BRAIN Initiative: Transformative Brain Non-invasive Imaging Technology Development (UG3/UH3 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

RFA-EB-22-003

As laid out in the BRAIN 2025 and the BRAIN Initiative 2.0 report, understanding the dynamic picture of brain function requires information at multiple spatial/temporal scales or on multiple aspects. In response, this FOA aims to support multi-disciplinary, team-centric efforts for non-conventional approaches that could have a transformative impact on bridging the gap between multiple scales. To help gauge community’s expectations on technology innovativeness, NIH hosted in February 2021 the BRAIN Initiative Dissemination of Non-Invasive Imaging Technologies workshop. Links to videocast discussions are at https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=40173 and https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=40174. The ultimate impact of technology ingenuity should be on our ability to understand brain function/connectivity. This FOA strongly encourages efforts that seek to cross the boundaries between different disciplines, different modalities, developers and users, and different research communities. To facilitate the collaboration between developer and users and between different neuroscience research communities, projects funded by this FOA will be integrated into the BRAIN Initiative Non-Invasive Imaging Consortium, as a coordinated network for brain function/connectivity imaging.

Scope

This FOA is especially interested in team-centric technology development efforts that explore novel directions and would bring substantial performance improvements to advance non-invsive imaging approaches in neuroscience research. Activities responsive to this FOA include but are not limited to:

• New integrative systems to assess multiple scales/aspects of brain function/connectivity
• Machine learning or model-based techniques that could provide significant performance enhancement
• New modalities or methodologies based on principles unexplored for brain function/connectivity imaging
• New hardware, imaging agents, or acquisition techniques that could enable non-existing features or utilities for brain function/connectivity imaging
• Hardware or methodology innovations that could dramatically improve the sensitivity, coverage, imaging time or other performance metrics, preferably by an order of magnitude

Applications that include the following activities will be considered non-responsive and will be withdrawn without further review:

• Activities focusing on technology disseminations or generating data using existing technologies
• Technologies or tools for clinical use, therapeutic purpose, or for analyzing existing data
• Technologies aiming at providing morphological information or emphasizing non-brain body parts or tissues
• Technologies dominantly focusing on invasive approaches with little or no beneifits to non-invasive imaging
• Technology optimization or modification for specific imaging protocols
• Conventional approaches based on known principles offering minimal or incremental performane improvement
• Validation not by mammal or human imaging, or by other means that does not inform in-vivo brain function/connectivity
• Indirect validation through disease-specific imaging as the first or primary goal

Application budgets are limited to $300,000 in direct costs excluding consortium F&A in any year for the UG3 phase. Applications should rarely exceed $750,000 in direct costs excluding consortium F&A in any year for the UH3 phase.

30 days before application due date

October 13, 2023

Shumin Wang, Ph.D., National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)
Telephone: 301-594-9001, Email: shumin.wang@nih.gov