OARS funding Behavior

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages collaborative research applications on drug abuse and addiction that take advantage of special opportunities that exist outside the United States. Special opportunities include access to unusual talent, resources, populations, or environmental conditions in other countries that will speed scientific discovery. Projects should have relevance to the mission of NIDA and where feasible should address NIDA's international scientific priority areas (http://www.drugabuse.gov/international/research-priorities). While the priorities will change from year to year, in FY15 priority areas include: linkages between HIV/AIDS and drug abuse; prevention, initiation, and treatment of nicotine and tobacco use (especially among vulnerable populations such as children, adolescents, pregnant women, and those with co-morbid disorders); the neuroscience of marijuana and cannabinoids; and the effect of changes in laws and policies on marijuana and its impact.

The Science of Science & Innovation Policy (SciSIP) program supports research designed to advance the scientific basis of science and innovation policy. The program funds research to develop models, analytical tools, data and metrics that can be applied in the science policy decision making process and concern the use and allocation of scarce scientific resources. For example, research proposals may develop behavioral and analytical conceptualizations, frameworks or models that have applications across the broad array of science and innovation policy challenges. Proposals also may develop methodologies to analyze science, technology and innovation data, and to usefully convey that information to a variety of audiences. Proposals that create and improve science, engineering and innovation data, including the design of new metrics and indicators, particularly proposals that demonstrate the viability of collecting and analyzing data on knowledge generation and innovation in organizations, are encouraged.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages the translation of technologies for brain or behavioral research from academic and other non-small business research sectors to the marketplace. Encouraged from Small Business Concerns (SBCs) are Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant applications that propose to further develop, make more robust, and make more user-friendly such technologies in preparation for commercial dissemination. It is expected that this activity will require partnerships and close collaboration between the original developers of these technologies and SBCs, which may be accomplished in any of a number of ways, including the use of multiple program directors/principal investigators.

NSF INCLUDES (Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science) is a comprehensive national initiative designed to enhance U.S. leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) discoveries and innovations by focusing on broadening participation in these fields at scale. The vision of NSF INCLUDES is to catalyze the STEM enterprise to collaboratively work for inclusive change, which will result in a STEM workforce that reflects the population of the Nation. The initiative is developing a National Network composed of NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilots, NSF INCLUDES Alliances, an NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub, NSF-funded broadening participation projects, other relevant NSF-funded projects, scholars engaged in broadening participation research, and other organizations that support the development of talent from all sectors of society to build an inclusive STEM workforce.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), issued by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), is intended to support novel research on how prenatal alcohol exposure may contribute to the etiology of chronic diseases and health conditions later in life. Central to this theme is the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) concept which suggests that fetal adaptations in response to adverse intrauterine conditions may increase the risk for childhood and adulthood disease. The goal of this FOA is to stimulate a broad range of research to: 1) leverage existing prospective birth cohorts to define the role of maternal alcohol consumption in the DOHaD process; 2) investigate the biological, cellular, and molecular mechanisms by which prenatal alcohol exposure may impact disease outcomes later in life; and 3) identify biomarkers associated with gestational alcohol exposure that may predict adult disease susceptibility in exposed offspring. Studies supported by this FOA will provide fundamental insights into a possible fetal-basis to adult disease that is influenced by maternal alcohol use. Also listed under R01

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) invites applications for Clinical Research Center Grants designed to advance the diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and amelioration of human communication disorders.  For this announcement, Clinical Research is defined as research involving individuals with communication disorders or data/tissues from individuals with a communication disorder. Examples of such research include but are not limited to, studies of the prevention, pathogenesis, pathophysiology, diagnosis, treatment, management or epidemiology of a disease or disorder of hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech, or language.

A rich body of evidence suggests that optimal cognitive, affective, and social processes are associated with highly coordinated neural activity.  These findings suggest that oscillatory rhythms, their co-modulation across frequency bands, spike-phase correlations, spike population dynamics, and other patterns might be useful drivers of therapeutic development for treatment of cognitive, social, or affective symptoms in neuropsychiatric disorders. This funding opportunity supports projects that test whether modifying electrophysiological patterns during behavior can improve cognitive, affective, or social processing. Also listed under R01.

