriate?

Does the application challenge and seek to shift current research or clinical practice paradigms by utilizing novel theoretical concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions? Are the concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions novel to one field of research or novel in a broad sense? Is a refinement, improvement, or new application of theoretical concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions proposed?

Does the project offer novelty and innovation appropriate for/commensurate with the goals of the BRAIN Initiative?

Does the project maximize opportunities to conduct innovative in vivo neuroscience research made available by direct access to brain recording and stimulating from invasive surgical procedures?

Are the overall strategy, methodology, and analyses well-reasoned and appropriate to accomplish the specific aims of the project? Have the investigators presented strategies to ensure a robust and unbiased approach, as appropriate for the work proposed? Are potential problems, alternative strategies, and benchmarks for success presented? If the project is in the early stages of development, will the strategy establish feasibility and will particularly risky aspects be managed? Have the investigators presented adequate plans to address relevant biological variables, such as sex, for studies in vertebrate animals or human subjects?

Where the adoption of newly developing technology pending FDA-approved is anticipated, does the project provide a reasonable description of alternative methodology (to the extent that details are available), along with potential advantages and pitfalls?

If the project involves human subjects and/or NIH-defined clinical research, are the plans to address 1) the protection of human subjects from research risks, and 2) inclusion (or exclusion) of individuals on the basis of sex/gender, race, and ethnicity, as well as the inclusion or exclusion of children, justified in terms of the scientific goals and research strategy proposed?

Will this project establish feasibility, validity or other technically qualifying results that, if successful, would support a potential, subsequent phase II of this project?

Does the application address how studies in the brain tissues potentially affected by the disease or disorder can adequately address the research questions and mechanisms posed, including comparison to complementary studies in animals if appropriate and feasible?

Does the application offer a description of recording/manipulation methods that will be employed or developed to approach the questions as a functional system, and how the invasive intervention and/or the implantation of foreign (device) materials may confound the interpretation of results?

Projects are allowed to include early-stage research and planning efforts. Thus, preliminary data on feasibility are allowed but not required. However, a sound rationale should be offered as to why the approach and the research team are the most appropriate, and likely to generate exceptionally high impact if successful.

Will the scientific environment in which the work will be done contribute to the probability of success? Are the institutional support, equipment and other physical resources available to the investigators adequate for the project proposed? Will the project benefit from unique features of the scientific environment, subject populations, or collaborative arrangements?

As applicable for the project proposed, reviewers will evaluate the following additional items while determining scientific and technical merit, and in providing an overall impact score, but will not give separate scores for these items.

Plans for Patient Recruitment/Retention

Does the application document the following?

• Availability of the requisite eligible subject pool in proposed clinical center(s);
• Plans for recruitment outreach and, as appropriate, follow-up procedures to ensure collection of data at stated intervals; and
• Are retention plans and practices adequate?

For research that involves human subjects but does not involve one of the six categories of research that are exempt under 45 CFR Part 46, the committee will evaluate the justification for involvement of human subjects and the proposed protections from research risk relating to their participation according to the following five review criteria: 1) risk to subjects, 2) adequacy of protection against risks, 3) potential benefits to the subjects and others, 4) importance of the knowledge to be gained, and 5) data and safety monitoring for clinical trials.

For research that involves human subjects and meets the criteria for one or more of the six categories of research that are exempt under 45 CFR Part 46, the committee will evaluate: 1) the justification for the exemption, 2) human subjects involvement and characteristics, and 3) sources of materials. For additional information on review of the Human Subjects section, please refer to the Guidelines for the Review of Human Subjects.

When the proposed project involves human subjects and/or NIH-defined clinical research, the committee will evaluate the proposed plans for the inclusion (or exclusion) of individuals on the basis of sex/gender, race, and ethnicity, as well as the inclusion (or exclusion) of children to determine if it is justified in terms of the scientific goals and research strategy proposed. For additional information on review of the Inclusion section, please refer to the Guidelines for the Review of Inclusion in Clinical Research.

The committee will evaluate the involvement of live vertebrate animals as part of the scientific assessment according to the following criteria: (1) description of proposed procedures involving animals, including species, strains, ages, sex, and total number to be used; (2) justifications for the use of animals versus alternative models and for the appropriateness of the species proposed; (3) interventions to minimize discomfort, distress, pain and injury; and (4) justification for euthanasia method if NOT consistent with the AVMA Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals. Reviewers will assess the use of chimpanzees as they would any other application proposing the use of vertebrate animals. For additional information on review of the Vertebrate Animals section, please refer to the Worksheet for Review of the Vertebrate Animal Section.

Reviewers will assess whether materials or procedures proposed are potentially hazardous to research personnel and/or the environment, and if needed, determine whether adequate protection is proposed.

