Skip Over Navigation Links
National Institutes of Health
:

Science Update
September 3, 2008

NIMH Funds Nine Innovative Projects to Pursue Major Challenges

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has awarded nine exceptionally innovative research projects that hold promise for broad and deep impact on medical science. The grants, among the first made through a program called EUREKA (for Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration), enable investigators to test novel hypotheses or pursue major methodological or technical challenges.

The purpose of this initiative is to foster creative, pioneering, research projects that may have an unusually high impact on areas of science. The rationale for EUREKA is that for science to move forward in leaps rather than in incremental steps, investigators must have opportunities to test unconventional, potentially paradigm-shifting hypotheses, and to attempt to use original approaches to solve difficult technical and conceptual problems that severely impede progress in a field.

"These awards give us a real opportunity to push science forward and move rapidly towards the advances that will make a difference for millions suffering from mental disorders," says NIMH Director Thomas R. Insel, MD.

The newly funded projects are:

Other NIH institutes participating in EUREKA awards are the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke,