Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative

To provide extramural research support for the Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative’s aim of revolutionizing our understanding of the brain and its function in unprecedented detail. The NIH BRAIN Initiative’s focus is foundational development of new technologies and tools to map, monitor, and modulate brain circuits in model systems and humans – toward the ultimate goal of treating and curing human brain disorders. BRAIN Initiative research adheres to open, and ethical science. BRAIN-supported research areas include comprehensive cataloguing, mapping, accessing and characterization of brain cell types ; probing neural circuits that interact and produce behavior, cognition, and emotion; developing and employing new technologies to monitor function and connectivity of synapses, circuits, and whole brains; partnering with human research participants, including utilizing neurotechnologies in first-in-human clinical studies, to study the human brain in the context of brain injury and brain disorders; and establishing data-sharing platforms and computational models that help decode brain processes and functions. Within these scientific focus areas, the Initiative supports research project grants, cooperative agreements, workforce development awards and Small Business Innovation Research awards. Research supported by the Initiative has a strong commitment to broad dissemination of newly developed technologies, and to considering neuroethical issues related to studying the human brain and the neuroscience advances that follow from this research. New frontiers for BRAIN research will adhere to, and build on, what has been learned to date and adapt to the rapidly changing scientific landscape and neuroscience ecosystem.