BRAIN Initiative Research Grants

Data Archives for the BRAIN Initiative

Supports building long-term archives for brain science data and related community resources.

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

RFA-MH-25-110, issued under the NIH BRAIN Initiative with NIMH as lead Institute, funds R24 research resource grants to establish and maintain data archives supporting the BRAIN Initiative research community. These archives are designed to facilitate sharing, discovery, and reuse of large-scale neuroscience datasets—including electrophysiology, imaging, and behavioral data—generated by BRAIN-funded investigators. The R24 mechanism is NIH's resource-related grant instrument, intended for projects that build shared infrastructure rather than conduct primary research, making it distinct from investigator-initiated R01 or cooperative U01 mechanisms.

Eligible applicants are U.S. universities and non-profit research organizations; for-profit entities and individual investigators are not eligible to serve as primary recipients. The grant requires registration and operations within the United States. Specific award amounts are not listed in the structured record, but R24 resource grants at this scale are multi-year awards and typically support staffing, computing infrastructure, and data-management systems.

To succeed in this competition, applicants should present a data management architecture that meets FAIR data principles—findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable—and that integrates with NIH's broader data-sharing ecosystem, including repositories such as DANDI or OpenNeuro. Review panels will assess the technical robustness of the proposed archive, demonstrated community need, governance and sustainability plans, and the applicant's track record in managing large scientific datasets. Organizations with established data-sharing platforms and existing relationships with BRAIN-funded laboratories are best positioned to make a compelling case.