The National Institutes of Health (NIH), under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has issued a forecast for a forthcoming Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) titled "Integrative Neuroscience Initiative on Alcoholism (INIA) Consortia Administrative Resource Core (U24)." This initiative is part of NIH’s broader Alcohol Research Programs and falls under the funding activity category of Health. The INIA renewal aims to support two collaborative research consortia focused on brain-body homeostatic dysregulation that drives and sustains excessive alcohol consumption and associated Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) phenotypes.
The planned NOFO is set to utilize the U24 cooperative agreement mechanism and is expected to be officially published on October 1, 2025, with applications due by May 1, 2026. The estimated award and project start date is February 1, 2027. The initiative will fund up to two awards with an estimated total funding of $1.2 million, although specific award ceilings and floors have not yet been defined. The opportunity encourages hypothesis-driven research that examines the interaction between alcohol use and other contributing factors leading to pathological drinking, with a strong emphasis on identifying translatable biological markers and mechanisms for potential interventions.
To enhance scientific rigor and replicability, the consortia will prioritize standardization of neurofunctional assessments and foster integration across various dimensions. These include inter-site collaboration on central hypotheses, multiscale biological analyses, shared infrastructure and protocols, and cross-species translation. Research efforts will also leverage cutting-edge technologies from NIH programs like the BRAIN Initiative and NIH Common Fund to explore neural dynamics from microcircuits to entire brain networks and investigate peripheral impacts on neural functions linked to alcohol misuse.
Applications for this opportunity are not currently being accepted; this forecast is intended to provide advance notice for interested applicants to develop collaborations and align proposed projects with the NOFO's future requirements. Prospective applicants should focus on innovation, scientific collaboration, and translational potential in preparing their future submissions. The designated agency contact for further details is Dr. Mark Egli, who can be reached at Mark.Egli@nih.gov or 301-594-6382.
