The brief

Analyst view

• BRAIN Initiative budget for FY2026 was $429M, up 33% on FY2025 ($321M) after a fall from a $680M peak in FY2023.
• The 21st Century Cures Act share ($195M in FY2026) expired on 30 September 2026, so base funding must grow to hold the program steady.
• BRAIN money has backed first-in-human device trials, including Synchron's stent-electrode BCI study.

Technical approach

As reported

Tools first

Fund tools, not single diseases

BRAIN pays for ways to record, image and steer brain cells. Those tools then serve research on many disorders at once.

Cell atlas

Catalogue every brain cell type

Consortia read the active genes of individual brain cells to build a parts list of the brain; the work now continues in a follow-on network, BICAN.

Human devices

First-in-human device trials

Grants of up to $1.5M a year for up to 5 years help teams take new recording or stimulating devices through early FDA-regulated trials.