Launched in April 2018, the NIH Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative is an aggressive, trans-agency effort to speed scientific solutions to stem the national opioid public health crisis. The Initiative will advance research to reduce the risks of opioid use and misuse and improve pain management, thereby reducing reliance on opioids. NINDS is the lead Institute for pain research at NIH and leads the Executive Committee of the NIH Pain Consortium, which includes 23 Institutes and Centers. The NIH Pain Consortium’s mission includes improving the treatment of a variety of pain conditions. NINDS will focus efforts in the NIH HEAL Initiative in developing non-addictive pain treatments that may displace the need for opioids, and importantly, serve as effective treatments for acute and chronic pain conditions for which opioids are not effective. This work will be informed by partners from the government, industry, academia, and patients suffering from pain.

NIH HEAL Initiative Programs and Funding Opportunities Led by NINDS

The following are a list of NIH HEAL Initiative programs that will be led by NINDS. All HEAL Initiative funding opportunities are available on the NIH HEAL Initiative website, and all NIH funding opportunities related to pain are available on the NIH Pain Consortium website.

 

Discovery and Validation of Novel Targets for Safe and Effective Pain Treatment

These programs will promote the discovery and validation of novel therapeutic targets to facilitate the development of pain treatments that have minimal side effects and little to no abuse/addiction liability as alternatives to opioids. Identifying and rigorously validating new targets for pain treatments will lower the risk of adopting the target in translational projects to develop small molecules, biologics, natural substances, or devices that interact with this target for new pain treatments. 

 

No Open Funding Opportunities at this time.

 

Closed Funding Opportunities/Announcements:

NOT-NS-18-073 Administrative Supplements

RFA-NS-18-043 R01 Research Project Grant

RFA-NS-18-042 R21 Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant

 

Contact:

Michael L. Oshinsky, PhD, Program Director, NINDS

D.P. Mohapatra, PhD, Program Director, NINDS

Preclinical Screening Platform for Pain (PSPP)

The Preclinical Screening Platform for Pain (PSPP) will establish a preclinical testing platform to test potential non-addictive treatments (small molecules, biologics, or natural products) for acute and/or chronic pain. The platform will develop and acquire animal models that more closely mimic a variety of human pain conditions and will use these models to test and characterize promising non-addictive therapeutic candidates submitted by the research community.

 

Contact:

Smriti Iyengar, PhD, Program Director, NINDS

Sarah Woller, PhD, Program Manager, NINDS

 

Resource:

Jan. 30-31, 2019 - Workshop: Critical Evaluation of Animal Pain Models  (Archived Videocast Available)

Optimization of Non-addictive Therapies [Small Molecules and Biologics] to Treat Pain

This program will support preclinical optimization and development of safe, effective, and non-addictive small molecule and biologic therapeutics to treat pain. The goal of the program is to accelerate promising small molecule and biologic hits/leads towards clinical trials.

 

No Open Funding Opportunities at this time.

 

Closed Funding Opportunities/Announcements:

RFA-NS-19-010 UG3/UH3 Exploratory/Developmental Phased Award Cooperative Agreement

RFA-NS-19-020 UG3/UH3 Exploratory/Developmental Phased Award Cooperative Agreement

 

Contact:

Charles Cywin, PhD, Program Director, NINDS

Chris Boshoff, PhD, Program Director, NINDS

Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Biomarker Signatures, and Endpoints for Pain Indications

These programs will promote the discovery and validation of strong candidate biomarkers and endpoints for pain that can be used to facilitate the development of non-opioid pain therapeutics from discovery through Phase II clinical trials.

RFA-NS-18-041 R61/R33 Discovery of Biomarkers, Biomarker Signatures, and Endpoints for Pain

RFA-NS-18-046 R61/R33 Analytical and/or Clinical Validation of a Candidate Biomarker for Pain

 

Contact:

Mary Ann Pelleymounter, Program Director, NINDS

Early Phase Pain Investigation Network (EPPIC-Net)

EPPIC-Net will provide a robust and readily accessible infrastructure for carrying out in-depth phenotyping and biomarker studies in patients with specific pain conditions, and the rapid design and performance of high-quality Phase 2 clinical trials to test promising novel therapeutics for pain from partners in academia or industry. Studies will bring intense focus to patients with well-defined pain conditions and high unmet therapeutic needs. This network will also collaborate with a new program focused on chronic low back pain under consideration at NIH and led by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS).

 

Open Funding Opportunities/Announcements:

OTA-19-008 HEAL Initiative: EPPIC-Net Pain Research Asset Application (OT1)

NOT-NS-19-075 Notice of Information: HEAL/NINDS Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network (EPPIC-Net): Opening to applications for non-addictive pain therapeutics

NOT-NS-19-043 Notice of Information: Clinical Trials that Explore Non-Addictive Therapeutics for Pain Conditions under the Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network (EPPIC-Net)

 

Closed Funding Opportunities/Announcements:

RFA-NS-19-036 U24 Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network - Specialized Clinical Centers (Reissue of RFA-NS-19-025)

NOT-NS-19-043 Notice of Information: Clinical Trials that Explore Non-Addictive Therapeutics for Pain Conditions under the Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network

NOT-NS-19-043 Notice of Information: Clinical Trials that Explore Non-Addictive Therapeutics for Pain Conditions under the Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network

RFA-NS-19-023 U24 Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network - Clinical Coordinating Center

RFA-NS-19-024 U24 Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network - Data Coordinating Center

RFA-NS-19-025 U24 Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network - Specialized Clinical Centers 

 

Contact: 

Barbara I. Karp, M.D. , Program Director, NINDS
301-496-9135

 

Common Fund Program: Acute to Chronic Pain Signatures

Through the NIH Common Fund program, the Directors of NINDS and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) co-chair a working group to lead the Acute to Chronic Pain Signatures program which will develop a set of objective biomarkers that provide a “signature” to predict a transition from acute to chronic pain, in order to accelerate therapy development and ultimately to guide pain prevention strategies.

No Open Funding Opportunities at this time.

 

Contact:

Linda L. Porter, Ph.D., Office of Pain Policy & Planning, NINDS

Translational Devices to Treat Pain

NIH will support preclinical development, translation, and demonstration of safe, effective, and non-addictive device-based technologies and approaches to treat pain under the Translational Devices to Treat Pain program.

 

Open Funding Opportunities/Announcements:

RFA-NS-19-016 UG3/UH3 Exploratory/Developmental Phased Award Cooperative Agreement

RFA-NS-19-017 U44 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Cooperative Agreement 

RFA-NS-19-018 UH3 Exploratory/Developmental Cooperative Agreement Phase II

RFA-EB-18-003 U18 Research Demonstration – Cooperative Agreements

 

Closed Funding Opportunities/Annoucements:

RFA-RM-19-001 U01 Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC): Anatomical and Functional Mapping of Pain-Related Visceral Organ Neural Circuitry 

 

Contact:

Nick Langhals, Program Director, NINDS

Michael Wolfson, Program Director, NIBIB

Gene Civillico, SPARC Program Manager, NIH Common Fund

Pain Management Effectiveness Research Network

The Pain Management Effectiveness Research Network is a broad research effort seeking to improve pain care through understanding the development of chronic pain and by accelerating and improving the process of therapy development to more rapidly move discoveries into clinical practice to alleviate the burden of pain.

 

No Open Funding Opportunities at this time.

 

Closed Funding Opportunities/Announcements:

RFA-NS-19-021 UG3/UH3 Clinical Trial Planning and Implementation Cooperative Agreement 

 

Contact:

Linda L. Porter, Ph.D., Office of Pain Policy & Planning, NINDS