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

National Institutes of Health · Opportunity RFA-DC-27-004

Who can apply

• State governments
• County governments
• City or township governments
• Special district governments
• Independent school districts
• Public and State institutions of higher education
• Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
• Public housing authorities
• Native American tribal organizations (other)
• Nonprofits with 501(c)(3), other than higher education
• Nonprofits without 501(c)(3)
• Private institutions of higher education
• For-profit organizations other than small businesses
• Small businesses
• Others

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.

About this opportunity

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.

Portfolio context — this listing covers more than this opportunity

This opportunity is funded under Assistance Listing 93.173 (“Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders”), a broad federal program that made about 263 new awards per year over the last five fiscal years (median award $430k). Those figures describe that whole portfolio — not this specific solicitation, so we don't show them as if they were this opportunity's track record.

Applicant counts per solicitation are not published by any federal agency — no one can honestly sell you that number. NIH publishes success rates by institute and activity code — source.

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