NIH SBIR/STTR Funded-Pattern Map

Technology area

Behavioral health

873 funded awards, $522.1M total, FY2023-FY2025.

Data current as of 2026-05-11

Pattern read

Behavioral health awards split heavily between two ICs: NIMH at 269 records and NIDA at 211. Together they account for over half the tag. NIA appears third at 77, capturing the surge in cognitive-decline and caregiver-support tools. The mechanism mix is what you'd expect for a translational tag: R44 dominates at 468, R43 at 245, with a meaningful STTR slice (R41 at 93) that points to academic-startup partnerships in clinical-trial-heavy work. Median award is $462K, slightly below the cross-tag median, which fits the prevalence of pilot RCT-style Phase II awards rather than deep tech buildouts. Recipient concentration is low at 3.8%, so this is not a winner-take-all space. The tag bundles digital interventions, peer-support apps, contingency-management tools, screening instruments, and care-coordination platforms.

Fit indicators

  • NIMH and NIDA together hold over half the records. If your behavioral product targets serious mental illness or substance use, those two ICs are the natural reads.
  • STTR (R41) presence is meaningful at 93 records; academic co-PI structures have been a viable path.
  • Median Phase II under $500K suggests modest clinical-validation studies, not large-scale trials.

Watchouts

  • 'Behavioral health' is heterogenous: a digital CBT app, a screening assay, and a contingency-management protocol all land here. Frame against a specific clinical use case, not the tag.
  • Reviewers in this space are clinical. Technology-led pitches without an outcome measure typically draw pushback.

Where the money sat, by Institute / Center

IC funding decisions are set by portfolio priorities, NOFO scope, and program-officer judgment. These are funded records, not predictions of future funding.

ICNameRecordsMedian award
MH (NIMH) National Institute of Mental Health 269 $552,748
DA (NIDA) National Institute on Drug Abuse 211 $398,093
AG (NIA) National Institute on Aging 77 $502,499
ES (NIEHS) National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences 60 $306,871
MD (NIMHD) National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities 45 $406,092
HD (NICHD) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development 44 $436,249
AA (NIAAA) National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism 37 $499,987
NS (NINDS) National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke 30 $479,706
CA (NCI) National Cancer Institute 20 $692,070
HL (NHLBI) National Heart Lung and Blood Institute 12 $450,163
AT (NCCIH) National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health 12 $294,116
DK (NIDDK) National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases 10 $863,581
GM (NIGMS) National Institute of General Medical Sciences 10 $322,882
DE (NIDCR) National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research 7 $419,346
AI (NIAID) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases 6 $301,865
AR (NIAMS) National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases 6 $1,002,163
NR (NINR) National Institute of Nursing Research 4 $481,871
LM (NLM) National Library of Medicine 4 $645,501
DC (NIDCD) National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders 3 $319,120
EB (NIBIB) National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering 3 $306,556
TR (NCATS) National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences 2 $313,648
HG (NHGRI) National Human Genome Research Institute 1 $399,593

FOA / NOFO routes

Opportunity number prefixes: PA = Parent Announcement (broad, omnibus, multiple ICs), PAR = Parent with Special Review, PAS = Parent with set-aside funds, RFA = Request for Applications (targeted, single-IC, fixed budget). Status unknown means the pipeline has not verified whether the FOA is currently posting awards; the SBIR omnibus has been in reauthorization gap during this window. See the glossary for full definitions.

