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The General & Age Related Disabilities Engineering (GARDE) program supports research that will lead to the development of new technologies, devices, or software for persons with disabilities.  Research may be supported that is directed to the characterization, restoration, and/or substitution of human functional ability or cognition, or to the interaction of persons with disabilities and their environment.  Areas of particular recent interest are disability-related research in neuroscience/neuroengineering and rehabilitation robotics.  Emphasis is placed on significant advancement of fundamental engineering and scientific knowledge and not on incremental improvements.  Proposals should advance discovery or innovation beyond the frontiers of current knowledge in disability-related research.  Applicants are encouraged to contact the Program Director prior to submitting a proposal.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is issued as an initiative of the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research.  The Neuroscience Blueprint is a collaborative framework through which 15 NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices jointly support neuroscience-related research, with the aim of accelerating discoveries and reducing the burden of nervous system disorders (for further information, see http://neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov/).  The Neuroscience Blueprint is supporting a Lifespan Human Connectome Project (L-HCP) to extend the Human Connectome Project (HCP) (http://www.neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov/connectome) to map connectivity in the developing, adult, and aging human brain.  The goal of this FOA is solicit grant applications that propose to extend the experimental protocols developed through the HCP to middle-age and elderly adults to investigate the structural and functional changes that occur in the brain during typical aging.  A companion FOA is soliciting applications that apply the HCP protocols to children and adolescents to explore changes that occur during typical development. 

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is issued as an initiative of the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research.  The Neuroscience Blueprint is a collaborative framework through which 15 NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices jointly support neuroscience-related research, with the aim of accelerating discoveries and reducing the burden of nervous system disorders (for further information, see http://neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov/).  The Neuroscience Blueprint is supporting a Lifespan Human Connectome Project (L-HCP) to extend the Human Connectome Project (HCP) (http://www.neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov/connectome) to map connectivity in the developing, adult, and aging human brain.   The goal of this FOA is to solicit grant applications that propose to extend the experimental protocols developed through the HCP to children and adolescents to investigate the structural and functional changes that occur in the brain during typical development.  A companion FOA is soliciting applications that apply the HCP protocols to middle age and elderly adults to explore changes that occur during normal aging.  

Proposals in areas where support from the National Institutes of Health or other traditional funding sources is unlikely because the research is high risk are particularly encouraged if they have potential to lead to major new advances in the understanding of basic mechanisms of aging. Projects investigating age-related diseases also qualify, but only if approached from the point of view of how basic aging processes may lead to these outcomes. Projects concerning mechanisms underlying common geriatric functional disorders are encouraged, as long as these include connections to fundamental problems in the biology of aging. Projects that deal strictly with clinical problems such as the diagnosis and treatment of disease, health outcomes, or the social context of aging are not eligible.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is issued as an initiative of the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research.  The Neuroscience Blueprint is a collaborative framework through which 15 NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices jointly support neuroscience-related research, with the aim of accelerating discoveries and reducing the burden of nervous system disorders (for further information, see http://neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov/).  The Neuroscience Blueprint is supporting a Lifespan Human Connectome Project (L-HCP) to extend the Human Connectome Project (HCP) (http://www.neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov/connectome) to map connectivity in the developing, adult, and aging human brain.  The goal of this FOA is to solicit grant applications that propose to extend the experimental protocols developed through the HCP to children in the 0-5 year old age range to investigate the structural and functional changes that occur in the brain during typical development.  Related FOAs solicit applications that apply the HCP protocols to the 5-21 year old age range and to middle age and elderly adults to explore changes that occur during normal aging.  

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages applications for mechanistic research on age-related changes in emotion regulation and how they may contribute to mental disorders in middle-aged and older adults.In particular, research is sought that will advance understanding of irregularities in the integrative neural-behavioral mechanisms of emotion regulation in adult mood and anxiety disorders, and that will examine whether the irregularities are associated with typical or atypical maturational trajectories of emotion processing. If older adults who suffer episodes of affective dysregulation share the same patterns of improved emotional function with age as have been found to be typical of the older adult population in general, understanding of the irregularities involved their dysregulation.It is anticipated that such studies may identify novel targets for mental health interventions or prevention efforts, or provide clues as to which available intervention strategies might be optimally applied to normalize emotion dysregulation or to strengthen emotional resilience at particular stages of the adult life cycle.

