Scalable and Systematic Neurobiology of Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Disorder Risk Genes: Assay and Data Generation Centers (RM1 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA MH 25 145

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA MH 25 145

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), through the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), is funding a program called "Scalable and Systematic Neurobiology of Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Disorder Risk Genes: Assay and Data Generation Centers (RM1 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" under opportunity number RFA-MH-25-145 (CFDA 93.242). The central goal is to move beyond simply identifying risk genes for psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders and instead generate clear, experimentally grounded evidence about what those genes do in the nervous system and how damaging mutations might alter brain-relevant biology. In other words, the NOFO is aimed at closing the long-standing gap between gene discovery and mechanism discovery by supporting platforms that can test many genes in parallel using consistent, scalable, high-throughput approaches.

The opportunity is motivated by a major bottleneck in the field: researchers have become increasingly good at finding genes that carry an excess burden of damaging variants in people with conditions like autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other neurodevelopmental or psychiatric presentations, but turning those statistical genetic signals into actionable biology is slow. Traditional experimental workflows often focus on one gene at a time, use bespoke assays, and produce results that are hard to compare across studies. NIMH is explicitly trying to bring the same kind of systematic, unbiased, large-scale strategy that enabled modern gene discovery into the experimental biology phase, so that hundreds of disease-associated genes can be interrogated with standardized, reproducible pipelines.

To do that, this initiative supports large-scale implementation of high-throughput assays that measure the consequences of disease-linked genetic variation across multiple levels of biological organization. The NOFO emphasizes molecular, cellular, and physiological function, which can include endpoints such as gene expression and regulatory effects, protein and pathway activity, cellular phenotypes in neurons or glia, neural development and connectivity, and functional readouts that reflect how neural circuits operate. Importantly, the program is designed to allow multiple experimental platforms, including cellular systems and organismal models, as long as they are scalable and capable of producing systematic datasets across many risk genes rather than deep dives into only a few.

A key structural feature is that awards will contribute to a broader consortium approach. The program anticipates a mix of full-scale and pilot projects that collectively cover a broad characterization of risk genes across an array of central nervous system (CNS)-relevant endpoints. The consortium model matters because it pushes participating groups toward coordinated assay design, comparable outputs, and shared standards, with the expectation that the combined effort produces a coherent resource that is more useful than isolated single-lab datasets. This program is also positioned as a bridge to related NIMH investments, specifically efforts like PsychENCODE and Convergent Neuroscience, meaning applicants should expect an ecosystem where cross-project compatibility, integration with existing datasets, and downstream interpretability are valued.

The NOFO also highlights the importance of coordination, data harmonization, and community resource building through a Consortium Coordination Center (CCC). The CCC is described as the central hub that provides administrative coordination across projects and, critically, supports data and tool harmonization so that outputs from different assay centers can be combined rather than remaining siloed. The CCC is expected to develop an open-source portal that serves as a unified entry point for the resulting datasets, and it will help create standardized biological resources that other researchers can use. Taken together, the intent is not just to fund experiments, but to produce a durable, openly accessible infrastructure and dataset that accelerates the broader research community's ability to connect genetic risk to specific biological mechanisms and testable hypotheses.

From an eligibility standpoint, the NOFO is broadly open across many organization types, reflecting NIH's typical inclusive applicant pool for large research initiatives. Eligible applicants include state, county, and local governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; Native American tribal organizations (including those other than federally recognized tribal governments); public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with and without 501(c)(3) status (outside of higher education); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; small businesses; and other organizations. The NOFO additionally calls out a range of institution types and community-serving entities as eligible, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), along with faith-based or community-based organizations and eligible federal agencies. However, non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations and foreign institutions) are not eligible to apply as applicant organizations, though non-domestic components of U.S. organizations may participate, and foreign components (as NIH defines them) are allowed under NIH policy.

Administratively, this is a discretionary grant using the RM1 activity mechanism, and it is explicitly labeled "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," meaning the supported work must be preclinical or otherwise non-clinical-trial in NIH terms. The original closing date listed is 2024-01-31, and the opportunity record indicates it was created on 2023-08-30. While an award ceiling and expected award count are not specified in the provided source text, the overall design and consortium language indicate NIMH is aiming to fund substantial, coordinated centers capable of high-throughput production, standardization, and broad data release rather than small, isolated projects.

In practical terms, an application responsive to this NOFO would be expected to propose a scalable experimental engine for risk gene functional profiling, show that it can process many genes in a consistent way, define clear CNS-relevant readouts, and include a credible plan for data standardization, sharing, and integration in a consortium environment. The program is ultimately about producing a large, unified, open resource that helps the field understand how genetic risk for psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders translates into disruptions in neurobiology, and doing so at a scale that matches the pace and breadth of modern human genetics.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Scalable and Systematic Neurobiology of Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Disorder Risk Genes: Assay and Data Generation Centers (RM1 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.242.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-08-30.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-01-31. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

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