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DLS supports fundamental research that increases our understanding of cognitive, linguistic, social, cultural, and biological processes related to children's and adolescents' development and learning.  Research supported by this program will add to our basic knowledge of how people learn and the underlying developmental processes that support learning, with the objective of leading to better educated children and adolescents who grow up to take productive roles as workers and as citizens. Among the many research topics supported by DLS are: developmental cognitive neuroscience; development of higher-order cognitive processes; transfer of knowledge from one domain or situation to another; use of molecular genetics to study continuities and discontinuities in development; development of peer relations and family interactions; multiple influences on development, including the impact of family, school, community, social institutions, and the media; adolescents' preparation for entry into the workforce; cross-cultural research on development and learning; and the role of cultural influences and demographic characteristics on development. Additional priorities include research that: incorporates multidisciplinary, multi-method, microgenetic, and longitudinal approaches; develops new methods, models, and theories for studying learning and development; and integrates different processes (e.g., learning, memory, emotion), levels of analysis (e.g., behavioral, social, neural), and time scales (e.g. infancy, middle childhood, adolescence).

Reissue of PAR-18-541. The Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network (BPN) encourages applications from small businesses seeking support to advance their small molecule drug discovery and development projects into the clinic. Participants in the BPN are responsible for conducting all studies that involve disease- or target-specific assays, models, and other research tools and receive funding for all activities to be conducted in their own laboratories. In addition, applicants will collaborate with NIH-funded consultants and can augment their project with NIH contract research organizations (CROs) that specialize in medicinal chemistry, pharmacokinetics, toxicology, formulations development, chemical synthesis including under Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), and Phase I clinical testing. Projects can enter either at the Discovery stage, to optimize promising hit compounds through medicinal chemistry to the Development stage, to advance a single development candidate through Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling toxicology studies and phase I clinical testing. Alternatively, projects can enter at the Development stage and progress in a shorter period to IND enabling toxicology studies and phase I clinical testing. Projects that enter at the Discovery stage and meet their milestones may continue on through Development. BPN awardee institutions retain their assignment of IP rights and gain assignment of IP rights from the BPN contractors (and thereby control the patent prosecution and licensing negotiations) for drug candidates developed in this program.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to invite Cooperative Agreement (U01) applications for the development of enabling informatics technologies to improve the acquisition, management, analysis, and dissemination of data and knowledge across the cancer research continuum including cancer biology, cancer treatment and diagnosis, cancer prevention, cancer control and epidemiology, and/or cancer health disparities. As a component of the NCI's Informatics Technology for Cancer Research (ITCR) Program, this FOA focuses on early-stage development from prototyping to hardening and adaptation. Early-stage development is defined for the purpose of this FOA as the initial development or the significant modification of existing tools for new applications. The central mission of ITCR is to promote research-driven informatics technology across the development lifecycle to address priority needs in cancer research. In order to be successful, proposed development plans must have a clear rationale on why the proposed technology is needed and how it will benefit the cancer research field.

The overall goal of this initiative is to identify, optimize, and evaluate measures of neurophysiological processes that are disrupted within or across mental disorders and which can be assessed in animals and humans. The goal is to support further development of these measures as assays for evaluating potential new drug and device therapies and their targets. Data will also reveal assay measures where the performance between preclinical species and humans is dissimilar, thus establishing a firm basis for limiting speculative extrapolations of preclinical findings. Ultimately, the goal of this FOA is to improve the efficiency of the therapeutic development process by addressing inconsistencies between the preclinical screening pipeline and clinical evaluation of new treatment candidates and thereby hasten the development of more effective treatments for mental disorders. The objectives of the FOA will be accomplished by supporting partnerships among basic and translational neuroscientists who are committed to advancing the discovery of physiological measures as tools for target validation and therapeutic development. Groups will be tasked with building a target-engagement-linked-to-functional-brain-effect suite of assays with potential to translate from animals to humans and thus serve as a basis for selecting preclinical treatment candidates for further development and clinical testing. Towards this goal, the FOA will support development, optimization and evaluation of brain based assays in both preclinical species and in healthy humans and the evaluation of assay performance in response to carefully selected chemical, physiological, or behavioral manipulations.

The Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network (BPN) invites applications from neuroscience investigators seeking support to advance their small molecule drug discovery and development projects into the clinic. Participants in the BPN are responsible for conducting all studies that involve disease- or target-specific assays, models, and other research tools and receive funding for all activities to be conducted in their own laboratories. In addition, applicants will collaborate with NIH-funded consultants and can augment their project with NIH contract research organizations (CROs) that specialize in medicinal chemistry, pharmacokinetics, toxicology, formulations development, chemical synthesis including under Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), and Phase I clinical testing. Projects can enter either at the Discovery stage, to optimize promising hit compounds through medicinal chemistry, or at the Development stage, to advance a development candidate through Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling toxicology studies and phase I clinical testing. Projects that enter at the Discovery stage and meet their milestones may continue on through Development. BPN awardee Institutions retain their assignment of IP rights and gain assignment of IP rights from the BPN contractors (and thereby control the patent prosecution and licensing negotiations) for drug candidates developed in this program.

The Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network (BPN) encourages applications from small businesses seeking support to advance their small molecule drug discovery and development projects into the clinic. Participants in the BPN are responsible for conducting all studies that involve disease- or target-specific assays, models, and other research tools and receive funding for all activities to be conducted in their own laboratories. In addition, applicants will collaborate with NIH-funded consultants and can augment their project with NIH contract research organizations (CROs) that specialize in medicinal chemistry, pharmacokinetics, toxicology, formulations development, chemical synthesis including under Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), and Phase I clinical testing. Projects can enter either at the Discovery stage, to optimize promising hit compounds through medicinal chemistry, or at the Development stage, to advance a development candidate through Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling toxicology studies and phase I clinical testing. Projects that enter at the Discovery stage and meet their milestones may continue on through Development. BPN awardee institutions retain their assignment of IP rights and gain assignment of IP rights from the BPN contractors (and thereby control the patent prosecution and licensing negotiations) for drug candidates developed in this program.

REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is a parasomnia that presents with abnormal dream mentation, abnormal behaviors, and increased electromyographic tone on polysomnography during REM sleep. Older individuals with RBD frequently develop neurodegenerative diseases, particularly α-synucleinopathies: Parkinson's disease (PD), Lewy Body Dementia (LBD), and Multi-System Atrophy (MSA). Individuals with idiopathic RBD (iRBD) develop an overt synucleinopathy at high rates: 40-50% in 5 years and 80-92% in long-term follow up. iRBD provides a unique opportunity to understand the clinical development and evolution of α-synucleinopathies, as well as a potential path for developing disease prevention therapies. While it is not possible at this time to identify whether a person will develop PD, LBD, or MSA, iRBD is a preclinical/prodromal phase of neurodegenerative, particularly α-synucleinopathy, illness. The current iRBD research community includes investigators and centers across North America and the world. There have been attempts to carry out multi-center iRBD research, but interpretation of findings has been complicated by small numbers of iRBD subjects at individual centers; differences in assessment protocols, including collection methods for cognitive and biomarker data; and variability in diagnostic procedures at different centers. This FOA seeks to develop and support a consortium of investigators who will establish a common iRBD research protocol to collect and share harmonized clinical, cognitive, and biomarker data, establishing a centralized repository of biosamples from individuals with iRBD as they progress from prodromal α-synucleinopathy to PD, LBD, or MSA.

Applications should focus on studies that achieve one or more of the following for Parkinson's: - Develop or validate promising biomarkers of disease - Develop or validate prodromal biomarkers - Develop or validate biomarkers of phenoconversion - Develop or validate specific molecular biomarker assays - Analyze and derive candidate biomarkers from existing biological datasets - Develop and support remote assessment strategies that could complement in clinic assessments

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages applications from investigators that propose to study the developing brain or brain areas that play significant roles in mediating emotional and motivated behavior and in substance use and dependence.  All stages of brain development are of interest, but a new emphasis of the current reissue of this initiative is to support basic neuroscience research on fundamental mechanisms of brain development during prepuberty and the adolescent period in relation to the problems of substance abuse and co-morbidity with psychiatric disorders.  Topics of interest pertaining to brain development of this initiative include, but are not limited to, the euphoric properties of abused substances, actions of psychotherapeutic agents, and their consequences on memory, cognitive and emotional processes.  A major goal of this initiative is to understand how exposure to substances of abuse and environmental insults affects the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying nervous system development and neural circuit functions implicated in substance use and addiction. 