Not Applicable

Not Applicable

Not Applicable

As applicable for the project proposed, reviewers will consider each of the following items, but will not give scores for these items, and should not consider them in providing an overall impact score.

Neuroethical considerations:

Does the application adequately address neuroethical considerations about informed consenting of research subjects who can expect no direct benefit from engaging in the investigative research proposed, considerations of FDA-defined conditions of non-significant risk/significant risk beyond established standards of clinical care, ethical and practical considerations of invasive device maintenance and explanation, and other ethical issues specific to invasive human neuroscience research?

Not Applicable

Reviewers will assess the information provided in this section of the application, including 1) the Select Agent(s) to be used in the proposed research, 2) the registration status of all entities where Select Agent(s) will be used, 3) the procedures that will be used to monitor possession use and transfer of Select Agent(s), and 4) plans for appropriate biosafety, biocontainment, and security of the Select Agent(s).

Reviewers will comment on whether the following Resource Sharing Plans, or the rationale for not sharing the following types of resources, are reasonable: (1) Data Sharing Plan; (2) Sharing Model Organisms; and (3) Genomic Data Sharing Plan (GDS).

For projects involving key biological and/or chemical resources, reviewers will comment on the brief plans proposed for identifying and ensuring the validity of those resources.

Reviewers will consider whether the budget and the requested period of support are fully justified and reasonable in relation to the proposed research.

Applications will be evaluated for scientific and technical merit by (an) appropriate Scientific Review Group(s) convened by NINDS, in accordance with NIH peer review policy and procedures, using the stated review criteria. Assignment to a Scientific Review Group will be shown in the eRA Commons.

As part of the scientific peer review, all applications:

• May undergo a selection process in which only those applications deemed to have the highest scientific and technical merit (generally the top half of applications under review) will be discussed and assigned an overall impact score.
• Will receive a written critique.

Appeals of initial peer review will not be accepted for applications submitted in response to this FOA.

Applications will be assigned to the appropriate NIH Institute or Center. Applications will compete for available funds with all other recommended applications submitted in response to this FOA. Following initial peer review, recommended applications will receive a second level of review by the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council. The following will be considered in making funding decisions:

• Scientific and technical merit of the proposed project as determined by scientific peer review.
• Availability of funds.
• Relevance of the proposed project to program priorities.

After the peer review of the application is completed, the PD/PI will be able to access his or her Summary Statement (written critique) via the eRA Commons. Refer to Part 1 for dates for peer review, advisory council review, and earliest start date.

Information regarding the disposition of applications is available in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

If the application is under consideration for funding, NIH will request "just-in-time" information from the applicant as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

A formal notification in the form of a Notice of Award (NoA) will be provided to the applicant organization for successful applications. The NoA signed by the grants management officer is the authorizing document and will be sent via email to the grantee’s business official.

Awardees must comply with any funding restrictions described in Section IV.5. Funding Restrictions. Selection of an application for award is not an authorization to begin performance. Any costs incurred before receipt of the NoA are at the recipient's risk. These costs may be reimbursed only to the extent considered allowable pre-award costs.

Any application awarded in response to this FOA will be subject to terms and conditions found on the Award Conditions and Information for NIH Grants website. This includes any recent legislation and policy applicable to awards that is highlighted on this website.

All NIH grant and cooperative agreement awards include the NIH Grants Policy Statement as part of the NoA. For these terms of award, see the NIH Grants Policy Statement Part II: Terms and Conditions of NIH Grant Awards, Subpart A: General and Part II: Terms and Conditions of NIH Grant Awards, Subpart B: Terms and Conditions for Specific Types of Grants, Grantees, and Activities. More information is provided at Award Conditions and Information for NIH Grants.

Recipients of federal financial assistance (FFA) from HHS must administer their programs in compliance with federal civil rights law. This means that recipients of HHS funds must ensure equal access to their programs without regard to a person’s race, color, national origin, disability, age and, in some circumstances, sex and religion. This includes ensuring your programs are accessible to persons with limited English proficiency. HHS recognizes that research projects are often limited in scope for many reasons that are nondiscriminatory, such as the principal investigator’s scientific interest, funding limitations, recruitment requirements, and other considerations. Thus, criteria in research protocols that target or exclude certain populations are warranted where nondiscriminatory justifications establish that such criteria are appropriate with respect to the health or safety of the subjects, the scientific study design, or the purpose of the research.

