BRAIN Initiative: Exploratory Team-Research BRAIN Circuit Programs - eTeamBCP (U01 Clinical Trials Optional)
Funding Agency:
- National Institutes of Health
Per the BRAIN 2025 report, "No single researcher or discovery will solve the brain’s mysteries. The most exciting approaches will bridge fields, linking experiment to theory, biology to engineering, tool development to experimental application, human neuroscience to non‐human models, and more, in innovative ways.” Hence, the purpose of this exploratory FOA is to provide resources for the integration of experimental, computational, and theoretical capabilities for the large-scale analysis of neural systems and circuits within the context and during the simultaneous measurement of behavior.
This exploratory FOA will support the building of teams of experts that seek to cross boundaries of interdisciplinary collaboration by bridging fields and by linking theory, modeling, and/or data analysis to experimental design. Teams must have three or more (up to six) PD/PIs who will each bring a distinct scientific viewpoint or expertise necessary to pursue the interdisciplinary approach. Teams are expected to develop or adopt a conceptual or quantitative modeling framework, which incorporates theories about causal mechanisms of circuit functions, to drive experiments and build testable hypotheses. Innovative and mechanistic approaches to cross-cutting questions in neuroscience are expected; this FOA emphasizes the use of cutting-edge methods of activation, recording, and/or analysis to understand the behavior of circuits at cellular and sub-second levels of spatial and temporal resolution, that is, at the level of the functional units of circuits. Diverse species or experimental systems and a cross-species/comparative approach are welcome and should be chosen based on their power to address the specific question at hand and to reveal generalizable and fundamental principles.
Proposed exploratory studies should lead to subsequent, competing applications for support of team-research projects (e.g. Targeted BCP R01, TeamBCP U19) consistent with the BRAIN Initiative's goal to understand the circuits of the CNS, to measure the fluctuating patterns of electrical and chemical activity flowing within those circuits, and to understand how their interplay creates our advanced cognitive and behavioral capabilities. See Section IV for the full list of FOA requirements.
Application budgets are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.
June 14, 2022, June 15, 2023
Karen K David, Ph.D., National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), Telephone: 301-496-9964, Email: BRAINCircuits@nih.gov