Funding Opportunities

We now invite applications from collaborative teams of researchers and clinicians to develop a growth chart for the cerebellum of individuals who were born extremely pre-term, that is <30 weeks of gestation. The growth chart should cover the interval from term age (or earlier) to 30 years old. We are looking to complement a normative growth chart that we are developing for full-term individuals so that we can understand the impact of extreme prematurity on the health of the cerebellum. We are committed to a significant investment in analyses using current data and technology, development of new technology and/or a new database, and innovative measures.

We are open to applications for three different strategies to understand the impact of extreme prematurity on cerebellar growth trajectories over the first 30 years of life.  

We are potentially interested in approaches that would assess the cerebellar cortex, the cerebellar nuclei, and/or the white matter inputs and outputs as ways to evaluate and measure cerebellar health and relative growth over time.

An individual may serve as PI on only one application for only one of the strategies. We ask that you pick the strategy you are most suited for – #1, #2 or #3 below – and submit only for that strategy. We truly encourage you to look at yours and your team’s skill set and where you most excel and focus your efforts in that area. Please be clear in your proposal which strategy you intend to deploy. [Note that you may serve as a contributor to multiple applications but as PI on only one.]

Strategy #1: Analysis, using either existing or novel tools, of existing datasets that include data from extremely pre-term individuals (<30 weeks gestation). The goal of strategy #1 would be to understand how cerebellar volume changes in pre-term individuals throughout development from birth to 30 years of age. Up to $1M over 2 years.  

Strategy #2: Development and validation of new analyses that use innovative biomarkers to assess the time course of cerebellar health. Approaches might include measures of surface area, volume, mass, white/gray ratio, white matter volume and integrity, pigmentation, or other variables. Up to $500K over 2 years.  

Strategy #3: Collection of new data from a large cohort of individuals who were born extremely pre-term. New datasets should include adequate longitudinal measures to allow statistical assessment of an individual’s cerebellar growth and/or other measures of cerebellar health across repeated assessments. We want the cohort to span from birth up to 30 years of age, but we understand that new data collection will need to encompass a mix of longitudinal and stratified data. Up to $5M over 5 years with the possibility of renewal.

Please note that because RCP has such a condensed timeline, we strongly prefer Strategies #1 and #2. We are considering Strategy #3 as an alternative if and only if we become persuaded that that other strategies are not going to deliver what we hope to achieve.

We conducted a Request for Information that informed us about some of the issues involved in creating a cerebellar growth chart for extremely pre-term individuals. We will be looking for collaborations that: (i) have the analytical skills to automatically segment and measure cerebellar growth metrics on a fine scale; (ii) possess or have a plan either to create an appropriate dataset of MRI scans and/or to reuse scans that are available from multiple groups, complete with a strong recruitment plan for collection of new data; (iii) can provide enough longitudinal data to allow statistical analysis of an individual’s pattern of development; (iv) can validate that the resolution and signal-to-noise ratio of the source images are high enough to make repeatable measures; and (v) have a commitment and a plan for making the code and results openly available to other groups.

We anticipate that teams could be multi-site and interdisciplinary.

For more information, and to view the full proposal, please utilize the links below.

The Raynor Cerebellum Project (RCP) supports research that improves the lives of patients with cerebellar disorders over a time frame of less than 10 years. RCP has committed an initial $50 million to this effort, as part of what is expected to be a $100 million effort.

The RCP Institute was recently formed to create a closed-loop, AI-directed neuromodulation approach through either deep brain stimulation or non-invasive approaches. An “RCP Artificial Intelligence Core” will be a critical part of the institute’s structure. The Core will use new data from neural recordings in humans and pre-clinical animal models from up to 10 RCP groups to create a Foundational Model for use in the feedback loop for neuromodulation. Data will include time series recordings from healthy humans and animals as well as from humans with brain disorders. Behavioral assessments, brain surface measurements, and deep brain recordings especially in circuits that involve the cerebellum will be used to relate activity to behavior and the effects of invasive and non-invasive modulation on outcome measures that are relevant to improvements in patient well-being. The goal of the Foundational Model is to improve closed-loop neuromodulation approaches. We will consider approaches that use AI to steer neural activity on a moment by moment basis or that teach the brain how to establish better dynamics. In due course, we imagine designing a compact neuromodulation device capable of monitoring brain activity over many channels, using the Foundational Model to plan corrective stimulation protocols, and flexibly writing those decisions into the brain.

RCP invites applications for inclusion as key personnel, leadership, or full teams in this  “Artificial Intelligence Core”. Applications should outline in 1-2 pages how they would use data from the entire Institute and should outline plausible machine learning strategies for creating a Foundational Model that will power new neuromodulation approaches.

We invite applications from collaborative teams of researchers and clinicians. Proposals will leverage and/or extend the knowledge, discussions, and interactions that occurred at the 2nd Annual Big Ideas Summit in 2024 – Invasive and Non-Invasive Neural Stimulation. Teams must include at least one collaborator who was in attendance at the Summit. We are looking to seed, with up to $5 million, projects that have the potential to grow into bigger efforts with major impact.

The submission process will be interactive, iterative, and updatable. Following submissions, the Governing Board will likely reach out with questions or requests to clarify, enhance, and/or iterate submissions. Due to the rolling submission timeline, the RCP may announce some funding awards well before the closure of the formal submission deadline of August 1st, 2024.

The RCP announced its first RFA in March 2023 as the continuation of the work started at the RCP’s Fall 2022 Big Ideas Summit in New Mexico. There was $3 million in Research Funding available for the first RFA covering topics from cerebellar circuit-target interventions, understanding longitudinal anatomical changes in developmental cerebellar disorders, and circuit network changes in cerebellar disorders.