National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

Supports hearing and communication science with grants for sensory research, clinical studies, and technology-enabled treatment.

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, or NIDCD, is the NIH institute focused on hearing, balance, taste, smell, voice, speech, and language. It sits within the National Institutes of Health under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was established in 1988, and operates from Bethesda as the federal home for communication-disorders research. Its budget is about $540 million a year.

NIDCD backs investigator-initiated research through R01 and R21 grants, SBIR and STTR support for small businesses, and P50 clinical research center awards. Its portfolio reaches across sensory science, communication disorders, and device-oriented work, with sample awards that include language-development measurement, R01 project grants, exploratory R21 projects, and the two phases of the SBIR pathway. The institute is a practical fit for research that can move from basic biology to clinical or hardware-enabled use.

The institute is strongest for teams that can connect communication science to measurable outcomes in people. It uses standard NIH submission and review systems, including eRA Commons for most awards and SEED coordination for small-business work. Its public mission is straightforward: fund research that improves outcomes for the millions of people living with communication disorders, and keep the pipeline open from laboratory discovery to clinical and engineering translation.