Launched in April 2018, the NIH Helping to End Addiction Long-termSM Initiative, or NIH HEAL InitiativeSM is an aggressive, trans-agency effort to speed scientific solutions to stem the national opioid public health crisis. The Initiative will advance research to reduce the risks of opioid use and misuse and improve pain management, thereby reducing reliance on opioids. NINDS is the lead Institute for pain research at NIH and leads the Executive Committee of the NIH Pain Consortium, which includes 23 Institutes and Centers. The NIH Pain Consortium’s mission includes improving the treatment of a variety of pain conditions. NINDS will focus efforts in the NIH HEAL Initiative in developing non-addictive pain treatments that may displace the need for opioids, and importantly, serve as effective treatments for acute and chronic pain conditions for which opioids are not effective. This work will be informed by partners from the government, industry, academia, and patients suffering from pain.
NIH HEAL Initiative Programs and Funding Opportunities Led by NINDSThe following are a list of NIH HEAL Initiative programs that will be led by NINDS. All HEAL Initiative funding opportunities are available on the NIH HEAL Initiative website, and all NIH funding opportunities related to pain are available on the NIH Pain Consortium website.
HEAL Initiative Research Supplements to Promote Diversity
An important goal of the HEAL Initiative is to promote the scientific workforce by enhancing participation of individuals from groups identified as underrepresented in the biomedical, clinical, behavioral, and social sciences. This supplemental funding can be used to recruit a diverse individual into a HEAL project. Principle Investigators of any active HEAL-funded award may apply.
Open Funding Opportunities
NOT-NS-20-107 Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (Admin Supp - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Contact:
Eric Hudak, Ph.D., Program Director, NINDS
Optimization of Non-addictive Therapies [Small Molecules and Biologics] to Treat Pain
This Pain Therapeutic Development Program (PTDP) will support preclinical optimization and development of safe, effective, and non-addictive small molecule and biologic therapeutics to treat pain. The goal of the program is to accelerate promising small molecule and biologic hits/leads towards clinical trials.
Open Funding Opportunities/Announcements:
RFA-NS-24-019 UG3/UH3 Exploratory/Developmental Phased Award Cooperative Agreement
Closed Funding Opportunities/Announcements:
RFA-NS-21-010 UG3/UH3 Exploratory/Developmental Phased Award Cooperative Agreement
RFA-NS-19-010 UG3/UH3 Exploratory/Developmental Phased Award Cooperative Agreement
RFA-NS-19-020 UG3/UH3 Exploratory/Developmental Phased Award Cooperative Agreement
Contact:
Mary Ann Pelleymounter, Ph.D. | Program Director & Officer
Discovery and Validation of Novel Targets for Safe and Effective Pain Treatment
These programs will promote the discovery and validation of novel therapeutic targets to facilitate the development of pain treatments that have minimal side effects and little to no abuse/addiction liability as alternatives to opioids. Identifying and rigorously validating new targets for pain treatments will lower the risk of adopting the target in translational projects to develop small molecules, biologics, natural substances, or devices that interact with this target for new pain treatments.
Open Funding Opportunities/Announcements:
- RFA-NS-22-034 Research Project Grant
Closed Funding Opportunities/Announcements:
- NOT-NS-18-073 Administrative Supplements
- RFA-NS-18-043 R01 Research Project Grant
- RFA-NS-18-042 R21 Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant
Contact:
Michael L. Oshinsky, PhD, Program Director, NINDS
D.P. Mohapatra, PhD, Program Director, NINDS
Preclinical Screening Platform for Pain (PSPP)
The Preclinical Screening Platform for Pain (PSPP) program is an efficient, rigorous, one-stop resource designed to accelerate discovery of effective, non-addictive, non-opioid pain therapies including small molecules, biologics, natural products, and devices. PSPP accepts assets for evaluation from academic researchers, industry, and government institutions worldwide and provides the evaluation at no cost to the PSPP participants.
Contact:
Smriti Iyengar, PhD, Program Director, NINDS
Sarah Woller, PhD, Program Manager, NINDS
HEAL Initiative: Discovery of Biomarkers and Biomarker Signatures to Facilitate Clinical Trials for Pain Therapeutics
This program will promote the discovery and development of Validated Response Monitoring and Prediction Pain Biosignatures that will Facilitate Phase 2 Clinical Trials for Pain Therapeutics.
Closed Funding Opportunities:
- RFA-NS-24-018 HEAL Initiative: Discovery of Biomarkers and Biomarker Signatures to Facilitate Clinical Trials for Pain Therapeutics (UG3/UH3 Clinical Trial Optional)
Contact:
E-mail: Ram Arudchandran, PhD, Program Director, NINDS
Early Phase Pain Investigation Network (EPPIC-Net)
EPPIC-Net’s mission is to accelerate and enhance clinical testing of novel, non-addictive pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic therapeutic “assets”, including new and repurposed small molecules, biologics, natural products, and devices, targeted to pain conditions of high unmet need. EPPIC-Net conducts cutting-edge early phase clinical trials across the age and pain condition spectrum of pain therapeutics submitted by industry, academic, and other partners and accepted after rigorous review. EPPIC-Net provides access to a robust clinical trial network with expert infrastructure providing study design, conduct, and analysis at no cost to the applicant. The asset and intellectual property remain with the asset owner.
