BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN): Coordinating Unit for Biostatistics, Informatics, and Engagement (CUBIE) (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA MH 21 237

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA MH 21 237

The funding opportunity titled "BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN): Coordinating Unit for Biostatistics, Informatics, and Engagement (CUBIE) (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" (RFA-MH-21-237) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) cooperative agreement meant to build shared coordination infrastructure for the BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network. The central idea is to fund a Coordinating Unit for Biostatistics, Informatics, and Engagement (CUBIE) that helps the broader BICAN consortium process, organize, standardize, and share large-scale brain cell atlas data in a way that supports discovery in brain function and brain disorders while strengthening rigor, transparency, and reproducibility across the program.

CUBIE is structured around four distinct components, each targeting a major bottleneck in multi-site, multi-technology brain atlas efforts. The four components are: (1) a common sequencing data processing pipeline, (2) a common imaging data processing pipeline, (3) a comprehensive brain cell knowledge base, and (4) an engagement and outreach component that coordinates research activities within BICAN and connects BICAN resources to the wider scientific community. A key requirement is that an applicant is expected to propose only one of these components, rather than attempting to cover all four in a single application. In practice, this means proposals should be tightly focused on delivering one well-scoped coordinating function that can be adopted broadly across the network.

Across all components, the FOA emphasizes two overarching goals. First, CUBIE should enable effective exploration of BICAN-scale datasets and knowledge products so that researchers can more easily generate and test ideas about how brain cell types, states, and circuits relate to function and disease. Second, CUBIE is expected to strengthen research rigor and data reproducibility by ensuring that data and associated resources follow FAIR principles: findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. The announcement also highlights transparency of process, which points to clear documentation of pipelines, standards, provenance, and decision-making so that others can understand how results were derived and can reproduce or extend them.

The award mechanism is a U24 cooperative agreement, which typically indicates substantial programmatic involvement by NIH staff compared with a standard grant. While the detailed governance expectations are not spelled out in the excerpt, the cooperative agreement format generally aligns with coordinated, consortium-style work where NIH may collaborate on milestones, harmonization, and integration across awardees. The FOA explicitly states "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," meaning applications should not propose clinical trials as part of the project scope.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of domestic organizations and some non-domestic entities. Eligible applicants listed include state, county, city or township governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; tribal organizations other than federally recognized tribal governments; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (excluding institutions of higher education in that category); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; and small businesses. The FOA also calls out additional eligible groups such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, U.S. territories or possessions, and non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations). This wide eligibility signals an interest in drawing on diverse institutional strengths spanning computation, data infrastructure, neuroscience, community engagement, and large-scale coordination.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding and falls under funding activity areas that include education and health (among others listed in the source data). Multiple CFDA numbers are associated with the FOA (93.173, 93.213, 93.242, 93.273, 93.279, 93.286, 93.853, 93.865, 93.866, 93.867), reflecting NIH institute and program alignments that commonly appear for cross-cutting neuroscience data initiatives. The FOA was created on 2021-07-27 with an original closing date of 2021-11-09, indicating it was a time-bound call aimed at standing up key infrastructure during that phase of BICAN.

Overall, this FOA is best understood as an effort to professionalize and unify the data and knowledge ecosystem around a large brain cell atlas initiative. Rather than funding new biological experiments directly, it targets the shared computational pipelines, informatics platforms, knowledge base development, and engagement/outreach coordination needed to make BICAN outputs broadly usable, trustworthy, and impactful for neuroscience research communities.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health, income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN): Coordinating Unit for Biostatistics, Informatics, and Engagement (CUBIE) (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.173, 93.213, 93.242, 93.273, 93.279, 93.286, 93.853, 93.865, 93.866, 93.867.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2021-07-27.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-11-09. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

Apply for RFA MH 21 237

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