HEAL Initiative: Optimization of Therapeutic Medical Devices through Team Science Mechanistic Research (RM1)

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) intends to publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to investigate the mechanisms of action of therapeutic medical devices. The goal is to improve clinical outcomes with device-based approaches. Applications will be invited from interdisciplinary teams pursuing innovative research on how medical devices produce a therapeutic effect. • The program will accept projects on investigational devices and those already FDA-approved and in clinical use. • Applications are expected to include strategies for developing or optimizing therapies that could significantly improve patient care. • Supported research may include mechanistic clinical trials, animal studies, and computational modeling or simulation. • Applicant teams will likely exhibit expertise in areas such as engineering, biology, pathophysiology, surgery, clinical care, healthcare delivery, biostatistics, software development, computational modeling, artificial intelligence, regulatory science, and clinical trials.