This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) solicits applications for one or more Data Coordinating Centers (DCCs) to support BRAIN CONNECTS, a networked consortium of Comprehensive Centers and Specialized Projects funded under RFA-NS-22-047, RFA-NS-22-048, and RFA-NS-22-049. The goals of these awards are to develop the research capacity and technical capabilities for comprehensive brain-wide connectivity mapping in mouse, human, and non-human primate (NHP). BRAIN CONNECTS projects will collect and process unprecedented volumes of anatomical data by scaling up cutting-edge acquisition modalities and analysis methods, to demonstrate the feasibility of collecting, reconstructing, analyzing, integrating, disseminating, and interpreting connectivity maps from entire brains. The resulting feasibility data from these awards are expected to inform NIH decisions on program continuation in a potential subsequent five-year funding period for production of brain-wide wiring diagrams. NIH expects to fund one or more BRAIN CONNECTS DCCs, which will collaborate with CONNECTS data generating projects to (1) coordinate activities of the BRAIN CONNECTS Network, (2) develop and harmonize common data processing pipelines, (3) integrate and disseminate data analytic tools and capabilities, (4) establish a unified knowledge base for connectivity data of diverse modalities, and (5) organize and implement outreach and engagement to the wider research community and the general public. Awards will be integrated into the BRAIN CONNECTS Network as a coordinated effort aimed at developing the ability to generate wiring diagrams spanning entire brains across multiple scales and species.
