BRAIN Initiative: Integration and Analysis of BRAIN Initiative Data (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA MH 19 147

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA MH 19 147

The grant opportunity titled "BRAIN Initiative: Integration and Analysis of BRAIN Initiative Data (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" (Funding Opportunity Number RFA-MH-19-147) is a discretionary National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grant that focuses on building and improving informatics capabilities for brain research. Its central purpose is to support projects that create tools and methods to analyze, visualize, and integrate complex datasets generated by the NIH BRAIN Initiative or other data resources that help advance understanding of the brain. In practical terms, the FOA is aimed at the kinds of computational and data-science infrastructure that make large-scale neuroscience data more usable, more interpretable, and more interoperable across studies, labs, and platforms.

This announcement emphasizes informatics tool development rather than clinical intervention testing, which is why it is explicitly labeled "Clinical Trial Not Allowed." Applicants are expected to propose research and development efforts that help scientists handle the growing volume and diversity of neuroscience data, such as multimodal recordings, imaging, electrophysiology, cell-type datasets, or other high-dimensional measures. The work supported under this FOA would typically include software, databases, analytics pipelines, standards or frameworks for data harmonization, visualization systems, or integrative approaches that connect disparate datasets so that researchers can ask bigger questions than any single dataset could answer on its own. While the short description does not list specific scientific topics or required technical approaches, the intent is clear: enabling cross-cutting discovery by making BRAIN-related data easier to combine, explore, and analyze at scale.

The funding instrument is an R01 research project grant, which generally supports mature, hypothesis-driven or goal-driven research and development projects with clear aims, strong feasibility, and a plan for producing broadly useful outputs. The FOA is categorized under "Education, Health, Income Security and Social Services" in the government-wide activity classification, reflecting NIH's health and science mission, and it is associated with multiple CFDA program numbers (93.173, 93.213, 93.242, 93.273, 93.279, 93.286, 93.853, 93.865, 93.866, 93.867), indicating that it aligns with several NIH institutes and programs that may be involved in neuroscience, mental health, and related biomedical research.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of organizations that can contribute to tool-building and data integration work. Eligible applicants include state, county, city or township governments, special district governments, and independent school districts, as well as public and state-controlled institutions of higher education and private institutions of higher education. The FOA also allows federally recognized Native American tribal governments, public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities, and Native American tribal organizations that are not federally recognized tribal governments. Nonprofits are eligible whether or not they have 501(c)(3) status (as long as they are not institutions of higher education in those categories), and both for-profit organizations (other than small businesses) and small businesses may apply. The announcement also highlights additional eligible applicant types, including Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible agencies of the federal government, regional organizations, U.S. territories or possessions, and even non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities (foreign organizations). Taken together, that list signals that NIH is open to a wide range of capable teams, including those outside the United States, as long as the proposed work fits the scientific and technical goals of the program.

From an administrative standpoint, this opportunity was created on 2018-07-17 and lists an original closing date of 2021-03-04. The award ceiling and expected number of awards are not specified in the provided source information, which often means applicants must consult the full FOA or NIH guidance for budget expectations and likely award volume. The sponsoring agency is the National Institutes of Health, and the focus on BRAIN Initiative data strongly suggests that proposed outputs should be relevant to the broader neuroscience community, ideally enabling reuse, reproducibility, and more efficient discovery from existing and future datasets.

Overall, this FOA is best understood as a call for advanced, research-grade data tools that help neuroscientists turn complex, large-scale brain data into integrated knowledge. It is designed for applicants who can bridge neuroscience and computation, producing methods, software, and data integration strategies that meaningfully improve how BRAIN Initiative-related data are analyzed, visualized, and combined to deepen understanding of brain structure and function.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health, income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BRAIN Initiative: Integration and Analysis of BRAIN Initiative Data (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.173, 93.213, 93.242, 93.273, 93.279, 93.286, 93.853, 93.865, 93.866, 93.867.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2018-07-17.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-03-04. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

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