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BRAIN Initiative
On April 2, 2013, President Obama announced a bold new research initiative, the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative. The BRAIN Initiative® ultimately aims to help researchers find new ways to treat, cure, and prevent many diseases of the brain. The BRAIN Initiative is a collaborative effort among many government agencies and private sector partners.
Official White House photograph of NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins and President Barack Obama announcing the BRAIN Initiative. By Chuck Kennedy via Wikimedia Commons
ABC's BRAIN Initiative Resources
The American Brain Coalition has created for you a set of FY25 BRAIN Initiative talking points to utilize for your advocacy efforts on The Hill and with your representatives.
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On September 25th, 2024, the American Brain Coalition sent a thank you letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee and LHHS Subcommittee for their consistent support for the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative and for acting to restore the program’s funding to $680.4 million in the Senate FY2025 Labor, HHS, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill. Please feel free to use any of the language from our letter or forward it through your own organizations.
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On February 20, 2025, the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus (CNC), in cooperation with the American Brain Coalition (ABC), the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), and Society for Neuroscience (SfN), hosted a virtual briefing to highlight how the NIH’s Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative continues to revolutionize brain science and its profound impact on improving lives by discussing the current and future state of the program. (View Recording & View Summary)
Why is the BRAIN Initiative Important? Review this two-page summary on The BRAIN Initiative to learn more about their scientific advances and priority areas for the future.
Understanding the BRAIN Initiative's Budget
Each year, the National Institutes of Health’s Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® Initiative, or The BRAIN Initiative®, receives its budget from the United States Congress. The NIH BRAIN Initiative is made up of, and managed by, 10 Institutes and Centers (IC) at NIH, whose missions and current research portfolios both complement and benefit from the goals of the BRAIN Initiative.
The BRAIN Initiative® is revolutionizing our understanding of the brain and offering hope for the millions of individuals impacted by brain diseases, disorders, and injuries. The pace of brain science is advancing rapidly, and increased funding is necessary to maximize our exploration of the brain and advance our understanding of the brain and identify cures and treatments.
To continue and capitalize on these opportunities, we circulated a sign-on letter in March encouraging Congress to support robust funding for the BRAIN Initiative of at least $740 million in FY 2025.
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View ABC's Letter in support of FY25 BRAIN® Initiative Funding
View ABC's Written Testimony on BRAIN (Submitted May 3, 2024)
April 17, 2024, the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus (CNC), in cooperation with the American Brain Coalition (ABC), the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the Dana Foundation, the Simons Foundation, the Society for Neuroscience, and The Kavli Foundation held a congressional briefing entitled:
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10 Years of BRAIN Initiative Funding - Building on a Decade of Innovation
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FY25 BRAIN Initiative Dear Colleague Letters
Research supported by the BRAIN Initiative® holds tremendous promise for our understanding of the brain. Further investment in this pioneering research brings us closer to better treatments, prevention, and cures of brain diseases, disorders, and injuries. We are thankful to our champions in both the House and Senate for encouraging their colleagues to sign letters in support of funding for the BRAIN Initiative®.
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House Committee on Appropriations
Senate Appropriations Committee
ABC Joins the BRAIN Initiative Alliance!
The American Brain Coalition is thrilled to become the newest member of the BRAIN Initiative Alliance (View Press Release). Comprised of federal and non-federal members and affiliates, the BRAIN Initiative Alliance mission is to coordinate and facilitate communications from its members related to the BRAIN Initiative.Visit the BRAIN Alliance site for more information on how each Alliance member is contributing to this coordinated effort.
The ABC participates in the following way:
BRAIN Initiative Briefings
The ABC has linked up with the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus when it was established in 2010 to promote a better understanding of how the brain develops, functions, and ages. The Caucus also seeks to raise awareness about the millions of Americans afflicted with neurological disorders or mental illnesses. The ABC has hosted and organized a series of Congressional Neuroscience Caucus briefings to educate members of Congress, their staffers, and the public on the importance of the BRAIN Initiative, and its unprecedented public-private partnership to revolutionize our understanding of the human brain.
Congressional BRAIN Investigators Receptions and Fairs
The ABC, along with other BIA NGO partners and the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus, have organized fairs and receptions bringing BRAIN Initiative-funded investigators to Capitol Hill to demonstrate progress and breakthroughs in brain science by events featuring interactive neuroscience exhibits, and sharing exciting stories about investigators’ work untangling the mysteries of our body’s most complex organ.
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BRAIN Initiative Educational Outreach
The ABC continues to host panels and webinars to educate the brain-related patient advocacy community on the importance of the BRAIN Initiative, highlighting the collaboration involving public, private, federal, and global partners; the goal to develop new technologies to explore how the brain’s cells and circuits interact, and how basic research is the foundation for all great breakthrough discoveries; focus on high impact, high priority research including tools that help researchers understand brain function; and the importance of future neuroscience research as the work to unravel the mysteries of the most complicated structure in the know universe has only just begun.
Advocating for Federal Investment in the BRAIN Initiative
The ABC actively advocates for federal funding of the BRAIN Initiative, providing the brain-related patient advocacy community with the resources needed to speak with Congress and articulate the importance of BRAIN Initiative funding, as well as circulating community sign-on letters and other resources.
Additional information, resources, and articles including BRAIN funded studies, scientists, and researchers:
BRAIN Initiative published a Leading Edge commentary in Cell
BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN) papers in Nature
First Comprehensive Census of Cell Types in Brain Area Controlling Movement | NIH Director's Blog
Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cognitive Neuroscience | Brain & Behavior Research Foundation
Listening to Neurons with Sumner Norman | Translation (simplecast.com)
Columbia-led Team Awarded $18.3 Million from BRAIN Initiative to Research Decision-Making | Columbia | Zuckerman Institute
Study: Gene therapy can restore vision after stroke | Purdue University News
Tracking time in the brain | MT McGovern Institute
'Thinkers And Innovators': What It Will Take To Figure Out The Brain, From A Neuroscience And Al Pioneer (forbes.com)
Mehrdad Jazayeri wants to know how our brains model the external world | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
'Neurograins' Could be the Next Brain-Computer Interfaces | WIRED
Pandarinath Building Cloud-Based Tools to Give Any Neuroscientist the Power of Al (gatech.edu)