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages Research Project Grant (R01) applications from institutions/organizations that propose to study the developing brain or brain areas that play significant roles in mediating emotional and motivated behavior and in substance use and dependence. All stages of brain development are of interest, but a new emphasis of the current reissue of this initiative is to support basic neuroscience research on fundamental mechanisms of brain development during prepuberty and the adolescent period in relation to the problems of substance abuse and co-morbidity with psychiatric disorders. Topics of interest pertaining to brain development of this initiative include, but are not limited to, the euphoric properties of abused substances, actions of psychotherapeutic agents, and their consequences on memory, cognitive and emotional processes. An additional major goal of this initiative is to understand how exposure to substances of abuse affects the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying nervous system development and neural circuit functions implicated in substance use and addiction.

The vision of the Episcopal Health Foundation is a diocese where people, parishes, institutions, and communities are connected in service to creating healthy communities for all. According to the foundation, a strong, responsive caregiver-child relationship and the infant brain development that results from that relationship maximize a child's physical development, communication, and social skills and strengthen his/her ability to mitigate the long-term effects of stressful life events and circumstances. To that end, the foundation is inviting applications for its Build the Foundation for a Healthy Life by Investing in Early Childhood Brain Development initiative. Through the initiative, grants will be awarded to community-based clinics and organizations that embrace the importance of early childhood brain development and prioritize primary prevention work with vulnerable families, beginning before or at the birth of their children.

Professional services are required to develop and evaluate techniques for analyzing anatomical and functional brain data using deformable shape and appearance volume models (Metamorphs/Active Volume Models), stretching open active contours (SOAX), and advanced classification methods, including deep learning.  These methods will be investigated and state-of-the-art tools developed for the segmentation of brain MRI and diffusion imaging data and the analysis of fMRI data, with the aim of supporting research into understanding functional brain circuits and their anatomical correlations. Functional-anatomical atlases will be developed to facilitate comparisons across individuals and for statistical modeling.  The required work is projected to be a multi-year effort, with the first year concentrating on feasibility and prototype development.  Subsequent two-year work, if justified by first-year results, will concentrate on the  development and further evaluation of the prototypes as mature tools that contribute to the wider national research initiative to accurately model functioning of the human brain.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation will award one- to three-year grants to develop imaging markers for use in disease-modifying clinical trials. Imaging is a powerful tool that can be used to visualize the structure and function of the brain in living subjects. While a variety of imaging techniques are available, including positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), none have been demonstrated to be a sensitive, specific and reliable biomarker test for the presence and progression of PD. Applications must focus on developing robust and precise imaging markers. Priority targets for this program are alpha-synuclein and neuroinflammation, but applications may focus on other promising therapeutic targets. Imaging modalities can include PET, SPECT and MRI. Projects should aim to develop novel imaging biomarkers as opposed to prospectively collecting data using existing technologies. Prospective data collection is appropriate only if a novel imaging technique or tracer is being tested. Novel data analysis techniques may be proposed but should utilize existing data sets. Examples of projects that are appropriate for this program include development of novel PET or SPECT tracers, early validation of new tracers, and development and validation of novel MRI techniques.

The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to encourage applications seeking to develop the next generation of brain stimulation devices for treating mental health disorders. Applications are sought that will either 1) develop novel brain stimulation devices or 2) significantly enhance, by means of hardware/software improvements, the effectiveness of brain stimulation devices that are currently U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved or cleared. Novel devices should move beyond existing electrical/magnetic stimulation and develop new stimulation techniques capable of increased spatiotemporal precision as well as multi-focal, closed-loop approaches. Applications seeking to develop new capabilities should focus on significant enhancement of the spatial resolution, depth of delivery, and/or precision of the device. Incremental changes to existing devices (e.g., software updates) are not within the scope of this announcement.

