NIH announces three new Requests for Applications (RFAs) for interdisciplinary projects using advanced and innovative technologies to address overarching principles of circuit function in the context of specific brain systems and behaviors. Funding from these new RFAs will enable investigators to unlock the mystery of how complex patterns of neural activity give rise to our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and will lay the groundwork for understanding circuit dysfunctions in brain diseases.
In 2014 and 2015, NIH issued Requests for Applications (RFAs) for “Integrated Approaches to Understanding Circuit Function in the Nervous System,” resulting in 17 awards totaling $17 million per year, with each award lasting three years. The short-term goal of this program has been to foster a set of interdisciplinary team projects for understanding the functions of specific circuits in the nervous system, in preparation for a second phase to start in Fiscal Year (FY) 2017. NIH now announces the second phase of this program with three new Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs), each soliciting projects of different size and scope.
RFA-NS-17-018 Team-Research BRAIN Circuit Programs (BCP)
Using the U19 activity code for large, multi-component, interdisciplinary team science programs, this RFA supports research teams drawn either from prior BRAIN-supported projects or from new teams within the greater research community, using advanced and innovative technologies to examine circuit functions related to behavior. Proposals should address overarching principles of circuit function in the context of specific brain systems, such as sensation, perception, emotion, motivation, cognition, choosing, and taking action. Experiments are expected to be guided by explicit theories of circuit function, and to test and update predictive models, by controlling stimuli and behavior while actively recording and manipulating relevant dynamic patterns of neural activity. For this 5-year award with possibility of competing renewal, a Data Science Core is required, and applicants must manage their data and analysis methods in a standardized framework to be developed and used in the project. The application receipt date for this NOFO is March 1, 2017. A second receipt date, October 17, 2017, will support awards in FY 2018.
RFA-NS-17-014 Targeted BRAIN Circuits Projects (R01) and RFA-NS-17-015 Exploratory Targeted BRAIN Circuits Projects (R21)
This complementary pair of NOFOs seek applications proposing innovative approaches that are in an earlier stage of development or of smaller scale than sought by the larger team-science RFA-NS-17-018. Projects may be from individual labs or multi-PI teams. Proposals should specify tractable research goals to address circuit contributions to behaviors or neural systems using advanced and innovative technologies. Note that the maximum R01 project period (NS-17-014) is 5-years, while the R21 project period (NS-17-015) supports 2-year exploratory projects to establish feasibility and supporting data for potential, subsequent R01 funding. The application receipt date for both NOFOs is March 8, 2017.
Please visit our Active Funding Opportunities page for more details on these and other RFAs for the BRAIN Initiative.