For additional guidance regarding how the provisions apply to NIH grant programs, please contact the Scientific/Research Contact that is identified in Section VII under Agency Contacts of this FOA. HHS provides general guidance to recipients of FFA on meeting their legal obligation to take reasonable steps to provide meaningful access to their programs by persons with limited English proficiency. Please see http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/civilrights/resources/laws/revisedlep.html. The HHS Office for Civil Rights also provides guidance on complying with civil rights laws enforced by HHS. Please see http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/civilrights/understanding/section1557/index.html; and http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/civilrights/understanding/index.html. Recipients of FFA also have specific legal obligations for serving qualified individuals with disabilities. Please see http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/civilrights/understanding/disability/index.html. Please contact the HHS Office for Civil Rights for more information about obligations and prohibitions under federal civil rights laws at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/office/about/rgn-hqaddresses.html or call 1-800-368-1019 or TDD 1-800-537-7697. Also note it is an HHS Departmental goal to ensure access to quality, culturally competent care, including long-term services and supports, for vulnerable populations. For further guidance on providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services, recipients should review the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care at http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlid=53.

In accordance with the statutory provisions contained in Section 872 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2009 (Public Law 110-417), NIH awards will be subject to the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) requirements. FAPIIS requires Federal award making officials to review and consider information about an applicant in the designated integrity and performance system (currently FAPIIS) prior to making an award. An applicant, at its option, may review information in the designated integrity and performance systems accessible through FAPIIS and comment on any information about itself that a Federal agency previously entered and is currently in FAPIIS. The Federal awarding agency will consider any comments by the applicant, in addition to other information in FAPIIS, in making a judgement about the applicant’s integrity, business ethics, and record of performance under Federal awards when completing the review of risk posed by applicants as described in 45 CFR Part 75.205 Federal awarding agency review of risk posed by applicants. This provision will apply to all NIH grants and cooperative agreements except fellowships.

Cooperative Agreement Terms and Conditions of Award

The following special terms of award are in addition to, and not in lieu of, otherwise applicable U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) administrative guidelines, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) grant administration regulations at 45 CFR Part 75, and other HHS, PHS, and NIH grant administration policies.

The administrative and funding instrument used for this program will be the cooperative agreement, an "assistance" mechanism (rather than an "acquisition" mechanism), in which substantial NIH programmatic involvement with the awardees is anticipated during the performance of the activities. Under the cooperative agreement, the NIH purpose is to support and stimulate the recipients' activities by involvement in and otherwise working jointly with the award recipients in a partnership role; it is not to assume direction, prime responsibility, or a dominant role in the activities. Consistent with this concept, the dominant role and prime responsibility resides with the awardees for the project as a whole, although specific tasks and activities may be shared among the awardees and the NIH as defined below.

The PD(s)/PI(s) will have the primary responsibility for:

The PD(s)/PI(s) will have primary responsibility for defining objectives and approaches, and for planning, conducting, analyzing, interpreting, drawing conclusions on their studies, publishing and sharing the results.

Awardees will retain custody of and have all rights to the data and technology developed under these awards, subject to Government rights of access consistent with current DHHS, PHS, and NIH policies.

Awardees are responsible for pursuing patent protection.

Awardees are responsible for providing progress reports with completeness that include experimental design with rigor, including assumptions for the design of the experiments, the results of the investigations, interpretations of the results, and for concluding whether research goals have been met or not. In cases when NIH program staff request raw data, awardees agree to provide the data.

Awardees agree to participate at least once a year in progress meetings (teleconferences) that are organized by NIH staff.

Regarding meetings and interactions with regulatory agencies, awardees agree to communicate meeting dates and agenda to the NIH program staff and invite their participation.

Awardees agree to communicate study reports from CROs, meeting minutes (and associated data packages if applicable), letters and other forms of communications with FDA, Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC), and other authorities, and to provide IND# and registration numbers in clinical trial.gov, if applicable.

Awardees are responsible for providing regulatory and clinical documents that are required for administrative review.

Awardees must verify that the clinical study is performed in accord with Good Clinical Practices (GCP) and in accord with NINDS Guidelines for Data and Safety Monitoring in Clinical studies: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/research/clinical_research/policies/data_safety_monitoring.htm, and must provide data and regular updates to NIH.

NIH staff have substantial programmatic involvement that is above and beyond the normal stewardship role in awards, as described below:

Each project will have the support of one or more Project Scientists from NIH program staff who are assigned an administrative role for the nervous system disorders being studied and have expertise in the implementation of translational research.

The NIH Project Scientists will have substantial scientific/programmatic involvement during the conduct of this activity, through technical assistance, advice, and coordination above and beyond normal program stewardship for grants.

NIH Project Scientist(s) provides input on the research goals and makes decisions regarding their finalization.

NIH Project Scientist(s) will be responsible for assessing the progress of the project towards the specified research goals, and for recommending if further funds should be released to the project.

NIH Project Scientist(s), in consultation with the PIs, may add critical experiments that need to be conducted prior to or during the award as an additional research goals. In most cases, these studies will be supported by additional funds from NIH.

NIH Project Scientist(s) participates in meetings together with PIs with regulatory agencies related to the funded project.

