BRAIN Initiative: Research Opportunities Using Invasive Neural Recording and Stimulating Technologies in the Human Brain (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) · NIH Institute/Center · RFA-NS-28-010
Source: Grants.gov · View original posting ↗
- AwardWhat a single award can be worth — the funder's published per-award amount or floor–ceiling range.
- $8M total
- DeadlineFinal application due date.
- Feb 8, 2029
- Letter of intentDue date for the letter of intent (a short pre-application some funders require or request before the full proposal).
- —
- MechanismNIH activity code — the grant type (R01 research project, R21 exploratory, K series career development, F series fellowship, …).
- R01
- DurationMaximum project period for a single award.
- —
- Expected awardsHow many awards the funder anticipates making under this opportunity.
- 5
- Funding cycleHow often the program accepts applications (annual, multiple cycles per year, rolling, or one-time).
- One-time
- Open dateWhen applications open (or opened).
- Sep 30, 2026
- Total fundingThe overall pool the funder expects to commit across ALL awards under this opportunity — not what one project receives.
- $8M total
- Clinical trialWhether proposed projects must, may, or must not include a clinical trial.
- Not allowed
Funding context
Based on FY2025 NINDS R01 applications (308 of 3,235 applications awarded).
Payline: NIH discontinued percentile paylines for 2026 under its Unified Funding Strategy ↗ — scores are now weighed in context rather than against a fixed cutoff.
NINDS R01, FY2025 — atypical NIH funding year (multi-year upfront funding / rescinded paylines); NIH reports FY2025 success rates as not comparable to prior years.
Aggregate historical data by institute, mechanism, and fiscal year — context for planning, not a prediction for this opportunity. Source ↗
Description
This funding opportunity supports transformative, mechanistic research aimed at understanding how the human brain functions. Applications should seek to reveal how the dynamic activity of individual neurons and ensembles of neurons within spatially organized brain networks gives rise to internal experiences, such as sensations, perceptions, emotions, thoughts, and memories, as well as to observable motor and social behaviors. To achieve fundamental mechanistic insights into human brain function, proposed studies are expected to leverage opportunities made possible by invasive surgical procedures in humans, such as intracranial recording or stimulation. These investigations may be enhanced by incorporating complementary experimental models or systems that provide access to knowledge, techniques, or resources not otherwise available in human neuroscience research. Such integration is encouraged to strengthen the mechanistic understanding of human brain function and to connect discoveries across species and biological scales. This program builds on cutting-edge advances enabled by the BRAIN Initiative and the broader neuroscience community. Projects supported through this opportunity are expected to produce transformative outcomes by the end of the funding period. Approaches should be rigorous, mechanistic, and innovative by (1) maximizing opportunities to conduct innovative in vivo human neuroscience research made available by direct access to the human brain from invasive surgical procedures, (2) employing approaches guided by specified theoretical constructs and/or quantitative, mechanistic models. Funded investigators will join a consortium working group, coordinated by the NIH, to identify consensus standards of practice, including neuroethical considerations, to collect and provide data for ancillary studies, and to aggregate and standardize data for dissemination among the wider scientific community.