RFA-MH-26-140: BRAIN Initiative: Brain Behavior Quantification and Synchronization- Next Generation Sensor Technology Development (U01 Clinical Trial Optional)

RFA-MH-26-140: BRAIN Initiative: Brain Behavior Quantification and Synchronization- Next Generation Sensor Technology Development (U01 Clinical Trial Optional)

RFA-MH-26-140 is an NIH BRAIN Initiative Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for a U01 cooperative agreement. It supports the development of novel sensor technologies and bioelectronic devices that improve the measurement of human or organismal behavior and synchronize those measurements with brain recordings. The notice is aimed at tools that make behavioral neuroscience measurements more precise, more continuous, and more useful in naturalistic settings. It is not a general-purpose equipment grant and it is not primarily a request to apply an existing commercial sensor to a new study.

The June 15, 2026 receipt date has passed. NIH lists June 15, 2027 as the next receipt date for new applications and for resubmissions or revisions as allowed. The notice expires June 16, 2027. This page therefore remains an active planning reference for the announced 2027 cycle, while making clear that the 2026 cycle is closed. Applications are due by 5:00 PM local time of the applicant organization, and NIH encourages early submission so that errors can be corrected before the deadline.

Key details

What NIH wants to support

The NOFO sits within the Brain Behavior Quantification and Synchronization (BBQS) program. Its technology focus is deliberately narrow: applicants should develop novel sensors or bioelectronics that enrich existing data streams and make it possible to quantify and synchronize behavior with neural activity. The official notice describes work across sensor modalities such as electrochemical, micromechanical, optical, fiber-optic, electromagnetic, radiation, temperature, inertial, acoustic, ultrasound, oxygen, and other gas sensing. Remote designs, including systems that measure position or movement, can also fit when they serve the BBQS purpose.

The proposed technology should move beyond an initial concept toward a working tool for behavioral neuroscience. NIH expects applicants to define the current state of the art and use it as a benchmark. The application should explain why the proposed design is an appropriate response to a measurement problem and how its performance could improve understanding of behavior beyond what existing methods can achieve. A project that only repackages an existing tool, does not develop a sensor device, or does not connect the device to synchronized brain recordings is a poor match. The notice directs projects centered on existing tools or devices toward other BRAIN Initiative NOFOs.

The required research-scope goals are:

1. A next-generation, compact design that contributes to very low or zero power consumption and does not consume more power than current sensors or devices.
2. High reliability and repeatability in measurement performance and accuracy beyond what has already been demonstrated.
3. Stable battery performance and operation for more than 48 hours, allowing real-time capture of naturalistic behavior in human or animal subjects.
4. Real-time data collection.
5. High biocompatibility and quantitatively low toxic effects on cells, tissues, and organisms for invasive or noninvasive sensors.
6. Demonstrated synchronization of sensor data with brain recordings, including surface or intracranial recordings.

The notice also encourages intracranial recordings wherever possible, energy-harvesting capability, combinations of multiple sensors in a compact design, devices that can be produced and disseminated to the research community, and computational models of behavior that use the complete data stream. These are not substitutes for goals 1–6. They are additional design and integration opportunities that can strengthen a technically credible application.

Funding and cooperative-agreement expectations

NIMH and partner components intend to commit an estimated total of $10 million to fund 6–8 awards for each receipt date. That figure is a program-level estimate, not a promise that each award will receive an equal share. The NOFO does not impose a fixed application budget ceiling. Requested costs must still be tied to the actual work, staffing, equipment, testing, fabrication, data handling, and project period described in the application. The maximum project period is 5 years.

This is a cooperative agreement rather than a standard grant with only normal administrative oversight. NIH program staff will have substantial scientific and programmatic involvement after award. Awardees remain responsible for the project, including sensor design, experiments, analysis, interpretation, and meeting the timeline in the application, while working jointly with NIH and other recipients. The application should therefore describe a project that can operate in a coordinated research consortium rather than a device effort that depends on complete independence from other teams.

Recipients are expected to participate in consortium activities, share protocols, technologies, and unpublished data with consortium members, coordinate publications and dissemination, submit devices and data for quality assessment or validation when requested, submit annual milestone reports, follow common guidelines and file formats, and attend consortium meetings. Applicants should account for the collaboration and dissemination work in their project design and budget. The notice permits allowable costs for participation in the consortium annual in-person meetings.

Eligibility and registrations

NIH lists a broad set of eligible organizations. Public and private higher-education institutions, nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status, small businesses, other for-profit organizations, state and local governments, eligible federal agencies, U.S. territories or possessions, independent school districts, public housing authorities, tribal organizations, faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, and non-domestic entities may apply when they meet the applicable NIH requirements. Foreign organizations are eligible, non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are eligible, and foreign components are allowed as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

The principal investigator or principal investigators must have the skills, knowledge, and resources needed to carry out the proposed research. A multidisciplinary team is strongly encouraged and the research strategy must bring together the technical and scientific expertise needed to observe, measure, and model behavior. The notice specifically identifies fields that can include electrical, bioengineering, chemical, physics, materials science, computational neuroscience, neurology, neurosurgery, psychiatry, neuroethology, evolutionary biology, cognitive neuroscience, neurocognitive development, biokinetics, and data science.

