A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

The National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, Maryland) will commit roughly $60 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to support autism research and meet objectives set forth earlier this year by a federal advisory committee. The Request for Applications is the largest funding opportunity for research on autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to date and, combined with other ARRA initiatives, represents a surge in NIH's commitment to finding the causes and treatments for autism.

Four grant announcements, sharing a single title, "Research to Address the Heterogeneity in Autism Spectrum Disorders," will use different funding mechanisms to support a range of research topics over the next two years.

Examples of research topics include developing and testing diagnostic screening tools for different populations; assessing risk from prenatal or early life exposures; initiating clinical trials to test early interventions; or adapting existing, effective pediatric treatments for older children, teens, and adults with ASD.