OpportunityStatusRecords
PA-22-176 unknown 83
PA-23-230 unknown 73
PA-22-177 unknown 63
PA-21-259 unknown 58
PA-23-231 unknown 45
RFA-DA-23-021 unknown 43
PA-20-272 unknown 40
PA-24-245 unknown 31
PA-22-178 unknown 29
PAS-22-196 unknown 29
PA-21-260 unknown 25
PAR-22-073 unknown 23
RFA-DA-19-019 unknown 20
PA-23-232 unknown 16
PAS-19-316 unknown 14
PA-23-233 unknown 13
PA-20-262 unknown 13
PA-24-246 unknown 13
PA-18-579 unknown 12
PA-21-261 unknown 11
PA-18-566 unknown 11
PA-22-179 unknown 10
PA-18-871 unknown 8
PA-20-260 unknown 8
PA-21-345 unknown 8
RFA-NS-23-006 unknown 7
RFA-MD-23-003 unknown 7
PA-25-212 unknown 7
RFA-NS-20-010 unknown 6
PAS-22-197 unknown 6
RFA-DA-19-020 unknown 6
PA-24-247 unknown 6
PA-21-262 unknown 6
RFA-DA-24-038 unknown 5
RFA-NS-20-009 unknown 5
RFA-NS-23-007 unknown 5
RFA-DA-24-018 unknown 5
RFA-NS-20-011 unknown 5
RFA-MH-21-112 unknown 4
RFA-DA-22-023 unknown 4
RFA-ES-23-008 unknown 4
PA-18-573 unknown 4
PA-24-248 unknown 4
RFA-DA-23-018 unknown 4
RFA-DA-22-001 unknown 4
PA-19-271 unknown 4
RFA-DA-23-020 unknown 3
PA-18-819 unknown 3
PA-19-272 unknown 3
RFA-ES-22-004 unknown 3
RFA-DA-23-017 unknown 3
RFA-DA-25-052 unknown 2
RFA-ES-24-003 unknown 2
RFA-DA-25-053 unknown 2
RFA-MD-24-006 unknown 2
PA-19-273 unknown 2
RFA-MD-21-006 unknown 2
RFA-ES-21-008 unknown 2
RFA-DA-19-021 unknown 2
RFA-ES-23-005 unknown 2
RFA-MD-22-004 unknown 2
PAS-19-317 unknown 2
RFA-ES-20-016 unknown 2
RFA-MD-21-005 unknown 2
RFA-MD-23-002 unknown 1
RFA-DA-25-051 unknown 1
RFA-DA-25-047 unknown 1
RFA-DA-25-048 unknown 1
PAR-22-102 unknown 1
RFA-AA-24-001 unknown 1
RFA-AA-24-002 unknown 1
RFA-DA-25-054 unknown 1
RFA-CA-24-023 unknown 1
PAR-23-311 expired 1
RFA-DA-21-015 unknown 1
RFA-DA-25-050 unknown 1
PAR-23-213 unknown 1
RFA-DA-24-017 unknown 1
PA-24-253 unknown 1
PA-18-591 unknown 1
RFA-ES-20-008 unknown 1
RFA-DA-22-018 unknown 1
PA-18-574 unknown 1
PA-20-261 unknown 1
RFA-AG-21-025 unknown 1
PAR-21-225 unknown 1
PA-20-265 unknown 1
RFA-ES-22-006 unknown 1
PA-21-071 unknown 1

Comparable funded projects

ApplIDFYICTitleOrganizationAmount
10923432 2025 MD MiREA, a mHealth intervention to Reduce Health Disparities by Improving Equitable Access to Mandated College Students with Problematic Alcohol and Marijuana Use MHEALTH SYSTEMS, INC $296,519
10983779 2025 MH Voice-based AI to scale evaluation of crisis counseling in 988 rollout LYSSN.IO, INC. $840,309
11001572 2025 MH A parallelized imaging platform for accurate and efficient long-term assessment of brain organoid development RAMONA OPTICS, INC. $475,002
11005333 2025 AA Characterization of a novel non-hallucinogenic psilocybin derivative for alcohol use disorder TERP LIFE, LLC $320,263
11017717 2025 MH Scaling Volumetric Imaging, Analysis and Science Communication Using Immersive Virtual Reality ISTOVISR $1,196,536
11030838 2025 DA Modeling Physiology and Behavior of Veterans to Avert Opioid Related Mortality Through Timely Intervention BEHAIVIOR INC. $648,512
11031367 2025 DA Fast-track: Scalable digital delivery of evidence-based training for addiction professionals to maximize treatment admission and retention rates of opioid use disorder in affected families. WE THE VILLAGE, INC. $792,422
11032992 2025 DA Advancing Nr4a1 as a novel target in cocaine use disorder. RAFIAS LLC $405,230

Review panels that have appeared on these records

Panel names use NIH's Center for Scientific Review (CSR) format: a 2-4 letter study-section code plus a meeting-cycle number in parentheses (e.g. ISB (12) = Instrumentation and Systems Development, cycle 12). SBIR/STTR review groups are temporary, meeting-specific bodies. The names below describe panels that have appeared on the cited funded-project records, not where future applications get assigned. NIH assigns panels at the time of submission based on the application content.

Limitations

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