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The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to invite applications for the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Patient Reported Outcomes Research Resource Center Core (ECHO PRO Core). Working collaboratively with the other members of the ECHO Consortium and the Pediatric Patient Reported Outcomes in Chronic Diseases (PEPR) Consortium (see below), the ECHO PRO Core will conduct research (including development and validation of new instruments) and provide research services and resources to all ECHO Cohort Sites and Centers. The ECHO PRO Core will provide psychometric and medical expertise in the development, selection and use of PROs, child patient reported outcomes (cPROs), and proxy PROs for the evaluation of health and disease in children and other subjects being studied by the ECHO Cohort Sites. This FOA is one of seven companion FOAs that will establish the elements of the ECHO Consortium. Clinical Sites will collect clinical data and specimens from well-characterized participants. A Data Analysis Center (DAC) will oversee data standardization, integration, and storage, and will implement data sharing and computational tools for the integrated analysis of clinical and laboratory data. Overall coordination will be provided by an ECHO Coordinating Center (CC). Awardees will comprise the ECHO Consortium and must work collaboratively to plan and execute a large study to discover and characterize the impact of the environment on child health and disease. The product will be a publically available data resource that will enhance and accelerate subsequent mechanistic research on childhood diseases and conditions affected by environmental influences.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is soliciting applications to support existing cohorts to address how pre-, peri-, and post-natal environmental exposures impact childhood development and health outcomes as part of the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program. Increasing evidence suggests that exposures early in life (e.g. nicotine, diet, microbiome) can result in health deficits and lead to life-long consequences. The purpose of this FOA is to leverage and build upon existing cohort infrastructure to prospectively investigate the role of early life exposures and underlying biological mechanisms in childhood health and disease. This FOA runs in parallel with companion FOAs that solicit applications for the Coordinating Center (RFA-OD-16-006), Data Analysis Center (RFA-OD-16-005), Patient/Person Reported Outcomes Core (RFA-OD-16-003), Administrative Supplements to the Children's Health Exposure Analysis Resource (PA-16-046), IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Trials Network (RFA-OD-16-002 and RFA-OD-16-001), and a Genetics Core to be released in FY17. Funding for an exploratory UG3 phase will be used for planning, feasibility testing, and developing study documents, including the study protocol and Manual of Procedures. UG3 projects that have met milestones will be administratively considered for transition to the UH3 implementation phase. Applicants responding to this FOA must address objectives for both the UG3 and UH3 phases.

The purpose of this FOA is to support a Data Analysis Center (DAC) for the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program. The ECHO DAC will provide the data repository and the data analysis functions for all common ECHO activities. NIH is establishing the new ECHO program to investigate the longitudinal impact of prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal environmental exposures on pediatric health outcomes with high public health impact. To do so, NIH will support multiple synergistic, prospective longitudinal studies using extant cohorts that represent variable environmental exposures (e.g., physical, chemical, biological, behavioral, social). These studies will collaborate on standardization and collection of core data elements to answer research questions of how environmental exposures impact one or more of four key pediatric outcomes. The program will be overseen by a Steering Committee of Investigators and an NIH Program Director, and an External Scientific Board. A separate, but related research effort, will support an IDeA States National Pediatric Clinical Research Network to help address access gaps for rural children by leveraging the infrastructure at existing IDeA state centers. ECHO is being supported through 7 FOAs, including this FOA inviting applications for the ECHO Data Analysis Center. In addition, FOAs are being released to solicit applications to support new research questions for existing cohorts (Pediatric Cohorts), a Coordinating Center, a Patient Reported Outcomes (PRO) Core, an IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Research Network Data Coordination and Operating Center, and IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Research Network Sites, as well as supplements to the Children's Health Exposure Analysis Resource (CHEAR).

The purpose of this FOA is to support a Coordinating Center for the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program. The ECHO Coordinating Center will provide the organizational framework for the management, direction, and overall coordination of all common ECHO activities.

The focus of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to better understand how existing non-invasive neuromodulation devices affect brain circuity. This information should shed light on dose/response relationships that could be used for neuroscience applications and clinical interventions.

The purpose of this FOA is to encourage submission of Exploratory/Developmental Bioengineering Research Grants (EBRG) applications which establish the feasibility of technologies, techniques or methods that: 1) explore a new multidisciplinary approach to a biomedical challenge; 2) are high-risk but have high impact; and 3) develop data that may lead to significant future research. An EBRG application may propose hypothesis-driven, discovery-driven, developmental, or design-directed research and is appropriate for evaluating unproven approaches for which there is minimal or no preliminary data.

The purpose of this Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative is to encourage applications that will develop and validate novel tools to facilitate the detailed analysis of complex circuits and provide insights into cellular interactions that underlie brain function. The new tools and technologies should inform and/or exploit cell-type and/or circuit-level specificity. Plans for validating the utility of the tool/technology will be an essential feature of a successful application. The development of new genetic and non-genetic tools for delivering genes, proteins and chemicals to cells of interest or approaches that are expected to target specific cell types and/or circuits in the nervous system with greater precision and sensitivity than currently established methods are encouraged. Tools that can be used in a number of species/model organisms rather than those restricted to a single species are highly desired. Applications that provide approaches that break through existing technical barriers to substantially improve current capabilities are highly encouraged.

Understanding the dynamic activity of neural circuits is central to the NIH BRAIN Initiative.This FOA seeks applications for proof-of-concept testing and development of new technologies and novel approaches for large-scale recording and manipulation of neural activity to enable transformative understanding of dynamic signaling in the nervous system.In particular, we seek exceptionally creative approaches to address major challenges associated with recording and manipulating neural activity, at or near cellular resolution, at multiple spatial and/or temporal scales, in any region and throughout the entire depth of the brain.It is expected that the proposed research may be high-risk, but if successful could profoundly change the course of neuroscience research.

Although invention and proof-of-concept testing of new technologies is a key component of the BRAIN Initiative, to achieve their potential these technologies must also be optimized through feedback from end-users in the context of the intended experimental use. This seeks applications for the optimization of existing and emerging technologies and approaches that have potential to address major challenges associated with recording and manipulating neural activity, at or near cellular resolution, at multiple spatial and temporal scales, in any region and throughout the entire depth of the brain.This FOA is intended for the iterative refinement of emergent technologies and approaches that have already demonstrated their transformative potential through initial proof-of-concept testing, and are appropriate for accelerated development of hardware and software while scaling manufacturing techniques towards sustainable, broad dissemination and user-friendly incorporation into regular neuroscience practice.

This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) encourages the development and validation of: 1) animal models and human tissue ex vivo systems that recapitulate the phenotypic and physiologic characteristics of a defined neurological disorder and/or 2) clinically feasible pharmacodynamic markers for therapeutics designed to treat neurological disease.The goal of this FOA is to promote a significant improvement in the translational relevance of animal models, ex vivo systems, testing paradigms, and endpoints that will be utilized to facilitate the development of neurotherapeutics. Ideally, endpoints proposed in applications for this FOA would have the potential to provide feasible and meaningful assessments of efficacy following therapeutic intervention that would be applicable in both preclinical and clinical settings.This FOA is not intended to support the development of animal and ex vivo model systems for the interrogation of disease etiology or for the identification of new drug targets. It is also not intended to support human clinical validation of model systems or pharmacodynamic markers. This FOA is part of a suite of Innovation Grants to Nurture Initial Translational Efforts(IGNITE) focused on enabling the exploratory and early stages of drug discovery.