Director's Messages

In June 2018, NIH rolled out the Research Plan for the NIH HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term^SM) Initiative, a trans-agency effort to speed scientific solutions to the opioid crisis. We are now excited to announce the publication of over 30 Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) for fiscal year 2019.

As the US population ages, the burden of illness due to dementia continues to grow at an alarming rate. 

For so many reasons, I always look forward to the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN), taking place in San Diego this year from

Last week, the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research, a group of 14 NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices (ICOs) that support research on the nervous system, released a Request for Information on the Proposed Funding Priorities for Neuroscience Research and Input on Cross-Cutting Opportunities. 

In our last two updates to highlight NINDS contributions to therapies for neurological disorders, we focused on a recombinant clot-busting protein for acute stroke, enzyme replacement therapies for lysosomal storage disorders, and an RNA-targeting treatment for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

Researchers funded by the NIH BRAIN Initiative continue to break new ground in

At the end of January, we launched a new feature on our website that shows how NINDS and the research we support contribute to the discovery and development of treatments for neurological disorders.

In last month’s NINDS Director’s message I introduced the planning stages of the NIH HEAL Initiative, Helping to End Addiction Long-term. After months of planning, the HEAL Initiative is being rolled out today in a Viewpoint published in the Journal of the American Medical Association

NINDS Director Walter J. Koroshetz and NCI Director Norman E. Sharpless

NIH relies heavily on investigator-initiated R01 grants to fuel its science. This democratic approach is responsible in large part for the success of the American biomedical research enterprise.