Notices of Funding Opportunities
National Institutes of Health (NIH) BRAIN Initiative notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs), requests for applications (RFAs), program announcements (PAs), and other NIH Guide announcements are listed below. Search this page to find all notices of special interest (NOSI). Search the Closed Opportunities page to find expired opportunities.
Learn more about NIH’s grant mechanisms.
Learn about the Plan for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives (PEDP), a required component in most BRAIN applications.
Learn about the NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy, which all NIH applications must follow.
To see more NIH-funded awards, please visit NIH Grants and Funding.
For more about NIH BRAIN Initiative research and associated funding opportunities, visit the Research Overview.
The goal of this effort is to support the development and validation of next generation platforms and analytic approaches to precisely quantify behaviors in humans and link them with simultaneously recorded brain activity. Tools used for analyzing behavior should be multi-modal and should be able to be linked to brain activity and thus have the accuracy, specificity, temporal resolution, and flexibility commensurate with tools used to measure and modulate the brain circuits that give rise to those behaviors. This phased award will support novel tool development (i.e., hardware/software) in the R61 phase and synchronization of novel tools for measuring behavior and human brain activity in the R33 phase.
This Brain-Behavior Quantification and Synchronization notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) seeks applications that bring together transdisciplinary teams and aim to 1) develop, validate, and apply cutting-edge tools and methods for minimally invasive, multi-dimensional, high-resolution objective measurement of behavior at the organismal level, with synchronous capture of dynamic environmental data; 2) develop advanced analytic approaches to integrate multidimensional behavioral, neural and environmental data; and 3) develop and test new theoretical and computational models aiming to advance understanding of behavior as a complex dynamic system. Proposed projects are expected to be designed with the capacity to integrate synchronously recorded neural data and/or inform existing models of neurobehavioral function, such as those developed with the support of the NIH BRAIN Initiative. This BRAIN Initiative NOFO is specifically soliciting applications proposing basic research involving human subjects aiming to reveal and understand fundamental principles underlying behavioral function, including research limited to observational studies or analysis of human data. Applications proposing research using exclusively non-human animal models should apply under the companion NOFO, RFA-DA-24-041. This NOFO requires a Plan for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives (PEDP).
This Brain-Behavior Quantification and Synchronization notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) seeks applications proposing research aiming to 1) develop, validate, and apply cutting-edge tools and methods for minimally invasive, multi-dimensional, high-resolution measurement of behavior at the organismal level, with synchronous capture of changes in the organisms social or physical environment; and 2) develop computational methods that allow for integration of multidimensional behavioral and environmental data representing multiple timescales into a conceptual and/or computational model of behavior as a complex dynamic system. Proposed projects are also expected to be designed with the capacity to integrate synchronously recorded neural data and/or inform existing models of neurobehavioral function, such as those developed with the support of the NIH BRAIN Initiative. Research that falls under the definition of an NIH Clinical Trial is not allowed under this NOFO. Applicants interested in proposing mechanistic research in humans relevant to the above purpose should submit under the companion U01 NOFO, RFA-DA-24-040. This NOFO requires a Plan for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives (PEDP), which will be assessed as part of the scientific and technical peer review evaluation. Applications that fail to include a PEDP will be considered incomplete and will be withdrawn. Applicants are strongly encouraged to read the NOFO instructions carefully and view the available PEDP guidance material.
Reissue: RFA-NS-21-023 - The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to encourage investigators to pursue translational activities and small clinical studies to advance the development of therapeutic, and diagnostic devices for disorders that affect the nervous or neuromuscular systems. Activities supported in this program include implementation of clinical prototype devices, non-clinical safety and efficacy testing, design verification and validation activities, obtaining an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) for a Significant Risk (SR) study, as well as a subsequent small clinical study. The clinical study is expected to provide information about the device function or final design that cannot be practically obtained through additional non-clinical assessments (e.g., bench top or animal studies) due to the novelty of the device or its intended use. This FOA is a milestone-driven cooperative agreement program and will involve participation of NIH program staff in negotiating the final project plan before award and monitoring of research progress.
Reissue: RFA-NS-21-024: The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to encourage investigators to pursue a small clinical trial to obtain critical information necessary to advance recording and/or stimulating devices to treat central nervous system disorders and better understand the human brain (e.g., Early Feasibility Study). Clinical studies supported may consist of acute or short-term procedures that are deemed Non-Significant Risk (NSR) by an Institutional Review Board (IRB), or Significant Risk (SR) studies that require an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) from the FDA, such as chronic implants. The clinical trial should provide data to answer key questions about the function or final design of a device. This final device design may require most, if not all, of the non-clinical testing on the path to more advanced clinical trials and market approval. The clinical trial is expected to provide information that cannot be practically obtained through additional non-clinical assessments (e.g., bench top or animal studies) due to the novelty of the device or its intended use. Activities supported by this Funding Opportunity include a small clinical trial to answer key questions about the function or final design of a device. As part of the BRAIN Initiative, NIH has initiated a Public-Private Partnership Program (BRAIN PPP) that includes agreements (Memoranda of Understanding, MOU) with a number of device manufacturers willing to make such devices available, including devices and capabilities not yet market approved but appropriate for clinical research. In general it is expected that the devices' existing safety and utility data will be sufficient to enable new IRB NSR or FDA IDE approval without need for significant additional non-clinical data. For more information on the BRAIN PPP, see http://braininitiative.nih.gov/BRAIN_PPP/index.htm
This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) solicits applications to develop web-accessible data archives to capture, store, and curate data related to BRAIN Initiative activities. The data archives will work with the research community to incorporate tools that allow users to analyze and visualize the data, but the creation of such tools is not part of this NOFO. The data archives will use appropriate standards to describe the data, but the creation of such standards is not part of this NOFO. A goal of this program is to advance research by creating a community resource data archive with appropriate standards and summary information that is broadly available and accessible to the research community for furthering research.