RFA Opportunities

The BD² Discovery Research program funds multidisciplinary teams working to uncover causal biological mechanisms of bipolar disorder and develop new avenues toward more effective interventions. Cycle 5 is open broadly across mechanistic areas of inquiry, with spotlight areas in women’s health, sex differences and the role of hormones, and projects that incorporate or collaborate with the BD² Integrated Network.

BD² is seeking additional clinic sites in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom to join the Integrated Network, which combines a Longitudinal Cohort Study with a Learning Health Network to deepen understanding of bipolar disorder and improve care. Selected sites will recruit and follow an initial cohort of 100 people with bipolar I disorder, contribute longitudinal multimodal data, and participate in collaborative learning across the network.

Aligning Research to Impact Autism (ARIA) and BD² invite selected vendors to submit proposals to serve as an iPSC biorepository provider. The selected vendor will generate, conduct quality control on, expand, store, and distribute up to 3,000 iPSC lines over five years to support autism and bipolar disorder research.

The BD² Data Science Fellowship supports postdoctoral researchers applying data science expertise to existing BD² datasets. Fellows will work within BD²-funded teams or institutions to advance projects that generate new insights, develop computational tools, and strengthen the network’s ability to better understand the biology, trajectory, and mechanisms of bipolar disorder.

BD² seeks applications from qualified organizations to serve as a consultant to the Integrated Network’s Learning Health Network (LHN). The selected partner will provide strategic guidance and implementation support to help advance the LHN into a coordinated system that leverages real-world data and shared learning to improve care and outcomes for people living with bipolar disorder. 

The Discovery Research program supports an innovative and collaborative group of researchers working together to improve our understanding of the biological mechanisms that underlie bipolar disorder. For this funding cycle, we especially encourage applications that address the cellular and molecular mechanisms of mood-state switching; biological mechanisms by which manic or depressive episodes are induced by external risk factors; or using experimental pharmacology to test causality of a molecular or circuit-level mechanism underlying mood-state switching.

BD² seeks applications from qualified organizations or teams to develop and manage a comprehensive mobile application system for data collection, monitoring, and analysis for the Integrated Network. The BD² Integrated Network is part of a multidisciplinary initiative to increase the scientific understanding and, ultimately, to improve care and interventions for bipolar disorder.

The BD² Integrated Network, in partnership with people living with bipolar disorder and their care teams, engages a network of collaborating investigators and clinicians to build an unprecedented data ecosystem for bipolar disorder, implement and inform data-driven improvements in care, and generate novel insights for interventional approaches.