New Approaches for Measuring Brain Changes Across Longer Timespans (R21 Clinical Trial Optional)
Supporting innovative and novel research to measure brain changes over longer periods, impacting neurodevelopment, aging, and disease risk in both humans and animals across all ages.
Funder: National Institutes of Health
Due Dates: June 16, 2025 (New) | July 16, 2025 (Renewal/Resubmission/Revision) | October 16, 2025 (New) | November 16, 2025 (Renewal/Resubmission/Revision) | February 16, 2026 (New) | March 16, 2026 (Renewal/Resubmission/Revision) | June 16, 2026 (New) | July 16, 2026 (Renewal/Resubmission/Revision) | October 16, 2026 (New) | November 16, 2026 (Renewal/Resubmission/Revision) | February 16, 2027 (New) | March 16, 2027 (Renewal/Resubmission/Revision)
Funding Amounts: Up to $275,000 direct costs over 2 years; no more than $200,000 in any single year; project period max 2 years.
Summary: Supports exploratory, high-risk/high-reward research to develop innovative methods for measuring brain changes across the lifespan in humans or animals.
Key Information: Applications must include at least two timepoints per subject/animal and annual milestones; non-domestic (foreign) organizations are eligible.
Description
This NIH funding opportunity (R21, Clinical Trial Optional) seeks to catalyze the development of novel or highly innovative approaches—technological, analytical, or conceptual—for measuring brain activity, connectivity, genomics, or related aspects across extended timespans. The overarching goal is to improve our understanding of brain development and aging, including the neurodevelopmental origins of later health and disease, by enabling repeated or longitudinal measures across longer epochs of the lifespan.
Research may involve healthy human participants of any age, specific clinical groups (e.g., those with cognitive, motor, or affective regulation challenges), and/or animal models. Projects can focus on neuroanatomical or functional changes at any level, including genetics/genomics, single cells, connectomics, neural population activity, and more. The mechanism is designed for high-risk, high-reward ideas that may lack substantial preliminary data.