Open Funding Opportunities/Announcements:
- OTA-22-002(pdf, 181 KB) (Stage 1: Preliminary) HEAL Initiative: EPPIC-Net Pain Research Asset Application (OT1)
- OTA-23-005(pdf, 253 KB) (Stage 2: Dossier) HEAL Initiative: EPPIC-Net Pain Research Asset Application – Dossier (OT2)
- OTA-23-006(pdf, 269 KB) (Stage 3: Protocol) HEAL Initiative: EPPIC-Net Pain Research – Protocol Application for Clinical Trial and Related Activities (OT2)
Closed Funding Opportunities/Announcements:
- NOT-NS-19-075 Notice of Information: HEAL/NINDS Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network (EPPIC-Net): Opening to applications for non-addictive pain therapeutics
- NOT-NS-19-043 Notice of Information: Clinical Trials that Explore Non-Addictive Therapeutics for Pain Conditions under the Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network (EPPIC-Net)
- RFA-NS-19-036 U24 Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network - Specialized Clinical Centers (Reissue of RFA-NS-19-025)
- NOT-NS-19-043 Notice of Information: Clinical Trials that Explore Non-Addictive Therapeutics for Pain Conditions under the Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network
- NOT-NS-19-043 Notice of Information: Clinical Trials that Explore Non-Addictive Therapeutics for Pain Conditions under the Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network
- RFA-NS-19-023 U24 Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network - Clinical Coordinating Center
- RFA-NS-19-024 U24 Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network - Data Coordinating Center
- RFA-NS-19-025 U24 Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network - Specialized Clinical Centers
Contacts:
Rebecca Hommer, M.D.
Program Director
rebecca.hommer@nih.gov
301-496-9135
Marlene Peters Lawrence, BSN, RN
Clinical Project Manager
marlene.peterslawrence@nih.gov
301-480-9636
Kevin T. Jones, Ph.D.
Health Program Specialist
joneskt@nih.gov
240-789-6100
Common Fund Program: Acute to Chronic Pain Signatures
Through the NIH Common Fund program, the Directors of NINDS and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) co-chair a working group to lead the Acute to Chronic Pain Signatures program which will develop a set of objective biomarkers that provide a “signature” to predict a transition from acute to chronic pain, in order to accelerate therapy development and ultimately to guide pain prevention strategies.
No Open Funding Opportunities at this time.
Contact:
Linda L. Porter, Ph.D., Office of Pain Policy & Planning, NINDS
Translational Devices to Treat Pain
The Translating Discoveries into Effective Devices to Treat Pain program fosters the development of next-generation medical devices to diagnose and treat pain by supporting preclinical development of safe, effective, and non-addictive devices and approaches – providing treatment options for those who have no other effective ways to manage their pain. The program also supports the translation of promising devices into early-stage clinical trials that inform the functionality, final design, safety, and/or efficacy of technologies. In addition, the program supports interdisciplinary team science to reveal mechanisms underlying device-based pain relief, identify physiological markers of pain, and determine how existing device-based therapeutic approaches affect neural targets.
Open Funding Announcements
- RFA-EB-22-002 (R18) - Development of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Devices
- NOT-NS-23-002 (UG3/UH3 and U44) - Notice of Special Interest in the Blueprint MedTech program
- RFA-NS-23-028 (RM1) - Team Science Research on Device Mechanisms
Closed Funding Announcements
- RFA-EB-18-003 (U18) - View funded projects under this NOFO
- RFA-NS-19-016 (UG3/UH3) - View funded projects under this NOFO
- RFA-NS-19-017 (U44) - View funded projects under this NOFO
- RFA-NS-19-018 (UH3) - View funded projects under this NOFO
- RFA-NS-22-016 (RM1) - View funded projects under this NOFO
- RFA-RM-19-001 (U01)
Contact:
Eric Hudak, Ph.D., Program Director, NINDS
Moria Bittmann, Ph.D., Program Director, NIBIB
Pain Management Effectiveness Research Network
The Pain Management Effectiveness Research Network is a broad research effort seeking to improve pain care through understanding the development of chronic pain and by accelerating and improving the process of therapy development to more rapidly move discoveries into clinical practice to alleviate the burden of pain.
No Open Funding Opportunities at this time.
Closed Funding Opportunities/Announcements:
- RFA-NS-19-021 UG3/UH3 Clinical Trial Planning and Implementation Cooperative Agreement
Contact:
Linda L. Porter, Ph.D., Office of Pain Policy & Planning, NINDS
Resources and Tools
Funding Opportunities
NINDS HEAL Funding Opportunities
See all NIH HEAL Funding Opportunities
News & Events
NINDS Advancing Pain Research Through The NIH HEAL Initiative
NIH Director’s Statement on HEAL
NCATS Director Statement: Translational Science to Address the Opioid Crisis
NIAMS Director’s Letter on BACPAC
Pain Management ERN Webinar | Dec. 17, 2018
Workshop: Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers to Develop Non-Addictive Therapeutics for Pain | Nov. 14-15, 2018
**archives available on event website
Webinar: Developing Biomarkers for Neurological Disorders and Pain | Oct. 30, 2018
**archives available on event website
Webinar: HEAL Pain Basic Science | Oct. 22, 2018