National Institute of Mental Health

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OVERVIEW: The NIMH is the largest supporter of research on mental disorders in the world. In addition to research, the Institute makes grants for education, conferences, clinical trials and the development of new technologies with the goal of transforming “the understanding and treatment of mental illness.”

IP TAKE: The NIMH offers hundreds of grantmaking opportunities at any given time and adds new programs to its roster each month. While this may seem daunting at first, the institute’s website is well organized and offers detailed guidelines and instructions for applying. Grantseekers may want to start by signing up for email updates to keep up with the latest programs. While this is a large operation, it is accessible; staff directories offer email addresses and direct phone numbers for many staff members and departments. And while most grants support established researchers and programs, the NIMH does reserve funds for smaller projects in lesser-researched areas of mental health.

PROFILE: Based in Rockville, Maryland, the National Institute of Mental Health Health is “one of the 27 Institutes and Centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the largest biomedical research agency in the world.” It is widely known as “the lead federal agency for research on mental disorders.” The Institute’s mission is to “transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery, and cure.”

According to the institute’s Strategic Plan for Research, it’s funding aims to “transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery, and cure.”

The NIMH names suicide, genomics, mental health disparities and global mental health as main areas of focus for both in-house and sponsored research, but grantmaking addresses many other areas of mental health and brain research, as well. This funder runs hundreds of grantmaking programs each year, making it impossible to enumerate each one of them here. However, the main sources of NIMH grants include sponsored programs, requests for applications, research contract opportunities, small business research opportunities, support for clinical trials, research enhancement awards and conference grants.

Grants for Mental Health, Brain and Cell Research

The NIMH organizes its grantmaking opportunities by grant type as opposed to research area. The following programs are the main sources to which grantseekers may look to secure funding:

  • NIMH sponsored programs fund studies of topics that are of specific or timely interest to the NIMH, including annual awards to researchers working in specific fields and at specific stages of their careers. At this writing, the list of programs includes about 70 opportunities relating to a broad array of topics in mental health. Some of the most recent sponsored programs concern the use different types of imaging to detect biomarkers for drug discovery and the study of nervous system disorders, “innovative mental health services” that do not involve clinical trials, research on the optimization of HIV prevention and care and programs that improve or enhance psychiatry and psychology graduate education.

  • The NIMH website features a Highlighted Research Initiatives page that links to RFPs for topics of high priority. Several recent RFPs stem from the NIH’s BRAIN Initiative, which “is aimed at revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain” through the development of new and emerging technologies. Recent RFPs concern the development of “novel tools” for cellular-level brain research and the analysis and integration of existing data from the initiative. Other recent RFPs have concerned computational translational mental health, suicide risk and prevention and the effect of social media on adolescent mental health, to name only a few.

  • Research contract opportunities consist of the NIMH contracting researchers and facilities outside of the government to pursue research in “areas of significant scientific interest.” Research contracts differ from typical grants in that the contracting government agency generally exerts more control over the research methods, may participate in data collection and analysis and control the dissemination of study results. Contract opportunities often represent specific portions of studies that are being carried out in-house at the NIMH. Available contracts are posted on the research contracts page.

  • Small business research opportunities supports small businesses that “develop technologies that can advance the mission of the Institute.” Current areas of interest include neuroscience, translational and clinical research, mental health diagnoses and treatments and “dissemination and implementation of evidence-based research on mental disorders.” Applications from women- and minority-owned businesses are encouraged, and guidelines and eligibility are provided on the program’s page.

  • Funding for clinical trials is available from the NIMH, but grantseekers should be aware that the organization recently revised its definition of clinical trials and expanded the range of study types that are included in the category. Currently, mechanistic, exploratory, pilot, interventional, behavioral and basic research involving one or more human subjects may fall into the category of a clinical trial. Current funding opportunities are posted at the NIMH sponsored programs page.

  • Research Enhancements Awards "support meritorious, small-scale research grants at institutions that do not receive substantial funding from the NIH.” The goal of these awards is to increase research opportunities for “undergraduate through post-doctoral students,” particularly in the area of biomedicine, but also in psychiatry and other types of mental health research. These opportunities are also posted on the NIMH’s sponsored programs page.

NIMH’s Research Training and Career Development Opportunities consists of programs that prepare “individuals to conduct innovative research in areas of program relevance that will advance the mission of the Institute.”

NIMH also awards conference grants to support attendance at conferences relevant to the institute’s mission. These grants focus on “inclusion within the neuroscience and mental health research workforce, with a particular focus  on advancing the participation of women and individuals from underrepresented minority (URM) groups.” These grants are awarded three times per year, with request letters due o the first of March, July and November. However, permission is required for the submission of these requests, so applicants are encouraged to reach out to relevant staff members “well in advance of the application receipt date.”

Important Grant Details:

NIMH grants are generally awarded in set amounts by program, so grant amounts can vary. While hundreds of grants are available at any given time, opportunities designate very specific areas of research; grantseekers will have to sort through a great deal of information to find the right opportunity. In addition to research, grants support education, the development of new technologies, clinical trials and conference attendance.

  • The NIMH accepts applications for all of its grant opportunities, although some programs require advance permission for submission of materials.

  • Eligibility guidelines and due dates vary significantly by program, and new opportunities are added to the institutes sponsored programs page each month.

  • A efficient way of keeping abreast of new opportunities is to sign up for the institute’s email updates at the bottom of its funding homepage.

  • All applicants are encouraged to read over the institutes application process and funding strategies pages before applying for grants.

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