National Cooperative Drug/Device Discovery/Development Groups (NCDDG) for the Treatment of Mental Disorders (U19 Clinical Trial Optional)

This funding opportunity announcement encourages applications to advance the discovery, preclinical development, and proof of concept (PoC) testing of new, rationally based candidate agents and neurostimulation approaches to treat mental disorders, substance use disorders (SUDs) or alcohol use disorder (AUD), and to develop novel ligands and circuit-engagement devices as tools to further characterize existing or to validate new drug/device targets. Partnerships between academia and industry are strongly encouraged. This FOA supports a research program of multiple projects directed toward a specific major objective, basic theme or program goal, requiring a broadly based, multidisciplinary and often long-term approach. The program is specifically designed for cooperative agreements that involve substantial NIH programmatic involvement throughout the life of the project. This is a reissue of PAR-20-119 focused on advancing therapeutic discovery and development in mental health and substance use disorders through collaborative, multi-project research teams.