BRAIN Initiative: Team-Research BRAIN Circuit Programs - TeamBCP (U19 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA NS 19 003

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA NS 19 003

The BRAIN Initiative: Team-Research BRAIN Circuit Programs (TeamBCP) funding opportunity (RFA-NS-19-003) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) cooperative agreement (U19) designed to support large, integrated team-science programs that push forward our understanding of how neural circuits generate behavior. The central emphasis is on studying circuit function in the brain and central nervous system using advanced, innovative technologies and tightly integrated experimental and analytical strategies. The program is built for work that is too complex for a single lab to execute well, and it is aimed at producing substantial, cohesive outcomes over a longer time horizon, with projects structured to deliver meaningful progress in five or more years.

The scientific scope focuses on identifying and testing principles of circuit function within specific neural systems tied to major domains of behavior and brain function, including sensation and perception, emotion and motivation, cognition and decision-making, motor control, communication, and homeostatic regulation. Rather than supporting purely descriptive studies, the FOA encourages applicants to frame their research around clear conceptual or theoretical constructs that motivate experimental design. A key expectation is that the program will generate predictive models as concrete deliverables, meaning the team should not only collect data but also produce models that can forecast circuit or behavioral outcomes under defined conditions and be tested through further experimentation.

A defining feature of the opportunity is its emphasis on theory- and model-driven experimentation combined with modern circuit interrogation. Proposed research is expected to systematically control stimuli and/or behavior while actively recording and/or manipulating dynamic neural activity patterns, then linking those activity patterns to measured behaviors and/or perceptions. In practical terms, this points to integrated pipelines where experimental perturbations and observations are designed to directly test mechanistic hypotheses about circuit computations, and where analyses move beyond correlation toward explanations that can be generalized and validated. Quantitative and mechanistic modeling approaches are strongly encouraged when appropriate, especially where they help specify testable predictions and clarify how circuit dynamics produce behavioral outputs.

The TeamBCP mechanism is explicitly team-based and interdisciplinary. Successful programs are expected to combine multiple components of expertise and to cross traditional disciplinary boundaries. The FOA anticipates teams that may include neurobiologists alongside statisticians, physicists, mathematicians, engineers, computer scientists, and data scientists, assembled in a way that makes the collaboration essential rather than decorative. The intent is to create integrated research programs where technology development, experimental neuroscience, and computational modeling are coordinated from the outset, with shared goals and iterative feedback between measurement, manipulation, and theory.

Data and methods management is treated as a required, program-level responsibility rather than an afterthought. Applicants must develop and use a prototype framework for managing their data and analysis methods within the proposed U19, and they must be prepared to exchange that framework with other BRAIN U19 awardees so it can be refined and improved across the broader BRAIN community. This signals a strong expectation for rigor, reproducibility, and interoperability, with an emphasis on developing approaches that other teams can adopt, evaluate, and extend. It also implies that teams should plan for structured data practices, standardized analysis workflows where feasible, and documentation that supports sharing and re-use.

The FOA allows for a wide range of model systems, including work in single or multiple species spanning invertebrates through humans, as long as the chosen systems are justified by the scientific questions and the circuit principles being targeted. This flexibility is intended to let teams match the experimental accessibility of a given organism (for example, circuit-level control and measurement in simpler nervous systems) with the translational relevance of mammalian models or human neuroscience, while maintaining a consistent focus on circuit mechanisms that can be expressed as testable principles and predictive models.

From an administrative and program structure standpoint, awards are made for a five-year period, with the possibility of one competing renewal, reinforcing the expectation that projects are ambitious, integrated, and planned around milestones that unfold over multiple years. The funding instrument is a cooperative agreement, which typically indicates substantial NIH scientific or programmatic involvement compared with a standard research project grant, consistent with the FOA's emphasis on coordination, shared frameworks, and community-facing deliverables. The opportunity is marked as "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," meaning it is not intended to support clinical trial activities under this mechanism.

Eligibility is broad and includes a wide range of domestic organizations, such as public and private institutions of higher education, nonprofit and for-profit organizations (including small businesses), and various government entities (state, county, city/township, special districts), as well as eligible tribal governments and tribal organizations. The sponsoring agency is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), National Institutes of Health. The FOA anticipated a small cohort of awards (expected five), indicating a selective program focused on a limited number of large, high-impact team efforts rather than many smaller individual projects. The original FOA was created on August 29, 2018, with an original closing date of October 30, 2018, and it is associated with multiple CFDA numbers tied to NIH neuroscience and health research programs.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health in the education, health, income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BRAIN Initiative: Team-Research BRAIN Circuit Programs - TeamBCP (U19 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, 93.313, 93.853, 93.865, 93.866, 93.867.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 29, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Oct 30, 2018. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 5 candidate(s).
• 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 (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for RFA NS 19 003

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