The goal of this reissued Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to expand understanding of age-related changes that occur in immune function during the aging process that influence responses to pathogens and/or vaccines, as well as oral and craniofacial health. Human studies are required, and inclusion of relevant animal studies is permitted for mechanistic understanding. This FOA solicits applications that will determine the mechanisms required for induction and maintenance of protective immunity in the elderly in response to infections and/or vaccinations, including the effects of chronic inflammation on those responses, and applications that will assess changes in immune processes in dental, oral and craniofacial tissues in the elderly.

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) solicits research projects that would advance our understanding of how protein homeostasis (proteostasis) in peripheral tissues affects brain aging, leading to the development of Alzheimers Disease (AD). Much research on AD has focused on the accumulation of aberrant protein aggregates in the brain, and in particular amyloid and Tau. Formation of aggregates due to mutations encoded in the APP gene or due to hyperphosphorylation, respectively, have been linked to familial AD. The etiology of the more common, sporadic form of AD, is less certain, although aging is considered a major risk for development of the disease. It is known that proteostasis is less efficiently maintained in all tissues with aging, and this may indicate a link between proteostasis in the periphery and the appearance of aging-related diseases and conditions, including the decline in cognitive function, as well as dementia and AD. Therefore, testing for a role of aging-related loss of peripheral proteostasis in the development of AD is the focus of this FOA.

This RFA invites applications for planning awards to develop and finalize protocols for well-powered cognitive training intervention trials to remediate or prevent age-related cognitive decline as well as possibly prevent or delay the onset of mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Planning activities may include the collection of pilot data and the refinement of cognitive training protocols consistent with Stage I of the NIH Stage Model. Trial designs must justify the means used to assess cognition and to explore the underlying mechanisms of change. Such methods as structural and functional neuroimaging with biomarkers justified by an underlying model of change, CSF fluids, and blood biomarkers are appropriate candidate tools.

The functionality of the NeuroImaging Tools and Resources Collaboratory (NITRC) has enabled three distinct components to flourish: Resources Registry (NITRC-R): a collaboratory enabling the distribution, enhancement, and adoption of neuroimaging tools and resources. Image Repository (NITRC-IR): a curated repository of free neuroimaging datasets meeting global standards. Computational Environment (NITRC-CE): a freely downloadable or pay-as-you-go virtual computing cloud-based platform that is pre-configured with popular neuroimaging tools. NITRC-R has become the major web-based collaborative environment enabling the distribution, enhancement, and adoption of neuroinformatics resources. It currently hosts more than 1,000 tools and resources in areas such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), optical imaging, positron emission tomography/single-photon emission computed tomography (PET/SPECT), electroencephalography/magnetoencephalography/electrocorticography (EEG/MEG/ECoG), computational neuroscience, and imaging genomics. Since NITRC's inception, there have been more than 10 million total downloads of tools from NITRC-R.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) invites applications to evaluate the cumulative and progressive effects on brain structure and cognitive/behavioral function of combined HIV infection and alcohol abuse on older patients cohorts.

The overall goal of this funding announcement is to elicit applications for novel strategies to enhance referral, participation, and adherence in cardiac rehabilitation (CR) of older and vulnerable patients who are eligible for CR under current Medicare eligibility criteria. Specifically, NIA seeks clinical trials that address one or more specific age-related factors including patient-related issues, CR program goals and components, and CR program setting-related aspects. These three age-related issues represent distinct, but potentially interrelated, areas that are impacted by advancing age and are not currently addressed in traditional CR programs. Determination of the specific aspects of CR programs that may be better suited to medically complex and vulnerable older adults, such as eligibility, patient-centered goals and outcomes, and novel components and delivery systems may ultimately improve referral, enrollment, completion and overall benefit of this Medicare-supported resource. Successful modified programs should strive to improve function, independence and quality of life while reducing disability, future CV events, readmissions, morbidity and mortality.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications to establish a network to identify, evaluate, track, and conduct research across multiple sites on older adults with superior cognitive performance for their age ("cognitive super agers"). The activity would support aggregation of sufficient numbers of these individuals to advance the fields understanding of factors that promote sustained cognitive health and those that are not of primary importance. Uniform identification and uniform data collection will allow the study of the behavioral, neurological, health, genetic, environmental, and lifestyle profiles that lead to sustained cognitive and brain function in advanced age. Where extant data exists, harmonization protocols would need to be developed in order to make use of all currently available data. Provision of protocols to obtain brain tissue at autopsy would be an important component.