Before submission, the applicant organization must maintain an active System for Award Management registration and the associated Unique Entity Identifier, eRA Commons registration, and Grants.gov registration. The organization must identify an eRA Commons Signing Official and at least one PD/PI account. Each PD/PI must have an eRA Commons account, and a person serving as both Signing Official and PD/PI needs distinct accounts for those roles. NIH warns that registration can take 6 weeks or more, while obtaining an eRA Commons account can take up to 2 weeks. Registration problems are not a valid reason for a late submission.

The NOFO does not require cost sharing as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement. An applicant organization may submit more than one application if each application is scientifically distinct. NIH will not accept duplicate or highly overlapping applications under simultaneous review, so teams should coordinate new and resubmission strategies with their institutional officials.

How to apply for the announced 2027 receipt date

The June 15, 2027 date is the next listed receipt date, not evidence that the prior June 15, 2026 cycle remains open. Teams planning for the next round should use the official NOFO and the current NIH How to Apply instructions when preparing the package.

1. Confirm that the organization, every PD/PI, and any foreign component can meet the eligibility and registration requirements. Start SAM, UEI, eRA Commons, and Grants.gov work well before the receipt date.
2. Assemble a multidisciplinary team that can develop the sensor, test it, synchronize it with surface or intracranial neural recordings, and build computational models of behavior from the combined data.
3. Define a state-of-the-art benchmark and the measurable improvement the new device must deliver. The research strategy should address timing, spatial and temporal resolution, sensitivity, overall performance, device weight, battery life, energy harvesting where possible, real-time operation, and operation for 48 hours or longer.
4. Build a project timeline with a distinct final “Milestones” section in the Research Strategy. State what will be tested at each critical juncture, how validation will be performed, what result counts as success, and what alternative strategy will be used if an approach fails.
5. Prepare the forms through one of the permitted routes: NIH ASSIST, an institutional system-to-system solution, or Grants.gov Workspace. Use eRA Commons to track the application when required by the selected route.
6. Follow the Research (R) Instructions in the NIH How to Apply Application Guide and every program-specific instruction in this NOFO. The application package includes the standard SF424(R&R), project and performance site, senior/key person, budget, subaward, and PHS 398 components as applicable. The NOFO also allows allowable costs for consortium annual in-person meetings.
7. Include the required plans and supporting sections. Research involving human subjects or clinical trials must use the relevant PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information forms. Applications generating scientific data must include a Data Management and Sharing Plan, and BRAIN Initiative data-sharing expectations direct applicants to relevant BRAIN data archives. Foreign organizations must follow the foreign-organization policies in the NIH Grants Policy Statement and Application Guide.
8. Submit before 5:00 PM local time of the applicant organization, leaving time to inspect errors and make corrections. NIH states that applications that do not conform to the Application Guide or NOFO requirements may be delayed or not accepted for review.

Research strategy and required materials

The research strategy should show how the project will take the sensor or bioelectronic device beyond its initial stage into a working tool. It should state the scientific and technical goals, explain the behavioral neuroscience use case, define the state-of-the-art comparison, and connect every major engineering decision to the intended measurement improvement. NIH asks applicants to address long recording times, battery optimization, energy harvesting where possible, device weight for naturalistic behavior, rigorous testing and validation, easy production and application, combinations of sensors, integration with neural recordings, and computational modeling.

The milestones should be more than a calendar. They should identify the performance indicators that will decide whether the next stage is justified. Examples of appropriate evidence include repeatability across tests, synchronization quality against a defined neural reference, stability during long recordings, data completeness in real time, biocompatibility or toxicity measurements where relevant, and a reproducible procedure for fabrication or dissemination. The notice expects alternative strategies when an effort does not perform as expected, so the plan should show how the team will make decisions under technical uncertainty.

Human-subjects, animal, invasive, and clinical-trial work brings additional requirements. Animal studies must be justified as necessary for development and should explain how findings will translate toward practical and ethical use in healthy humans when the project scales toward humans. Human-subjects applications must address privacy and the ethical and analytical challenges of collecting, archiving, and analyzing subject-level data. Clinical trials are optional, but a project that includes one must provide the applicable study records and clinical research protections. The notice states that NIH expects clinical trials to follow its registration, monitoring, recruitment, reporting, and safety policies.

Fit checklist

This opportunity is a strong fit for a team that can demonstrate a genuinely novel sensor or bioelectronic device, a direct behavioral measurement problem, measurable gains over current technology, long-duration real-time operation, and synchronization with neural recordings. It is also a fit for teams prepared to share methods and data, participate in the BBQS consortium, and coordinate with engineers, behavioral scientists, computational researchers, and NIH program staff.

It is a weak fit for a proposal that only deploys an existing wearable or laboratory instrument, lacks a device-development component, cannot show how neural and behavioral streams will be synchronized, or treats dissemination and consortium coordination as optional administrative details. The notice is also a poor match for a concept-only proposal without validation gates, a state-of-the-art benchmark, long-duration performance targets, and contingency plans.

Status and official source

The official NIH notice lists June 15, 2026 as a completed receipt date and June 15, 2027 as the next listed receipt date. The notice remains the controlling source for the 2027 application package, instructions, and any later changes. Applicants should reread the full notice and the NIH Application Guide before submission, confirm that the package is available through the chosen submission route, and check institutional registrations early. The official source is the NIH RFA-MH-26-140 page:

https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-MH-26-140.html