Unlock Mental Health Research Grants: Fund Innovation

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) issued by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), National Institutes of Health, encourages research grant applications that propose the development or adaptation of cutting edge technologies for astrocyte research, discovery-based research on astrocyte diversity, development and/or function in the brain, and the application of these to the study of basic brain processes or pathophysiology relevant to mental illnesses. The primary objective of this FOA is to address barriers to astrocyte research that are due to the scarcity of tools and datasets to target and identify astrocytes rigorously. Applications should aim to transform the field of astrocyte research by generating resources that will be widely used throughout the neuroscience community. Research supported by this initiative will (i) provide new tools for manipulating and identifying astrocytes based on their heterogeneity, developmental stage or functional state; (ii) identify novel phenomic signatures and combinatorial regulatory mechanisms of astrocyte development/function that account for astrocyte diversity; (iii) characterize mechanisms by which astrocytes regulate neural circuits serving cognition, emotion and social function or contribute to abnormal neural function relevant to psychopathology.