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. For additional Research Development support (finding funding, proposal development resources, etc.), please visit the Research Development website.
Funding Opportunities
OSP Deadline: October 26, 2016
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (requested): October 2, 2016
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: November 2, 2016
Award Information: Application budgets are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project. The maximum project period is 3 years. Issuing IC and partner components intend to commit an estimated total of $5 million to fund 4-7 awards. 
 
The purpose of this Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative FOA is to encourage applications that will develop and validate novel tools to facilitate the detailed analysis of complex circuits and provide insights into cellular interactions that underlie brain function. The new tools and technologies should inform and/or exploit cell-type and/or circuit-level specificity. Plans for validating the utility of the tool/technology will be an essential feature of a successful application. The development of new genetic and non-genetic tools for delivering genes, proteins and chemicals to cells of interest or approaches that are expected to target specific cell types and/or circuits in the nervous system with greater precision and sensitivity than currently established methods are encouraged. Tools that can be used in a number of species/model organisms rather than those restricted to a single species are highly desired. Applications that provide approaches that break through existing technical barriers to substantially improve current capabilities are highly encouraged.  

Additional information is available in the sponsor announcement. 
 
NSF supports fundamental research across the broad spectrum of disciplines associated with Understanding the Brain, and is a partner in the federal BRAIN Initiative. This broad interagency effort is supporting projects that are using different combinations of technologies and model organisms, generating multi-modal data sets aimed at understanding specific circuit contributions to brain function. These data sets include systematic collections of molecular profiles, anatomic information, functional properties of brain cells, as well as neuronal activity data, connectivity maps and high-resolution data on complex behaviors. The large and complex datasets generated by these projects are representative of trends in the field, and NSF recognizes the need for novel approaches to manage, integrate and analyze these diverse data types. With this Dear Colleague Letter, NSF calls attention to core programs at NSF that support informatics, software and cyberinfrastructure projects in a broad range of disciplines, including neuroscience. More specifically, NSF is encouraging researchers with expertise in data science to partner with BRAIN Initiative projects to enhance the dissemination and utilization of these data sets.

The standing core programs or solicitations at NSF that are most relevant to this effort include:
The full DCL is available here.
 
Additional Information
Questions about this newsletter or proposal submission may be directed to:

Jennifer Corby
Research Development Officer
jcorby@fas.harvard.edu | 617-495-1590
Research Development | Research Administration Services | research.fas.harvard.edu