Over the next several years, the FAS Research Development group will track and disseminate all funding opportunities related to the BRAIN Initiative. These funding opportunities will be sent to a targeted list of faculty. That list includes faculty affiliates of the Center for Brain Science (CBS) and the Mind Brain Behavior (MBB) Interfaculty Initiative. This project is being carried out in collaboration with the Center for Brain Science. All opportunities will be archived and recipients may unsubscribe at any time.

ideaslabNational Science Foundation
Cracking the Olfactory Code: An Ideas Lab Activity
Preliminary Proposal Deadline: May 1, 2015 by 5pm
Full Proposal Deadline: July 31, 2015 by 5pm
Award Information: NSF will cover the expenses associated with participating in the Ideas Lab. Teams of participants will subsequently be invited to submit full proposals. Approximately $12,000,000 to $16,000,000 will be available in FY 15-16 to fund up to 6 awards.

Ideas Labs are intensive, residential five-day workshops with up to 30 participants focused on finding innovative solutions to grand challenge problems. The ultimate aim of this Ideas Lab organized by the Biological Sciences (BIO) and the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) Directorates at the National Science Foundation (NSF) is to facilitate the generation and execution of innovative research projects aimed at understanding the nature of olfactory processing and sensory representations in the brain in general. The aspiration is that mixing researchers from diverse scientific backgrounds will engender fresh thinking and innovative approaches that will transform our understanding of olfactory processing in behavioral contexts while spawning new opportunities to elucidate the general nature of sensory representations in the brain. Neurobiologists, mathematicians, statisticians, physicists, engineers, cognitive scientists, biologists, and scientists from any other discipline suited to shed light on the topic are all invited to participate.

Submission of the preliminary proposal will be considered an indication of availability to attend and participate through the full course of the five-day residential workshop, which will be held at the Janelia Farm Research Campus, Ashburn, VA, from June 22nd to June 26th, 2015.  

RFINational Institutes of Health
Request for Information on the Proposed Funding Priorities for Neuroscience Research, Input on High Impact and Cross-Cutting Opportunities (NIH Neuroscience Blueprint)
Deadline to submit comments: May 25, 2015 by 5pm

The National Institutes of Health Blueprint for Neuroscience Research (Blueprint) is a collaboration among 15 participating NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices that support research on the nervous system.  The Blueprint's goal is to accelerate discovery in neuroscience research, and this Request for Information (RFI) seeks input from the scientific community on how the Blueprint might best do so in the future. Responses to this RFI should suggest how future Blueprint investments can have broad impact in neuroscience. Responses to the RFI may be reflected in future Blueprint planning activities and funding opportunity announcements. 

The NIH Blueprint was one of the inaugural sponsors of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, and has focused a large portion of its funding and efforts in 2014 and 2015 on the initial high priority research areas established by the NIH Advisory Committee to the Director BRAIN Working Group. While the NIH BRAIN Initiative is concerned with the development and application of innovative technologies for interrogating circuit activity in the nervous system, the NIH Blueprint focuses more broadly on all aspects of research on the nervous system that have the potential to transform our basic understanding of the brain and our approaches to treating brain disorders. 

All comments must be submitted electronically to: nihblueprint@nih.gov.
Additional information:

NSF Discovery: Exploring the Unknown Frontier of the Brain (April 2, 2015)

 

FAS Research Development BRAIN Initiative Archive

Contact Us:
Questions about this announcement or proposal submission may be directed to Jennifer Corby
(jcorby@fas.harvard.edu, 617-495-1590) or Susan Gomes (sgomes@fas.harvard.edu 617-496-9448).

 

For Research Development Support (Finding Funding, Proposal Development Resources), go to research.fas.harvard.edu/research-development-support.