New Approaches for Measuring Brain Changes Across Longer Timespans (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) | PAR 24 160

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 24 160

New Approaches for Measuring Brain Changes Across Longer Timespans (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) is an NIH grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number PAR-24-160) designed to push the field toward better ways of tracking how the brain changes over long stretches of time, from early development through aging. The central idea is that many of the most important questions in neuroscience, mental health, and neurological disease depend on being able to measure the same underlying brain processes repeatedly and reliably across years or even decades. This program is looking for multidisciplinary teams that can either invent new methods or adapt existing tools in genuinely new ways so that brain activity, brain connectivity, genomics, and other biological or functional signals can be measured across the age spectrum in a way that is practical, interpretable, and predictive of later outcomes.

The science focus is broad on purpose. Projects can concentrate on healthy participants at any age, on specific clinical groups, or on animal models, as long as the work is aimed at understanding longitudinal change and the developmental or aging-related trajectories that matter for health and disease. The opportunity explicitly welcomes studies relevant to cognitive, motor, and affective regulation challenges, which signals interest in domains that cut across many conditions (for example, developmental disorders, mood and anxiety problems, neurodegenerative risk, or recovery after injury). A key theme is the neurodevelopmental origins of later health and disease, meaning applicants are encouraged to connect early-life brain measures to later-life outcomes, and to do so with methods capable of spanning long timescales.

Methodologically, NIH is not limiting applicants to one level of analysis. Proposed research can target longitudinal neuroanatomical change, functional dynamics, or multi-scale biology, ranging from genetics and genomics to single-cell measures, connectomics, and neural population activity patterns. In practice, that means an application might center on improving the stability and comparability of imaging-derived measures over time, developing new computational approaches that allow data collected at different ages (or with evolving technologies) to remain meaningfully comparable, creating assays or analytical pipelines that can be repeated across development without losing interpretability, or building frameworks that integrate multiple modalities into consistent developmental or aging trajectories. The common denominator is technological and conceptual innovation that strengthens repeated measurement across longer epochs of the lifespan and improves the ability to predict later outcomes.

The grant mechanism is an R01 research project grant, with clinical trials listed as optional. That gives applicants flexibility: projects may be purely observational or methodological, or they may include a clinical trial component if it is scientifically justified and consistent with NIH rules for the mechanism. The funding instrument type is a grant, and the opportunity is categorized as discretionary. The activity areas listed align with health and related social service domains, and the associated CFDA numbers include 93.286, 93.396, 93.865, and 93.866, reflecting NIH program alignments relevant to this topic area.

Eligibility is intentionally expansive, reflecting NIH’s interest in drawing in diverse investigators and institutions. Eligible applicants include a wide range of U.S. government entities (state, county, city/township, special districts), independent school districts, public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, and private institutions of higher education. Tribal governments and organizations are eligible, including federally recognized Native American tribal governments and Native American tribal organizations that are not federally recognized. Nonprofits are eligible whether or not they have 501(c)(3) status (as long as they are not institutions of higher education), as are public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities. The announcement also allows for-profits (other than small businesses) and small businesses, along with an “Other” category that typically covers additional eligible organizational types permitted by NIH policy. In addition, the opportunity highlights specific “other eligible applicants,” including Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, U.S. territories or possessions, and even non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations). This is a notable feature because it encourages participation by institutions serving historically underrepresented communities and supports research capacity and partnerships that can broaden the populations and contexts represented in longitudinal brain research.

Administratively, the sponsoring agency is the National Institutes of Health, and the opportunity was created on March 19, 2024. The listed original closing date is May 7, 2027, indicating a multi-year window during which applications may be accepted on relevant receipt dates under NIH’s standard cycles (exact submission dates and requirements would typically be detailed in the full NIH announcement). The award ceiling and expected number of awards are not specified in the provided data, which is common for NIH FOAs where budgets are driven by scope, institute participation, and standard R01 review and funding decisions rather than a single fixed cap.

In plain terms, this opportunity is for researchers who want to solve the hard measurement problems that keep lifespan neuroscience from being fully predictive: how to measure the brain in ways that remain consistent across changing developmental stages, across long time gaps, across shifting technologies, and across diverse populations or model systems. Strong applications will typically make a clear case that the proposed approach will materially improve longitudinal inference, not just add another snapshot measure, and that it will enable better prediction or understanding of later-life outcomes rooted in earlier brain development or earlier-life exposures.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health, income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "New Approaches for Measuring Brain Changes Across Longer Timespans (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.286, 93.396, 93.865, 93.866.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-03-19.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2027-05-07.
• 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 PAR 24 160

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