An important part of the program is the coordination of research efforts across different funding mechanisms and research capabilities, and the coordination among efforts aimed at different nervous system disorders. NIH Project Scientists will have the primary responsibility for this overall coordination.

Additionally, an agency Program Officer will be responsible for the normal scientific and programmatic stewardship of the award and will be named in the award notice. The assigned Program Officer may also serve as an NIH Project Scientist.

NIH leadership will make decisions on project continuation based on program staff recommendations, programmatic prioritizations and budget considerations. NIH program staff may consult as necessary with independent consultants with relevant expertise. If justified, future year research goals may be revised based on data and information obtained during the previous year. If, based on the progress report, a funded project does not meet the defined research goals, funding for the project may be restricted or discontinued.

In addition to research goals, the decision regarding continued funding will also be based on the overall robustness of the entire data package that adequately allows an interpretation of the results (regardless if they have been captured in the specific aims), overall progress, NIH portfolio balance and program priorities, competitive landscape, and availability of funds.

Areas of Joint Responsibility include:

Clarifying and negotiating the research goals and timelines

Dispute Resolution:

Any disagreements that may arise in scientific or programmatic matters (within the scope of the award) between award recipients and the NIH may be brought to Dispute Resolution. A Dispute Resolution Panel composed of three members will be convened. It will have three members: a designee for the investigators chosen without NIH staff voting, one NIH designee, and a third designee with expertise in the relevant area who is chosen by the other two; in the case of disagreement, the first member may be chosen by the individual awardee. This special dispute resolution procedure does not alter the awardee's right to appeal an adverse action that is otherwise appealable in accordance with PHS regulation 42 CFR Part 50, Subpart D and DHHS regulation 45 CFR Part 16. Final decisions made by NIH regarding a discontinuation are not appealable.

When multiple years are involved, awardees will be required to submit the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) annually and financial statements as required in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

A final RPPR, invention statement, and the expenditure data portion of the Federal Financial Report are required for closeout of an award, as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (Transparency Act), includes a requirement for awardees of Federal grants to report information about first-tier subawards and executive compensation under Federal assistance awards issued in FY2011 or later. All awardees of applicable NIH grants and cooperative agreements are required to report to the Federal Subaward Reporting System (FSRS) available at www.fsrs.gov on all subawards over $25,000. See the NIH Grants Policy Statement for additional information on this reporting requirement.

In accordance with the regulatory requirements provided at 45 CFR 75.113 and Appendix XII to 45 CFR Part 75, recipients that have currently active Federal grants, cooperative agreements, and procurement contracts from all Federal awarding agencies with a cumulative total value greater than $10,000,000 for any period of time during the period of performance of a Federal award, must report and maintain the currency of information reported in the System for Award Management (SAM) about civil, criminal, and administrative proceedings in connection with the award or performance of a Federal award that reached final disposition within the most recent five-year period. The recipient must also make semiannual disclosures regarding such proceedings. Proceedings information will be made publicly available in the designated integrity and performance system (currently FAPIIS). This is a statutory requirement under section 872 of Public Law 110-417, as amended (41 U.S.C. 2313). As required by section 3010 of Public Law 111-212, all information posted in the designated integrity and performance system on or after April 15, 2011, except past performance reviews required for Federal procurement contracts, will be publicly available. Full reporting requirements and procedures are found in Appendix XII to 45 CFR Part 75 Award Term and Conditions for Recipient Integrity and Performance Matters.

We encourage inquiries concerning this funding opportunity and welcome the opportunity to answer questions from potential applicants.

eRA Service Desk (Questions regarding ASSIST, eRA Commons registration, submitting and tracking an application, documenting system problems that threaten submission by the due date, post submission issues)
Finding Help Online: http://grants.nih.gov/support/ (preferred method of contact)
Telephone: 301-402-7469 or 866-504-9552 (Toll Free)

Grants.gov Customer Support (Questions regarding Grants.gov registration and submission, downloading forms and application packages)
Contact Center Telephone: 800-518-4726
Email: [email protected]

GrantsInfo (Questions regarding application instructions and process, finding NIH grant resources)
Email: [email protected] (preferred method of contact)
Telephone: 301-945-7573

James Gnadt, PhD
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Telephone: 301-496-9964
Email: [email protected]

Chief, Scientific Review Branch
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Telephone: 301-496-9223
Email: [email protected]

Tijuanna E. DeCoster, PhD
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Telephone: 301-496-9231
Email: [email protected]

Recently issued trans-NIH policy notices may affect your application submission. A full list of policy notices published by NIH is provided in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts. All awards are subject to the terms and conditions, cost principles, and other considerations described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

Awards are made under the authorization of Sections 301 and 405 of the Public Health Service Act as amended (42 USC 241 and 284) and under Federal Regulations 42 CFR Part 52 and 45 CFR Part 75.