BRAIN Initiative: Exploratory Research Opportunities Using Invasive Neural Recording and Stimulating Technologies in the Human Brain (R61 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Open Posted

Opportunity number
RFA-DC-27-004
Agency
Applications due
Award size
Up to $700,000

Opportunity facts

Funding instrument
Grant
Category
  • Health
Eligible applicants
  • Non-501(c)(3) Nonprofits
  • County Governments
  • Higher Education Inst. (Public)
  • Other
  • For Profit Organizations
  • City/Township Governments
  • Higher Education Inst. (Private)
  • Public or Indian Housing Auth.
  • Small Businesses
  • 501(c)(3) Nonprofits
  • Tribal Governments (Federally Recognized)
  • Independent School Districts
  • Tribal Organizations (Not Federally Recognized)
  • State Governments
  • Special District Governments
Points of contact

Opportunity details come from Grants.gov. Updated .

About this opportunity

Written by GovTribe AI ·

The National Institutes of Health (represented by ten participating institutes: NIDCD, NEI, NIA, NIAAA, NIBIB, NICHD, NIDA, NIMH, NINDS, and NCCIH) is soliciting applications for exploratory research using invasive neural recording and stimulating technologies in the human brain, with an application due date of February 11, 2027. This RFA reissues RFA-DC-24-001 as RFA-DC-27-004 and explicitly prohibits clinical trials.

Eligible applicants include higher education institutions (public and private), nonprofit organizations (including 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3) nonprofits), for-profit organizations, state and local governments, Indian tribal governments, small businesses, and other entity types. Non-domestic organizations and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible; foreign components as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement are permitted. Applicants must register in SAM, obtain a Unique Entity Identifier, and register with eRA Commons and Grants.gov.

Awards support up to three years with a maximum of $700,000 per year in direct costs (exclusive of facilities and administrative costs for consortia). The NIH forecasts approximately five awards per receipt date from an estimated $6 million in total costs. Applications require a one-page team management plan and a Data Management and Sharing Plan (maximum two pages using the NIH DMS Plan Format Page). Applications lacking these required documents or failing to address neuroethical considerations—including informed consent methodology, FDA-defined significant/non-significant risk designations, maintenance and removal of invasive devices, and long-term participant care plans—will be deemed incomplete and not reviewed.

Research must be proposed as exploratory research and planning activities to establish feasibility and early-stage development that would lay groundwork for subsequent research project grant applications. Projects should maximize innovative in vivo human neuroscience opportunities afforded by direct brain access from invasive surgical procedures and employ approaches guided by specified theoretical constructs and quantitative, mechanistic models where appropriate. Recipients will join a consortium coordinated by the NIH to identify consensus standards of practice, collect and provide data for ancillary studies, and aggregate and standardize data for dissemination to the wider scientific community.

The opportunity is assigned to multiple parent grant programs under CFDA numbers 93.242 (Mental Health Research Grants), 93.273 (Alcohol Research Programs), 93.279 (Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs), 93.865 (Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research), 93.173 (Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders), 93.286 (Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations), 93.853 (Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders), 93.213 (Research and Training in Complementary and Integrative Health), 93.866 (Aging Research), and 93.867 (Vision Research).

Synopsis

Invasive surgical procedures in humans offer the unique opportunity to intracranially record and stimulate neuronal activity within precisely localized brain structures, enabling high-impact human neuroscience investigations. This NOFO seeks exploratory research projects, from newly formed or established multi-disciplinary teams, to understand how dynamic activity of single cells and ensembles of neurons in spatially organized networks gives rise to the internal states we experience as sensations, perceptions, emotions, thoughts, and memories, and to observable motor and social behaviors. The research should be proposed as exploratory research and planning activities to establish feasibility and early-stage development that, if successful, would support, enable, and/or lay the groundwork for a potential, subsequent research project grant applications using invasive neural recording and stimulation technologies in the human brain. Projects should maximize opportunities to conduct innovative in vivo human neuroscience research made available by direct access to the brain from invasive surgical procedures. Projects should employ approaches guided by specified theoretical constructs and by quantitative, mechanistic models where appropriate. Recipients will join a consortium working group, coordinated by the NIH, to identify consensus standards of practice, including neuroethical considerations, to collect and provide data for ancillary studies, and to aggregate and standardize data for dissemination among the wider scientific community.

Eligibility

Refer to Section III. Eligibility Information in the NOFO for additional information on eligibility.Foreign Organizations/International Collaborations:Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Organizations) are not eligible to apply.Non-domestic (non-U.S.) components of U.S. Organizations are not eligible to apply.Foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are allowed.

Files

File Type Posted
PKG00292615.pdf PDF
RFA-DC-27-004-Full-Announcement.html HTML file

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