Well Told Grants

Grants / Department of Health and Human Services / National Institutes of Health

PAR-25-038: Cellular and Molecular Biology of Complex Brain Disorders (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Closed Closed September 7, 2026 Opportunity PAR-25-038

This grant is closed. Who won this program's grants before is below, and similar open grants are at the end of the page. It is in our archive of National Institutes of Health notices from 2024.

National Institutes of Health offered grants to nonprofits, colleges and universities, state and local governments, tribes, small businesses and businesses. Applications closed on September 7, 2026.

From the official notice on Grants.gov, last changed November 18, 2024. Checked November 7, 2026.

About this NIH notice

Projects funded under PAR-25-038 were run by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH, 11 projects). Contact the program officer at the institute that fits your project before you apply; the notice lists them.

Application due dates, page limits and budget limits are set in the notice. Read PAR-25-038 in the NIH Guide.

Other notices with this title

National Institutes of Health has posted this title under other numbers: earlier or later rounds, or the same competition for another area. Each has its own dates and may change its rules.

NoticePostedDeadlineStatus
PAR-24-024June 30, 2023Closed January 8, 2025Closed

Key dates

PostedNovember 18, 2024
DeadlineSeptember 7, 2026
Archived by Grants.govOctober 13, 2026

Who can apply

This opportunity was open to nonprofits, colleges and universities, state and local governments, tribes, small businesses and businesses.

All 15 applicant types the notice lists

Other Eligible Applicants include the following: Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions; Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISISs); Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government; Faith-based or Community-based Organizations; Hispanic-serving Institutions; Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Other than Federally Recognized); Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Organizations); Regional Organizations; Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs) ; U.S. Territory or Possession.

More grants for nonprofits, colleges and universities, state and local governments, tribes, small businesses, businesses.

Is this a realistic fit?

What the grant funds

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) encourages research on the biology of high-confidence risk factors associated with complex brain disorders, with a focus on the intracellular, transcellular, and circuit substrates of neural function. For the purposes of this NOFO, the term complex can refer to a multifactorial contribution to risk (e.g., polygenic and/or environmental) and/or highly distributed functional features of the brain disorder. Studies may be either hypothesis-generating (unbiased discovery) or hypothesis-testing in design and may utilize in vivo, in situ or in vitro experimental paradigms, e.g., model organisms or human cell-based assays. While behavioral paradigms and outcome measures can be incorporated into the research design to facilitate the characterization of intracellular, transcellular, and circuit mechanisms, these are neither required nor expected. Studies should not attempt to model disorders but instead should aim to elucidate the neurobiological impact of individual or combined risk factor(s), such as the affected molecular and cellular components and their relationships within defined biological process(es). This can include the fundamental biology of these factors, components, and processes. The resulting paradigms, component pathways, and biological processes should be disseminated with sufficient detail to enrich common and/or federated data resources (e.g., those contributing to the Gene Ontology, Synaptic Gene Ontology, FAIR Data Informatics) in order to bridge the gap between disease risk factors, biological mechanism and therapeutic target identification. The present NOFO (R01 activity code) can be used for applications to further develop lines of inquiry where feasibility or proof-of-concept has been established. Applicants proposing exploratory research at the early and conceptual stages of project development should apply to the companion R21 NOFO PAR-24-025

Category: Health.

Funded under PAR-25-038 so far

NIH funded 11 projects under PAR-25-038 in fiscal 2026, at 9 institutions. The median yearly award was $761,992.

Most projects: University of California Los Angeles (California), 2, University of Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), 2, Stanford University (California), 1, University of California, San Francisco (California), 1, Oregon Health & Science University (Oregon), 1.

Recently funded projects
ProjectInstitutionFiscal yearAward
Latrophilin Function in Synapse Formation R01Stanford University2026$681,257
Autoimmune Encephalitis and Psychiatric Morbidity: Identifying and Characterizing Novel Antibody Targets R01University of California, San Francisco2026$816,760
Characterizing patient-specific TBR1 mutations: Understanding a master regulator of autism risk R01Oregon Health & Science University2026$786,439
Convergent mechanisms for neurodevelopmental disorder genes R01University of Michigan at Ann Arbor2026$759,200
Context-dependent disease mechanisms of neurodevelopmental disorders R01University of California Los Angeles2026$764,785
Highly Parallel Analysis of High-Confidence ASD and Schizophrenia Risk Gene Mechanisms R56University of California Los Angeles2026$772,569
Transcriptional control by autism associated H3K9 methylation regulators during human neurogenesis R01Weill Medical Coll of Cornell Univ2026$800,667
Striatal Regulation of Prefrontal Cortical Circuit Maturation: Mechanisms and Implications for ASD R01University of Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh2026$673,382

From NIH RePORTER, which lists each project once per fiscal year it was funded. Amounts are the yearly award.

Who has won Mental Health Research Grants grants before

From fiscal 2021 to 2025, Mental Health Research Grants (93.242) awarded $8.8 billion across 6,785 grant awards, an average of $1.3 million per award.

Largest recipients, fiscal 2021 to 2025
RecipientStateAwardsAmount
Yale UnivConnecticut185$371 million
University of Pittsburgh - of the Commonwealth System of Higher EducationPennsylvania200$297 million
University of California, Los AngelesCalifornia176$234 million
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiNew York144$212 million
The Washington UniversityMissouri149$211 million

Top states: California ($1.4 billion), Massachusetts ($1.1 billion), New York ($1.1 billion), Pennsylvania ($667 million), Connecticut ($422 million).

Applying now

This notice no longer takes applications. Agencies often post the same opportunity again under a new number, so check the program's notices on Grants.gov and the similar open grants below.

The notice on Grants.gov keeps its full text and attachments, which is useful for planning a resubmission.

Questions people ask

Is PAR-25-038 still open?

No. It closed on September 7, 2026.

Who can apply for Cellular and Molecular Biology of Complex Brain Disorders (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)?

National Institutes of Health accepted applications from nonprofits, colleges and universities, state and local governments, tribes, small businesses and businesses. The notice adds further conditions, so read its eligibility section.

What is the deadline for Cellular and Molecular Biology of Complex Brain Disorders (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)?

Closed September 7, 2026. Applications are no longer accepted; the program's newer notices are on this page when there are any.

Who has been funded under PAR-25-038?

NIH RePORTER lists 11 projects funded under PAR-25-038 in fiscal 2026, at 9 institutions. The most were at University of California Los Angeles, University of Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh, Stanford University.

Who has won Mental Health Research Grants grants before?

The largest recipients over five fiscal years were Yale Univ, University of Pittsburgh - of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education, University of California, Los Angeles. The program made 6,785 awards worth $8.8 billion in that time.

Similar open grants