The NIH announced this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) with interest in team-centric non-invasive imaging technologies to understand brain function and connectivity. The earliest submission date is September 13, 2022, and the subsequent application deadline is October 13, 2022.
The Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative aims to accelerate the development of innovative technologies that enable researchers to examine the complexity of the human brain. As mentioned in the BRAIN Initiative 2.0 report, understanding these fundamental mechanisms will lead to new treatments for brain disorders. In March 2021, the BRAIN Initiative hosted a Transformative Non-Invasive Imaging Technologies workshop.
NIH recently issued the BRAIN Initiative: Transformative Brain Non-invasive Imaging Technology Development (UG3/UH3 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) [RFA-EB-22-001] to address the knowledge gaps and funding opportunities that arose during the workshop. This NOFO aims to support multi-disciplinary teamwork efforts for non-conventional approaches that explore novel directions and substantially advance non-imaging technologies in neurosciences research. Examples of interest topics include but are not limited to:
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New integrative systems to assess multiple scales/aspects of brain function/connectivity
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Machine learning or model-based techniques that could provide significant performance enhancement
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New modalities or methodologies based on principles unexplored for brain function/connectivity imaging
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New hardware, imaging agents, or acquisition techniques that could enable non-existing features or utilities for brain function/connectivity imaging
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Hardware or methodology innovations that could dramatically improve the sensitivity, coverage, imaging time or other performance metrics, preferably by an order of magnitude
This NOFO also requires a Plan for Enhancing Diverse Perspective (PEDP). Please see the PEDP guidance material. Participants can submit their applications starting on September 13, 2022. The next application due date is October 13, 2022. For more information, please view the full NOFO RFA-EB-22-001.