This week, we will highlight BRAIN Initiative notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs) for fiscal year 2023. Today’s post features NOFOs for neuroethics, human neuroimaging technologies, and understanding neural circuits.
Neuroethics
RFA-MH-21-025 BRAIN Initiative: Research on the Ethical Implications of Advancements in Neurotechnology and Brain Science (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)
This NOFO supports efforts addressing core ethical issues associated with research focused on the human brain and resulting from emerging technologies and advancements supported by the BRAIN Initiative. Efforts supported under this NOFO are intended to be complementary and integrative with the transformative neuroscience discoveries supported through the BRAIN Initiative. Please read the full NOFO for a detailed list of topics. Applications from multi-disciplinary teams are highly encouraged. Applications are due October 11, 2023.
Human Neuroimaging Technologies
RFA-EB-22-001 Transformative Brain Non-Invasive Imaging Technology Development (UG3/UH3 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
This NOFO funds projects to develop and validate innovative non-invasive imaging technologies that could have a transformative impact on the study of brain function and connectivity. Successful applications should turn a novel concept into a functional prototype using this phased grant mechanism. Awards will be integrated into the BRAIN Non-Invasive Imagine Consortium, as a coordinated network on brain function and connectivity imaging. Please read the full NOFO for more information. Applications are due October 13, 2023.
Understanding Neural Circuits
RFA-DA-23-039 Theories, Models and Methods for Analysis of Complex Data from the Brain (Reissue of RFA-EB-20-002; R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
This NOFO supports projects to develop theories, computational models, and analytical tools to derive understanding of brain function from complex neuroscience data. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to theories and conceptual frameworks, models to integrate information across large temporal and spatial scales, and methods for complex data analysis. Tools developed under this NOFO will be made widely available to the neuroscience research community. Please read the full NOFO for more information. Applications are due December 15, 2022 and September 12, 2023.
RFA-NS-22-028 Exploratory Team-Research BRAIN Circuit Programs – eTeamBCP (U01 Clinical Trials Optional)
This NOFO supports teams of three or more (up to six) researchers that seek to cross boundaries of interdisciplinary collaboration to elucidate the contributions of dynamic circuit activity to a specific behavioral or neural system. The overall goal of this NOFO is to enable large-scale analysis of neural systems and circuits within the context and during the simultaneous measurement of ethologically relevant behavior. Please read the full NOFO for more information. Applications are due June 15, 2023.
RFA-NS-22-027 Targeted BRAIN Circuits Planning Projects – TargetedBCPP (R34 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)
This NOFO supports research to establish feasibility, validity, or other technically qualifying results that would support, enable, and lay the groundwork for a potential, subsequent Targeted BRAIN Circuits Projects – Targeted BCP R01 (RFA-NS-22-026). Applications should be adventurous, exploratory research projects that use innovative, methodologically-integrated approaches to understand how circuit activity gives rise to mental experience and behavior. Please read the full NOFO for more information. Applications are due June 30, 2023 and October 4, 2023.
RFA-NS-22-026 Targeted BRAIN Circuits Projects – TargetedBCP (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
This NOFO funds research to understand how circuit activity gives rise to mental experience and behavior using innovative, methodologically-integrated approaches. The goal is to support adventurous projects that can realize a potentially transformative outcome within five years. Applications are expected to address circuit function in the context of specific behaviors or neural systems and should link theory, data analysis, and/or computational approaches to experimental design and should produce predictive models. Projects should aim to improve the understanding of circuits of the central nervous system by systematically controlling stimuli and/or behavior while actively recording and/or manipulating dynamic patterns of neural activity. Please read the full NOFO for more details. Applications are due June 30, 2023 and October 4, 2023.
RFA-NS-22-039 Team-Research BRAIN Circuit Programs – TeamBCP (Reissue of RFA-NS-19-002; U19 Basic Experimental Studies with Humans Required) and RFA-NS-22-040 Team-Research BRAIN Circuit Programs – Team BCP (Reissue of RFA-NS-19-003; U19 Clinical Trial Not Allowed
This pair of companion NOFOs support integrated, interdisciplinary research teams that focus on examining dynamic circuit functions related to behavior, using advanced and innovative technologies. These team-research programs should offer multi-component research proposals with collective efforts that must be accomplished synergistically to be fully successful. Applications should aim to understand circuits of the central nervous system using approaches and experimental design guided by specified theoretical constructs. The two NOFOs are identical other than proposals including human studies with invasive (e.g., intracranial) interventions must apply to RFA-NS-22-039. Please read the full NOFOs for more information. Applications are due September 15, 2023.
As part of the NIH BRAIN Initiative’s efforts to promote more impactful science through the inclusion of diverse perspectives, these FOAS will require a Plan for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives (PEDP) as part of the application.
Please visit the BRAIN Initiative’s Funding Opportunities webpage for more details on these and any additional opportunities that may arise.