BRAIN Initiative by NIH: status and timeline

BRAIN Initiative

Build the tools to see how brain cells and circuits work, then turn them into treatments for disorders such as Alzheimer's, epilepsy and paralysis.

ResearchStage 1 of 5

FY2026 budget was $429M; the $195M Cures Act share expired 30 Sep 2026 and FY2027 runs on a stopgap to 11 Dec.

Updated 31 Mar 2026Checked 11 Oct0 updates this week

Milestones

Next · Cures Act share expires; FY2027 starts on a stopgap budget

BRAIN Initiative announced by the White House2 Apr 2013Complete.
BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network launched2017Complete.
Human brain cell atlas published (3,000+ cell types)12 Oct 2023Complete.
Budget falls to $321M, down from $680M in FY20232025Complete.
FY2026 budget of $429M signed into law3 Feb 2026Complete.
Cures Act share expires; FY2027 starts on a stopgap budgetTarget 1 Oct 2026Current milestone.

Most important updates

Upcoming

1 Oct 2026Cures Act share expires; FY2027 starts on a stopgap budget (next)
11 Dec 2026Stopgap federal funding expires

Current obstacles

Shrinking, stop-start budgetsFunding fell by more than half from 2023 to 2025; only about half of proposals were funded in FY2024.
The Cures Act cliffThe $195M a year from the Cures Act ends after FY2026; advocates asked Congress for $468M for FY2027.
Leadership churn at partner institutesNIMH has had an acting director since 2024, and the NINDS director, a BRAIN co-lead, was removed in December 2025.

Physics limits

The skull blurs signals from outsideBone and tissue smear electrical signals, so sensors outside the head see the summed activity of huge numbers of cells, never single neurons.
Too many cells to watch at onceThe human brain holds about 170 billion cells; any recording method samples only a tiny fraction of a circuit at a time.
Implants provoke the bodyThe brain treats electrodes as foreign objects and walls them off with scar tissue, so signal quality tends to fade over the years.

How it works

3 parts

Grants

Competitive grants to outside labs

NIH pools money from 10 institutes and awards it to university and company teams through calls aimed at specific tool gaps.

Maps

Cell and wiring atlases

Large consortia profile single cells and trace their connections, giving researchers a shared reference map of the brain.

Devices

From prototype to first patients

Dedicated grants fund early FDA-regulated trials of new implants and stimulators, a costly step most labs cannot pay for alone.

Spec sheet

Spec	BRAIN Initiative
Budget FY2026	$429M^R (reported)
Peak budget (FY2023)	$680M^R (reported)
Cures Act share, FY2026	$195M^R (reported)
NIH institutes taking part	10^R (reported)
Human brain cell types mapped	3,000+^R (reported)
Data held in BRAIN archives	Nearly 14 PB^R (reported)

^R reported by the company

Papers & demos

1 item

12 Oct 2023paper
Human brain cell atlas: 21 papers in Science and sister journals (opens alleninstitute.org)Described more than 3,000 kinds of cells across the whole human brain, a shared reference map for later disease research.

Update log

4 updates

About NIH

The team behind BRAIN Initiative

NIH

US medical research agency, BRAIN Initiative

The National Institutes of Health is the US government medical research agency. In neurotech it runs the BRAIN Initiative, a program shared by 10 NIH institutes that funds brain-mapping tools and first-in-human brain devices.

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.

Company profile →

Headquarters: United States
Status: Government
Valuation: government
Works in: NeurotechNon-invasive
Coverage: 1 program · 4 updateslatest 31 Mar 2026checked 11 Oct
Partners: DARPA (opens obamawhitehouse.archives.gov)National Science Foundation (opens obamawhitehouse.archives.gov)Synchron (opens medicaldevice-network.com)
People: John Ngai (opens ninds.nih.gov)Director, NIH BRAIN Initiative

Spec

BRAIN Initiative

Budget FY2026

$429M^R (reported)

Peak budget (FY2023)

$680M^R (reported)

Cures Act share, FY2026

$195M^R (reported)

NIH institutes taking part

10^R (reported)

Human brain cell types mapped

3,000+^R (reported)

Data held in BRAIN archives

Nearly 14 PB^R (reported)

BRAIN Initiative

Milestones

Most important updates

Upcoming

Current obstacles

Physics limits

How it works

Competitive grants to outside labs

Cell and wiring atlases

From prototype to first patients

Spec sheet

Papers & demos

Update log

Tue 31 Mar

Tue 3 Feb

Thu 12 Oct 2023

Tue 2 Apr 2013

About NIH

Current obstacles

Physics limits

How it works

Competitive grants to outside labs

Cell and wiring atlases

From prototype to first patients

Spec sheet

Papers & demos

Update log

Tue 31 Mar

Tue 3 Feb

Thu 12 Oct 2023

Tue 2 Apr 2013

About NIH