BRAIN Initiative: Standards to Define Experiments Related to the BRAIN Initiative (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA MH 22 145

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA MH 22 145

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is offering a discretionary grant opportunity under the BRAIN Initiative titled "BRAIN Initiative: Standards to Define Experiments Related to the BRAIN Initiative (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)," funding opportunity number RFA-MH-22-145. This announcement is a reissue of an earlier solicitation (RFA-MH-20-128) and focuses on supporting projects that create clear, usable standards for describing experimental protocols used across BRAIN Initiative research. The core idea is to make neuroscience experiments easier to interpret, compare, reproduce, and share by ensuring that researchers describe what they did in consistent, well-defined ways.

The main purpose of the grant is standards development, specifically standards that capture how experiments are conducted and how protocols are represented. Rather than funding new experimental discovery work, the FOA is aimed at building the shared infrastructure that helps the broader community communicate experimental methods in a structured and consistent way. These standards are meant to describe protocols that are already being used in BRAIN-related research, so the work should be grounded in real, current practice across the field. Because the opportunity is labeled "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," proposed activities should not include clinical trials as defined by NIH, and applicants need to keep the project scope centered on standards, documentation, and community-driven consensus building rather than testing clinical interventions.

A central expectation of this FOA is strong, ongoing community engagement. NIH signals that applicants should solicit broad community input throughout the full lifecycle of standards development, not just at the end. That typically implies an open process that includes workshops, working groups, public comment periods, stakeholder interviews, pilot users, and transparent decision-making. The announcement also recommends a practical first step: sharing data among key groups in the experimental community so that the emerging standard reflects the real variety of how different labs and teams collect and represent data. In other words, the standard should not be built around a single lab's workflow. It should be informed by multiple established approaches so it can realistically be adopted by the field.

The output is expected to be widely available, which implies that the final standard and supporting materials should be published and disseminated in an accessible way. In practice, that often includes public documentation, schemas or specifications, example implementations, templates, user guidance, and potentially tooling or reference resources that make it easier for laboratories, repositories, and software developers to adopt the standard. The emphasis on wide availability also suggests a strong preference for open, community-friendly distribution approaches rather than a closed or proprietary framework.

Eligibility is broad and includes many common applicant types, such as state, county, and local governments; public and private institutions of higher education; independent school districts; special district governments; and a range of nonprofit organizations (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3)). It also includes for-profit organizations (other than small businesses) and small businesses, as well as tribal governments and tribal organizations. The FOA explicitly highlights additional eligible applicants that NIH wants to ensure are aware they may apply, 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 federal agencies, non-U.S. (foreign) entities, regional organizations, tribal governments that are not federally recognized, and U.S. territories or possessions. This broad eligibility reflects the fact that standards development can be led by many kinds of organizations, including those that convene communities, manage data resources, build software, or support research coordination.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is an NIH grant using the R01 mechanism (with clinical trials not allowed). The original closing date listed for the solicitation is May 8, 2024, and the FOA was created on January 21, 2022. While the listing does not provide an award ceiling or expected number of awards in the provided text, it does identify the opportunity as part of NIH's portfolio spanning multiple CFDA numbers (93.173, 93.213, 93.242, 93.273, 93.279, 93.286, 93.853, 93.865, 93.866, 93.867), reflecting NIH's multi-institute structure and the cross-cutting relevance of standards for neuroscience research.

Overall, this funding opportunity is best understood as an investment in the shared rules and common language that make BRAIN Initiative experiments easier to describe and exchange across teams, tools, and institutions. Competitive projects are likely to be those that demonstrate deep familiarity with existing experimental practices, lay out a credible plan to gather and incorporate broad stakeholder input, and deliver a standard that is practical, well-documented, and easy for the community to access and implement.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health, income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BRAIN Initiative: Standards to Define Experiments Related to the BRAIN Initiative (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 2022-01-21.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-05-08. (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.

Apply for RFA MH 22 145

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