The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to encourage interdisciplinary research aimed at promoting health, preventing and limiting symptoms and disease, and reducing health disparities across the lifespan for those living or spending time in non-traditional settings (i.e. playgrounds and nursing homes). These settings result in exposure to environmental pollutants and toxins that result in health risks, symptoms, and other health conditions/diseases; including lower respiratory disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease, and complex environmental exposures that may be exacerbated by non-chemical stressors encountered in community settings, physiological function of organs and systems of the fetus/child/adolescence, and lower respiratory disease. Risk identification and symptom management include prevention and behavior changes and actions to maintain health and prevent disease with an emphasis on the individual, family, and community which will advance nursing science. For purposes of this FOA, non-traditional settings include, but are not limited to, places such as community centers; pre-school and non-traditional school environments (e.g., churches, daycare, home-based schools, dormitories, alternative schools, and playgrounds); child and older adult foster care facilities; older adult day care facilities; half-way homes; and assisted living and long-term care facilities.

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.

This FOA invites applications on descriptive, basic and translational studies of APOE2 to delineate the functional effects of ApoE2 on healthy aging of the brain and other tissues. The primary focus is on the "ApoE2-Aging-AD" relationship and the mechanistic effects of the protective variant on aging and potential interaction/crosstalk between tissues in the aging process and AD. These studies are expected to generate new mechanistic insights that involve brain and/or other organs and assist in the identification of potential prognostic and diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets for AD and other age-related cognitive disorders. Eventually, the findings from these studies could lead to translational research opportunities not only to prevent or delay the onset of AD, but also to protect against multiple age-related conditions.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to encourage applications that propose either basic, clinical, or a combination of basic and clinical studies to investigate how functional changes in the sensory and/or motor systems impact the development and progression of Alzheimer's disease. Studies may include older adults and/or animal models and may employ a variety of approaches, including cellular, molecular, imaging, physiological and genetic, to address this need. For clinical studies, leveraging of existing longitudinal cohorts already collecting sensory and motor assessments is highly encouraged.

The intent of the FY19 PRARP InCASA is to support innovative research that improves the quality of life and care for individuals living with the common symptoms of TBI and/or AD/ADRD and/or their families and care providers, as related to the PRARP's mission (see Section II.A, Program Description). The proposed work should innovatively challenge existing research paradigms or exhibit high levels of creativity within the contexts of the PRARP's mission and vision. This can include innovations and research for symptom reduction (e.g., cognitive, behavioral, function, mood), resiliency factors, increasing or maintaining independence, and support for families and care providers. The research innovations for the FY19 PRARP InCASA are expected to benefit the military, Veteran, and civilian communities. FY19 PRARP InCASA applications should be Innovation- and Impact-based.

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) invites applications for a clinical trial on effects of vitamin D supplementation on falls and gait speed in older individuals. During the six-year support period, the awardee will implement a randomized controlled trial with sufficient power to determine the dose-response and efficacy of vitamin D supplementation in preventing falls, across a range of doses and baseline vitamin D levels.  A measurement of effects of supplementation on gait speed should be proposed as a secondary outcome.  Applicants are strongly encouraged to consider advanced, cost-efficient designs that include a dose-ranging phase followed by an efficacy phase for select doses (e.g., adaptive designs). The first nine months of the award will provide funds to conduct pilot studies to test recruitment strategies, determine the proportion of those screened who are both eligible and willing to be randomized, and finalize the study protocol, data collection forms and manual of procedures for the trial. 

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive, degenerative disorder of the brain and is the most common form of dementia of the elderly. AD is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Prominent behavioral manifestations of AD include memory impairments and decline in other cognitive domains.  Currently, at least five million Americans at age 65 and older suffer from AD, and it is projected that the number of new cases of AD will double by 2025. AD is clearly becoming a national health crisis affecting Americans across the country, and the total annual payments of health care for people with AD are projected to be more than $1 trillion in 2050. In response to this looming public health crisis, the National Alzheimer's Project Act (NAPA) was signed into law in 2011. The primary research goal of the NAPA is to prevent the onset of, and develop effective treatments for, AD by 2025. As part of the strategic planning process to implement NAPA, NIH AD Research Summits were held in 2012 and 2015 and identified research priorities and strategies needed to accelerate basic research and the development of effective therapies. A FY2017 Alzheimer's disease bypass budget with milestones was published in 2015 to establish research and funding priorities in response to the NAPA and the AD Research Summits (https://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/bypass-budget-fy2017). This funding opportunity announcement was developed in response to the recommendations of the AD Research Summits and milestones published in the FY2017 Alzheimer's disease bypass budget to support interdisciplinary research to understand the heterogeneity and multifactorial etiology of AD.