The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke (NINDS), National Institutes of Health, seek to make human brain tissue and biospecimen samples more widely available for research on neurological, psychiatric, and neurodevelopmental disorders. The objective of this initiative is to increase availability of human disease and control biospecimens, increase proactive involvement of the disease advocacy and patient communities, and more efficiently acquire, curate, store, and distribute these tissues with the ultimate goal of reducing the burden of nervous system disorders. In order to do so, the NIH intends to establish multiple contract collection sites (i.e., the NIH Brain and Tissue Repositories (NBTR)) to provide services that will actively acquire, receive, process, store, curate, preserve, and distribute central nervous system and related biological specimens (including fetal tissues) to qualified investigators. These services were previously provided through grants that have expired and/or will be expiring in the coming years. The NIH will now continue these existing services through competitively awarded contracts. New sources are also encouraged to compete.
