Forecast to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for Integrative Neuroscience Initiative on Alcoholism (INIA) Consortia (U01 Clinical Trial Optional)

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under the Department of Health and Human Services, has announced a forecast for a funding opportunity titled "Integrative Neuroscience Initiative on Alcoholism (INIA) Consortia." This initiative is designed to renew NIAAA’s INIA program through a new Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) expected to be released on October 1, 2025. The funding will be administered through the U01 cooperative agreement mechanism, which supports collaborative research projects that require substantial programmatic involvement by NIH staff. The purpose of this initiative is to support two collaborative research consortia focused on investigating the brain-body homeostatic dysregulation associated with excessive alcohol use and Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). These consortia will study the transition from initial alcohol use to chronic pathological drinking in an effort to identify translatable markers and mechanisms. This work aims to enhance future prevention and intervention strategies to reduce the conditions linked to alcohol misuse, including AUD. Research efforts should be hypothesis-driven and explore the interactions between alcohol and other causal influences. The program encourages the use of advanced tools and methodologies, such as those developed under the BRAIN Initiative and NIH Common Fund, to analyze brain function and structure from microcircuit levels to entire neural networks. Peripheral biological systems that affect brain function and contribute to alcohol misuse will also be considered. The consortia are expected to promote rigor and reproducibility by standardizing neurofunctional measures and ensuring replication across studies. Each consortium will include administrative and resource cores along with multiple U01 research projects, all coordinated around a central scientific hypothesis. Integration is a key component and will occur through inter-site collaboration, multi-scale biological analysis, shared research resources, and cross-species studies. This structure is intended to facilitate synergistic research that aligns with the overarching goals of the initiative. Applications are not currently being solicited; this is a forecast notice to provide researchers adequate time to prepare meaningful and collaborative proposals. The estimated application due date is May 1, 2026, with awards anticipated to be issued by February 1, 2027. Projects will start on the same date. Approximately $10 million in total program funding will be available, with an expected 16 awards to be granted. For additional information, interested applicants can contact Mark Egli at (301) 594-6392 or via email at mark.egli@nih.gov. Researchers with expertise in integrative neuroscience and an interest in addressing the complexities of alcohol-related disorders are encouraged to consider preparing for this funding opportunity.