BRAIN Initiative: Exploratory Team-Research BRAIN Circuit Programs - eTeamBCP (U01 Clinical Trials Optional)

This is about the BRAIN Initiative: Exploratory Team-Research BRAIN Circuit Programs, also known as eTeamBCP (U01 Clinical Trials Optional). This program is a reissue of RFA-NS-22-028, amended to meet DMSP standards, and subsequent reissuances RFA-NS-18-029 and RFA-NS-20-029. No new dates have been released.

The funding opportunity is aimed at backing a multidisciplinary team of researchers, who will focus on understanding the dynamics of brain circuit activity and its relation to specific neuronal or behavioral systems. The program encourages applications that push boundaries and propose audacious and challenging objectives achievable only using a synergistic team-based approach. Such aims should have the potential to bring transformational results or to enable significant progress.

This program is intended for the exploratory phase, focusing on developing experimental capabilities and/or theoretical frameworks. This preparation phase will eventually lead to competing for larger-scale or longer-term efforts, such as the BRAIN TargetedBCP R01 or the multi-component, Team-Research BRAIN Circuit Programs (U19).

The primary objective of this funding opportunity is to perform a large-scale analysis of neural systems and circuits within the context of a behavior that is biologically relevant to the organism. For this purpose, applicants are expected to gather a multi-disciplinary team, integrate experimental procedures with computational and theoretical approaches, and bridge fields by incorporating extensive information on cell types, circuit function and connectivity, in conjunction with sophisticated analysis of biologically relevant behaviors.

Teams should aim for a mechanistic understanding of the brain's central nervous system (CNS) circuits. They should apply state-of-the-art techniques, such as large-scale recording, manipulation, and analysis of neural circuits across multiple regions of the CNS.