Emotional Function in Normal Aging and/or MCI and AD/ADRD (R21 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | PAR 18 582

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 18 582

This NIH funding opportunity (PAR-18-582) supports exploratory, early-stage research aimed at understanding how emotional functioning changes across later life, both in typical (normal) aging and in the context of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias (AD/ADRD). It builds on a well-supported observation from foundational aging research: many older adults show stable or even improved emotional well-being and emotion regulation compared with younger adults. The FOA’s main purpose is to move beyond that broad finding and map out the actual trajectories of emotional change over time, while also identifying the neurobiological factors and brain-behavior mechanisms that may drive those changes in healthy aging and become disrupted in early disease.

The program has three interconnected scientific goals. First, it seeks a clearer picture of normative developmental or maturational shifts in emotional processes as people age, such as how emotion perception, emotional reactivity, emotion regulation strategies, and affective decision-making may change across adulthood into older age. Second, it invites studies that examine how breakdowns in the integrated neural and behavioral systems that support emotional functioning might emerge in MCI and in the early stages of AD/ADRD. In practical terms, that means researchers are encouraged to look at how brain systems involved in emotion processing and regulation (and their interaction with cognition) may begin to operate differently as neurodegenerative changes start, even before more severe clinical impairment is present. Third, the FOA encourages projects that connect emotion-related dysfunction to neuropsychiatric symptoms commonly seen in AD/ADRD, with the idea that problems in emotional processing and regulation may help explain symptoms such as anxiety, depression, irritability, apathy, agitation, or other behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia.

A key theme is mechanism: the FOA is interested in studies that link emotional outcomes to underlying neurobiological and neural-behavioral pathways rather than only describing emotional symptoms. Applicants are positioned to investigate emotion processing and regulation alongside relevant neural factors (for example, patterns of brain activity, connectivity, or other neurobiological indicators), and to clarify how those factors differ across normal aging versus MCI and early AD/ADRD. By sharpening these distinctions, the program aims to identify novel targets for future interventions or prevention efforts. Even though the FOA does not allow clinical trials, the expectation is that strong mechanistic findings could point to intervention strategies that might later be tested to reduce emotion dysregulation, strengthen emotional resilience, or address neuropsychiatric symptoms at different points along the aging-to-dementia continuum.

The grant mechanism is the NIH R21 Exploratory/Developmental Grant, which is designed for high-potential projects in the early, conceptual, or pilot phases where investigators are developing new ideas, methods, or lines of inquiry. The emphasis is on exploratory work that can open up a new research direction or generate foundational data for subsequent larger studies. The posted award ceiling is $200,000. Because this is labeled “Clinical Trial Not Allowed,” proposed studies must not be designed as clinical trials (for example, they cannot prospectively assign human participants to an intervention to evaluate effects on health-related outcomes). Projects can still involve human participants and clinically relevant populations, but the activities must remain observational, mechanistic, measure-development oriented, or otherwise non-interventional in the clinical trial sense.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of U.S. organizations and institutions, such as public and private institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations (with or without 501(c)(3) status), for-profit organizations (other than small businesses), and small businesses, as well as state, county, and local governments and certain housing authorities. The FOA also explicitly welcomes applications from a wide range of mission-driven and community-rooted organizations and institutions, including Hispanic-serving institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs). In addition, eligible applicants include certain tribal organizations and governments, U.S. territories or possessions, faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, and even non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations), reflecting NIH’s intent to encourage diverse perspectives, populations, and research environments.

In short, this opportunity targets research at the intersection of emotion, aging, cognition, and neurodegeneration, with a specific push to (1) define what “healthy” emotional aging looks like across time, (2) detect and explain early emotion-related changes that may accompany MCI and early AD/ADRD, and (3) link those changes to the neuropsychiatric symptoms that often complicate dementia. The end goal is to produce the kind of mechanistic, trajectory-focused knowledge that can guide future prevention and intervention work, even though direct intervention testing is outside the scope of this particular R21 announcement.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Emotional Function in Normal Aging and/or MCI and AD/ADRD (R21 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.866.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2018-01-12.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-07-22. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $200,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

Apply for PAR 18 582

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