The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) https://nibib.nih.gov plus other NIH Institutes and Centers posted their forecast funding notice on October 22, 2018 titled “Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative”.
The other NIH Institutes taking part in Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) (NOT-EB-18-030), includes the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) https://www.nichd.nih.gov, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) https://www.ninda.nih.gov, and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) https://www.nccIH.nih.gov.
The HEAL Initiative https://www.nih.gov/research-training/medical-research-initiatives/heal-initiative is a trans-agency effort to speed scientific solutions to stem the national opioid public health crisis. This Initiative will build on well-established NIH research on the complex neurological pathways involved in pain and addiction, test treatment models, and do further research on integrating behavioral interventions with Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD).
The focus is to support preclinical development and demonstrate safe, effective, and non-addictive device-based technologies and approaches to treat pain and will not be specific to any one pain condition or patient population. The research will be to build upon the latest knowledge about the anatomy and physiology of central, spinal, and peripheral pathways involved in pain.
The FOA seeks to develop new medical devices that may be non-invasive, minimally invasive, or invasive. The goal is to test new devices for human use by conducting clinical trials to identify key challenges during preliminary proof-of-concept studies.
The forecasted notice has been released early so that potential applicants will have sufficient time to develop projects that will be undertaken with potential technology transition and manufacturing partners. Applicants may contact members from public private partnerships, from the NIH BRAIN Initiative https://www.brainintiative.nih.gov, and the SPARC Initiative https://commonfund.nih.gov/sparc .
The FOA is seeking eligible organizations from a number of sources such as government, institutions of higher education, nonprofits and small businesses, for profit organizations, Indian Native American Tribal Government, regional organizations plus others. Information on the estimated total funding and the expected number of awards are not available at this time.
For more details, go to https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-EB-18-030.htm. For inquiries, email Michael Wolfson at Michael.Wolfson@NIH.gov.