This week, we will highlight BRAIN Initiative notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs) for fiscal year 2024. Today’s post features funding opportunities for training, inclusion, and equity.
Training, Inclusion, and Equity
Training, inclusion, and equity play a central role at the NIH BRAIN Initiative and efforts focus on the development of early-stage investigators and on initiatives to enhance the diversity of the biomedical workforce.
RFA-NS-24-014 NIH Blueprint and BRAIN Initiative Program for Enhancing Neuroscience Diversity through Undergraduate Research Education Experiences (BP BRAIN-ENDURE) (R25 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
This funding opportunity will support creative educational activities with a primary focus on courses for skills development, research experiences, and mentoring activities. The fully integrated educational activities should prepare undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds, including those from groups underrepresented in biomedical and behavioral sciences to enter Ph.D. degree programs in the neurosciences. Please read the full NOFO for more details. Applications are due February 15, 2024.
RFA-MH-23-331 BRAIN Initiative Advanced Postdoctoral Career Transition Award to Promote Diversity (K99/R00 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
RFA-MH-23-330 BRAIN Initiative Advanced Postdoctoral Career Transition Award to Promote Diversity (K99/R00 Independent Clinical Trial Required)
The purpose of the NIH BRAIN Initiative Advanced Postdoctoral Career Transition Award to Promote Diversity (K99/R00) program is to enhance diversity in the neuroscience workforce and maintain a strong cohort of new and talented NIH-supported independent investigators from diverse backgrounds in BRAIN Initiative research areas. This program is designed to facilitate a timely transition of outstanding postdoctoral researchers with a research and/or clinical doctorate degree from mentored, postdoctoral research positions to independent, tenure-track or equivalent faculty positions. Please read the full NOFOs for more details. Applications are due February 13, 2024.
PAR-23-137 NIH Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) (R25 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
The overarching goal of this R25 program is to support educational activities that encourage individuals from diverse backgrounds, including those from groups underrepresented in the biomedical and behavioral sciences, to pursue further studies or careers in research. Please read the full NOFO for more details. Applications are due June 7, 2024.
RFA-MH-23-110 BRAIN Initiative Fellows: Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship
This funding opportunity seeks to enhance the research training of promising postdoctorates, early in their postdoctoral training period, who have the potential to become productive investigators in research areas that will advance the goals of the BRAIN Initiative. Applications are encouraged in any research area that is aligned with the BRAIN Initiative, including neuroethics. Applicants are expected to propose research training in an area that clearly complements their predoctoral research. On the application due date, candidates may not have completed more than 12 months of postdoctoral training. Please read the full NOFO for more details. Applications are due August 9, 2024.
PAR-23-122 Research With Activities Related to Diversity (ReWARD) (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)
The NIH Research With Activities Related to Diversity (ReWARD) program's overarching goal is to enhance the breadth and geographical location of research and research-related activities supported by NIH. The ReWARD program provides support for the health-related research of scientists who are making a significant contribution to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility and who have no current NIH research project grant funding. Please read the full NOFO for more details. Applications are due February 5, 2024.
RFA-EY-21-003 BRAIN Initiative-Related Research Education: Short Courses (R25 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
The purpose of this funding opportunity is to encourage applications for the continuation and/or expansion of ongoing and new research education programs that will significantly advance the educational goals of the BRAIN Initiative as described in BRAIN 2025: A Scientific Vision including neuroethics and opportunities to increase the workforce diversity in BRAIN Initiative research areas. Participants are limited to undergraduate, graduate/medical students, medical residents, postdoctoral scholars, and/or early-career faculty with an emphasis on diversity as defined by NIH (NOT-OD-20-031). Please read the full funding opportunity for more details. Applications are due February 15, 2024.
NOT-AA-23-020 Encourage Eligible NIH BRAIN Initiative Awardees to Apply for PA-23-189 Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (Admin Supp - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
This Notice encourages eligible awardees in the BRAIN Initiative community to apply for administrative supplements in response to PA-23-189, Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (Admin Supp - Clinical Trial Not Allowed). Program Directors/Principal Investigators of active BRAIN Initiative research program grants are encouraged to identify eligible individuals across the career development pipeline (from high school students to the faculty level) under the auspices of this administrative supplement. Please read the notice for more information.
NOT-AA-23-015 BRAIN Initiative: Mentored Clinician Scientist Research Career Development Program to Develop Expertise in Intracranial Human Neuroscience Research (K08)
This Notice promotes the availability of Mentored Clinician Scientist Research Career Development Awards (K08) applications in research areas covered by the NIH BRAIN Initiative. This program will provide support and protected time (3-5 years) for clinicians to develop new and/or expand their expertise in intracranial human neuroscience research. The goal of the program is to build an interdisciplinary and diverse research workforce dedicated to capitalizing on intracranial neural recording and/or stimulating technologies to answer high-impact questions in human neuroscience. Please read the notice for more information. Applications are due February 12, 2024.
As part of the NIH BRAIN Initiative’s efforts to promote more impactful science through the inclusion of diverse perspectives, many funding opportunities will require a Plan for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives 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.