HIV+ alcohol users remain at high risk for medication non-adherence and rapid disease progression, medication toxicities, organ failure, and poor viremic control, leading to increased risk of transmission and premature death. Recent advances in technology and biomedical science (e.g., new pharmacological agents, alcohol and inflammation biomarkers, internet and mobile technology) open new opportunities for strengthening the quality of HIV/alcohol-related implementation research through utilization of novel technology and biomarkers. This initiative seeks to advance knowledge on implementation and comparative effectiveness of alcohol-focused interventions among HIV+ individuals. Multiple factors need to be investigated, including potentially important patient and provider characteristics, and the organizational, financial, and structural factors that facilitate or inhibit the delivery of evidence-based services for HIV+ individuals with a range of severity of alcohol use problems. The overall goal is to inform clinical decision-making to implement effective interventions that will improve prevention, care, and outcomes across the continuum of HIV and alcohol problem severity and patterns of alcohol use

Supports research on perception, action and cognition. Emphasis is on research strongly grounded in theory. Central research topics for consideration by the Perception, Action, and Cognition panel include vision, audition, haptics, attention, memory, reasoning, written and spoken discourse, and motor control. The program encompasses a wide range of theoretical perspectives, such as symbolic computation, connectionism, ecological, nonlinear dynamics, and complex systems, and a variety of methodologies including both experimental studies and modeling.

NCIPC is seeking research proposals focused on rigorously evaluating previously or currently implemented federal, state, local, tribal, or organizational policies for impacts on multiple forms of violence, including child abuse and neglect, youth violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence and/or suicide. The proposed research should evaluate the impact of a selected policy on reducing rates of at least two of these violence outcomes. Applicants are encouraged to assess the impact of the policy on as many violence outcomes that is feasible as well as risk and protective factors that are common to multiple forms of violence. The proposed research will add to the limited evidence base regarding the impact of policies on preventing and reducing multiple forms of violence by rigorously evaluating federal, state, local, tribal, or organizational policy approaches.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) is soliciting investigator-initiated research that will help expand and advance our understanding about what works to prevent violence by rigorously evaluating primary prevention strategies, programs, and policies to address specific gaps in the prevention of teen dating violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and youth violence. This initiative is intended to support the evaluation of primary prevention strategies, programs or policies that target universal or selected high-risk populations (i.e., populations that have one or more risk factors that place them at heightened risk for perpetration of violence). Funds are available to conduct such studies focused on preventing the perpetration of youth violence and/or teen dating/intimate partner/sexual violence as detailed elsewhere in this announcement

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.

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 NEI uses UG1 cooperative agreement awards to support investigator-initiated large-scale clinical trials, human gene-transfer and stem cell therapy trials, and other complex or high resource- or safety-risk clinical trials. These projects are multifaceted and of high public health significance requiring clear delineation of study organization including roles and responsibilities and careful performance oversight and monitoring. For purposes of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), the proposed study must be intended to evaluate interventions aimed at screening, diagnosing, preventing, or treating vision disorders, or to compare the effectiveness of two or more established interventions.

This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) encourages research grant applications to develop novel, robust assays to reveal changes in neuronal and/or glial function. The goal is to adapt state-of-the-art measures of basic cellular processes or molecular events that are key mediators of nervous system function into phenotypic assays, with the intent to probe mechanisms or perturbations in an unbiased and efficient manner. These novel assays would provide opportunities to measure neurobiological endpoints to accelerate basic discovery and support target identification and therapeutic development efforts.

The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to support the development of novel tools and technologies through the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program to advance the field of neuroscience research. This FOA specifically supports the development of novel neurotechnologies as well as the translation of technologies developed through the BRAIN initiative or through other funding programs, towards commercialization. Funding can support the iterative refinement of these tools and technologies with the end-user community, with an end-goal of scaling manufacture towards reliable, broad, sustainable dissemination and incorporation into regular neuroscience practice.

The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to support the development of novel tools and technologies through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to advance the field of neuroscience research. This FOA specifically supports the development of novel neurotechnologies as well as the translation of technologies developed through the BRAIN initiative or through other funding programs, towards commercialization. Funding can support the iterative refinement of these tools and technologies with the end-user community, with an end-goal of scaling manufacture towards reliable, broad, sustainable dissemination and incorporation into regular neuroscience research.

 Cutting-edge research in the biomedical, behavioral, clinical sciences and technologies requires new ideas, techniques, and points of view. Such ideas may differ substantially from current thinking or practice. The NIBIB seeks to foster these new scientific bioengineering and imaging ideas, model systems, tools, agents, targets, and technologies through the Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program.  More detail on our program areas can be found at https://www.nibib.nih.gov/research-funding.

The Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative is aimed at revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain. By accelerating the development and application of innovative technologies, researchers will be able to produce a new dynamic picture of the brain that, for the first time, will show how individual cells and complex neural circuits interact in both time and space. It is expected that the application of these new tools and technologies will ultimately lead to new ways to treat and prevent brain disorders.