Funding Opportunities

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.

The deadline to submit an application is Friday, May 9, 2025.

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.