The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Helping to End Addiction Long-term® (HEAL) Initiative

The Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative®, is an NIH-wide effort to speed scientific solutions to stem the national opioid public health crisis. Almost every NIH Institute and Center is accelerating research to addre

The initiative funds projects nationwide. Researchers are taking a variety of approaches to address the opioid epidemic through understanding, managing, and treating pain. Pain research supported by the NIH HEAL Initiative is informed by partners from the government, industry, academia, and people living with pain.

Public, private, -profit, or nonprofit agencies (including State and local government agencies), eligible Federal agencies, universities, colleges, hospitals, and academic or research institutions may apply for research grants. SBIR grants can be awarded only to domestic small businesses, and STTR grants can be awarded only to domestic small businesses which "partner" with a research institution in cooperative research and development. An applicant for individual predoctoral fellowship support must be enrolled in a research doctoral degree program by the proposed activation date of the fellowship. A postdoctoral applicant must have received a Ph.D., Psy.D., M.D., D.D.S., Sc.D., D.N.S., D.O., D.S.W., or equivalent degree from an accredited institution to be eligible for an individual postdoctoral fellowship. All research training awards are made to appropriate domestic research centers, medical schools, departments of psychiatry, non-medical academic departments, psychiatric hospitals or hospitals with psychiatric services, community mental health centers, and biomedical research institutes on behalf of individuals who need the opportunity to realize research potential. Except for the NIH Pathway to Independence (PI) Award (K99/R00), the individuals must be citizens or nationals of the United States or have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence. The NIH Pathway to Independence (PI) Award (K99/R00) is open to both U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens. Individuals must qualify by scholastic degree and previous training and/or experience.

Research project grants provide support for clearly defined projects by a named investigator in an area representing his/her specific interests and competencies. Exploratory/Development and Clinical Exploratory/Developmental Grants encourage the development of new research activities in categorical program areas. Small Research Grants provide research support specifically limited in time and amount for studies in categorical program areas. Collaborative Clinical Research Grants support evaluations of various methods of therapy and/or prevention. Program Project and Center grants support large-scale, broad-based programs of research, usually interdisciplinary, consisting of several projects with a common focus. Cooperative Agreements support single or a group of related research activities with greater involvement of federal staff. SBIR and STTR grants are awarded in two stages: Phase I grants are awarded to establish the technical merit and feasibility of a proposed research and development effort; only Phase I awardees are eligible to receive Phase II support. The NIH Pathway to Independence (PI) Award (K99/R00) provides up to 2 years of mentored support (K99) for a postdoctoral individual followed by up to 3 years of support after the awardee transitions to research independence (R00). K99/R00 awards are awards for up to 5 years of support. Salary support for all mentored awards may be supplemented by the sponsoring institution from nonfederal funds. NRSA awards: Individual fellowships are made to students seeking predoctoral or postdoctoral support for full-time research training or who are enrolled in an formal Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. program. An institutional allowance will be provided to the sponsoring institution for each awardee. In addition, any domestic public or nonprofit institution may apply for an institutional research training grant in a specified area of research from which a number of stipend awards will be made to individuals selected by the training program director at the institution. Support is available for both predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees and will include an amount for institutional expenses. Indirect costs may be requested at 8 percent of total direct costs, exclusive of tuition and related fees and expenditures for equipment, or actual indirect costs, whichever is less. Postdoctoral students receiving fellowships or stipend support under either individual or institutional grants for 12 months or less are obligated to pay back this support through an equivalent period of continued postdoctoral training or a period of health related research and/or teaching activities after the completion of their training. Postdoctoral individuals in their thirteenth and subsequent months of support will incur no further obligation, and such support will be considered acceptable postdoctoral payback service. Research training support may not be used for internships or other clinical training.

The following consideration will be used in determining projects to be funded: (1) Technical merit of the proposed project as determined by peer review; (2) Availability of funds; and (3) Relevance to program priorities of NINDS and HEAL pain research priorities.

All applications are evaluated for scientific and technical merit by an appropriate scientific peer review panel. Applications other than fellowships must also be reviewed by the Council of the awarding Institute. All competitive applications compete for available funds on the basis of scientific and technical merit, program relevance, and program balance. All SBIR and STTR applications receiving a priority score compete for set-aside funds on the basis of scientific and technical merit and commercial potential of the proposed research, program relevance, and program balance among the areas of research.

Support is recommended for a specified project period, not in excess of 5 years. Prior to termination of a project period, the grantee may apply for renewal of support for a new project period. An application for renewal is processed as a new competing request. Small grants, exploratory, and dissertation grants are for 1-3 years (depending on program) and are not renewable. By law an individual may receive no more than 6 years of support in the aggregate at the predoctoral level and no more than 3 years of support in the aggregate at the postdoctoral level under the NRSA program (through an individual and/or institutional award). Any exception to these limitations requires a waiver from the Director of the awarding Institute based on review of justification from the awardee and the program director for the institutional grant.

A principal investigator may question the substantive or procedural aspects of the review of his/her application by communicating with the staff of the Institute. A description of the NIH Peer Review Appeal procedures is available on the NIH homepage http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-11-064.html