The goal of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to provide funding support for the pre-clinical and early stage clinical (Phase I) development of novel small-molecule and biologic therapeutic agents that prevent Alzheimer's disease (AD), slow its progression or treat its cognitive and behavioral symptoms. Participants in this program will receive funding for therapy development activities such as medicinal chemistry, pharmacokinetics (PK), Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion, Toxicology (ADMET), efficacy in animal models, formulation development, chemical synthesis under Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Investigational New Drug (IND) enabling studies and initial Phase I clinical testing. This program does not support research on basic mechanisms of disease, mechanisms of drug action, development of biomarkers, devices, non-pharmacological interventions (e.g., exercise, diet, cognitive training), repurposed drugs and combinations therapies, or discovery activities such as high throughput screening and hit optimization.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages applications to develop valid markers to assess the activity of fundamental aging mechanisms in humans that may influence the risk and progression of multiple aging conditions. Projects are encouraged that focus on selected mechanism(s) that may regulate aging changes, assess multiple possible markers for these mechanisms, test methods to improve their measurement properties, characterize their variability among individuals of differing ages and within the same age cohort, and assess their relationships in humans to in vivo functions influenced by the mechanism(s) under study. It is strongly encouraged that each project includes an interdisciplinary research team with expertise, as needed, in the biology of their selected mechanism(s), biomedical aging research, clinical pathology including laboratory assays, imaging methods, human cohort studies, tissue banking, biorepository resources, and statistics. Though the principal focus of the initiative is on development of markers in humans, studies in laboratory animals may also be conducted when necessary for the development of human markers, and potential development of parallel laboratory animal markers of a given mechanism.

Funding from this award will support the first year of a sub-study involving 5 of the 21 ABCD sites to include measures of delinquency and victimization in their investigations. The sub-study will address key questions on the interactions between substance use, brain development, delinquency, and victimization. The ABCD Study is the largest longitudinal study of brain development and child health in the US, following approximately 10,000 children (ages 9-10) across 21 sites into their early adulthood years. The ABCD Study, which is funded by NIDA, seeks to explore the standards of normal brain development across a young person's life trajectory, as well as numerous facets of adolescent brain, cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages exploratory/developmental research grant applications, proposing the development of innovative, collaborative research projects on brain and other nervous system function and disorders throughout life, relevant to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Scientists in the United States (U.S.) or upper middle income countries (UMICs) are eligible to partner with scientists in LMIC institutions. Income categories used are as defined by the World Bank at http://data.worldbank.org/about/country-classifications/country-and-lending-groups. These grants are expected to inform the development of more comprehensive research programs that contribute to the long-term goals of building sustainable research capacity in LMICs to address nervous system development, function and impairment throughout life and to lead to diagnostics, prevention, treatment and implementation strategies. The proposed work may also contribute to developing a base for research networking and evidence-based policy beyond the specific research project.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to support intramural-extramural collaborations to develop and implement the use of 3D biofabricated tissue models as novel drug screening platforms and advance pre-clinical discovery and development of non-addictive treatments for nociception, opioid use disorder (OUD) and/or overdose. In particular, support during the UH2 phase is for the application of 3D biofabrication technologies to develop novel multicellular tissue constructs for drug screening by using human iPSC-derived cells representing sensory/pain neurons, brain regions, and other tissues involved in nociception, addiction and/or overdose, including tissue models of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Support during the UH3 is for implementation of drug screens using the 3D tissue models developed during the UH2 phase. Please limit this field to a brief description of to page in length. Brevity is appreciated. This FOA is part of the of the NIHs Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) initiative to speed scientific solutions to the national opioid public health crisis. The NIH HEAL Initiative will bolster research across NIH to (1) improve treatment for opioid misuse and addiction and (2) enhance pain management. More information about the HEAL Initiative is available at: https://www.nih.gov/research-training/medical-research-initiatives/heal-initiative

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) solicits applications to develop standards that describe experimental protocols that are being conducted as part of the BRAIN Initiative. It is expected that applications will solicit community input at all stages of the process.  It is recommended that the first step of standard development will involve sharing data between different key groups in the experimental community in order to ensure that the developing standard will cover the way that all of those groups are collecting data. The developed standard is expected to be made widely available.