BRAIN Initiative: Brain-Behavior Quantification and Synchronization Transformative and Integrative Models of Behavior at the Organismal Level (U01 Clinical Trial Optional) | RFA DA 24 040

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA DA 24 040

This funding opportunity from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), under the BRAIN Initiative, supports cooperative agreement (U01) projects focused on measuring, analyzing, and modeling behavior in a much more precise and integrated way than is typically possible today. The core idea is to treat behavior as a complex, dynamic system that unfolds over time and across contexts, and to build the tools and frameworks needed to capture that complexity with high resolution. Projects are expected to be team-based and explicitly transdisciplinary, meaning the work should genuinely integrate expertise across fields such as neuroscience, engineering, computer science, statistics, psychology, behavioral science, environmental sensing, and computational modeling, rather than running in parallel tracks.

The NOFO is organized around three tightly connected scientific goals. First, it seeks development, validation, and real-world application of cutting-edge approaches for minimally invasive, multidimensional, high-resolution, objective measurement of behavior at the whole-organism level. In practice, this means moving beyond coarse, subjective, or episodic behavioral assessments toward continuous or near-continuous quantification of behavior using modern sensors, wearables, computer vision, audio, digital phenotyping, or other emerging measurement technologies. A distinctive emphasis here is synchronization: applicants should also capture dynamic environmental data at the same time as behavior, so that context (social setting, physical environment, task demands, ambient conditions, or other relevant factors) is measured rather than assumed. The intention is to enable behavioral readouts that are both more accurate and more interpretable because they are tethered to the conditions under which behavior is expressed.

Second, the opportunity prioritizes advanced analytics that can integrate behavioral data with neural and environmental data streams. This is not just about storing large datasets; it is about creating principled methods for aligning time series, fusing multimodal signals, handling missingness and noise, extracting meaningful features, and quantifying uncertainty. The expectation is that investigators will develop analytic pipelines that can connect what an organism is doing (behavior), what its nervous system is doing (neural activity, when available), and what is happening around it (environment and context), producing outputs that are useful for scientific inference and for comparison across individuals, settings, or studies.

Third, the NOFO calls for new theoretical and computational models that advance understanding of behavior as a complex dynamic system. This includes developing and testing models that can explain and predict behavioral organization over time, capture multiscale structure (for example, moment-to-moment actions nested within longer routines), and relate behavior to neural processes and environmental constraints. The modeling emphasis is intended to go beyond descriptive metrics toward mechanistic or generative accounts that can be challenged with data and improved iteratively. Importantly, proposed projects should be designed so they can either integrate synchronously recorded neural data directly or, at minimum, produce behavioral and contextual measurements that inform existing models of neurobehavioral function, including models and resources already supported by the NIH BRAIN Initiative.

A key boundary of this particular NOFO is the focus on basic research involving human subjects. Applications should aim to reveal fundamental principles of behavioral function, and they may include observational studies or analyses of existing human data, as long as the work is basic and aimed at understanding behavior rather than testing a clinical intervention per se. The announcement is labeled "Clinical Trial Optional," which generally means a project may include a clinical trial component if scientifically appropriate, but a trial is not required. However, proposals that use exclusively non-human animal models are directed to apply under the companion funding opportunity RFA-DA-24-041 instead, making the human-subjects emphasis a defining feature of this announcement.

From an administrative and eligibility standpoint, the mechanism is a cooperative agreement (U01), which typically implies substantial NIH scientific and programmatic involvement during the project, often through coordination, milestones, data sharing expectations, and collaboration across awardees or with NIH-supported platforms. A required component of the application is a Plan for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives (PEDP), signaling that NIH expects intentional strategies to broaden viewpoints, backgrounds, and participation in the research effort. Eligibility is broad and includes many types of U.S. organizations and governments, such as state, county, and local governments; public and private institutions of higher education; nonprofits (with or without 501(c)(3) status); for-profit organizations (including those other than small businesses); and small businesses. The NOFO also explicitly highlights additional eligible applicant categories such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribal colleges and universities, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations), regional organizations, and U.S. territories or possessions.

The opportunity number is RFA-DA-24-040, and the original closing date listed is 2026-10-09. It falls under multiple NIH assistance listing (CFDA) numbers, reflecting its cross-cutting relevance across neuroscience and health-related research domains within NIH. Overall, the program is aimed at accelerating a next generation of behavioral science that is quantitatively rigorous, context-aware, and computationally integrated, with the explicit intent that these advances will dovetail with neural data and neurobehavioral models supported by the broader BRAIN Initiative ecosystem.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health, income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BRAIN Initiative: Brain-Behavior Quantification and Synchronization Transformative and Integrative Models of Behavior at the Organismal Level (U01 Clinical Trial Optional)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.213, 93.242, 93.273, 93.279, 93.286, 93.853, 93.865, 93.866, 93.867.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-05-29.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2026-10-09. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• 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.

Apply for RFA DA 24 040

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