Mental health and psychiatric research — NIH Funding Overview

Why this matters now

Suicide rates and adolescent depression have remained elevated post-pandemic, prompting expanded NIMH investment in early intervention, crisis response, and pharmacological alternatives to existing antidepressant classes. Workforce shortages also drive funding for implementation science.

How NIH funds this area

Common mechanisms include R01, R21, K01/K23/K99, U01 cooperative trials, and U19 centers (e.g., Conte Centers). The data below covers all NIH awards mentioning mental health in title, abstract, or terms.

What the data shows

• Funding peaked in FY2025 at $3.2B. The FY2025 total of $3.2B is +21% versus FY2021.
• The number of awards fell about 10% in FY2025 even as total dollars grew — funding is concentrating in fewer, larger awards.
• About 85% of FY2026 dollars so far are non-Type-1 award actions, including competing renewals, supplements, non-competing continuations, and institutional changes. This is a descriptive record mix, not a measure of renewal activity alone.
• The average FY2025 award was $623K, and R01 was the most common mechanism in the recent window.

Yearly NIH Awards for Mental health and psychiatric research

Counts and total funding per fiscal year from NIH RePORTER. Recent fiscal years may understate final totals because of reporting lag.

Open the full interactive trends view for Mental health and psychiatric research →

Top NIH Institutes (last 90 days)

Which NIH institutes funded the most Mental health projects in the most recent 90-day window.

Common Activity Codes (last 90 days)

Which grant mechanisms (R01, R21, U01, P30, etc.) appeared most often for Mental health in the recent period.

Most Active Institutions (last 90 days)

Universities and research organizations with the most Mental health awards in the most recent 90-day window.

1. JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY — 19 awards
2. UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL — 15 awards
3. EMORY UNIVERSITY — 12 awards
4. YALE UNIVERSITY — 11 awards
5. INDIANA UNIVERSITY INDIANAPOLIS — 11 awards
6. NEW YORK STATE PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTE DBA RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR MENTAL HYGIENE, INC — 10 awards
7. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES — 10 awards
8. UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — 9 awards

Recently Awarded Mental health and psychiatric research Grants

Twelve most recent awards mentioning Mental health, drawn from NIH RePORTER. Click through to Find PIs for the full investigator search.

• Examining the impact of state laws on intimate partner violence

  5R01HD114769-03
  VANESSA DALTON · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR, MI · $546,000 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · R01

  ABSTRACT: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is common with over 7% of U.S. women reporting physical or sexual violence, and/or stalking in the past year. Moreover, nearly 10% of pregnant women report experiencing either physical or sexual violence during their pregnancy and the prevalence increases to 20% when psychological violence is included. IPV has…

• Economic precarity, costs, and continuity of mental health care

  4K01MH137318-02
  Catherine Ettman · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, MD · $544,458 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · K01

  Catherine Ettman, PhD, is an early career mental health services researcher. Her long-term career objective is to become an independent investigator and national expert on the role of different assets in shaping mental health and mental health services utilization. Research Context: Depression is common, costly, and its burden is felt unevenly. Treatment…

• Cognitive Training for Emotion Regulation in Psychotic Disorders

  5R33MH121560-05
  GREGORY STRAUSS · UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, GA · $549,411 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · R33

  Project Summary Psychotic disorders are serious and debilitating mental illnesses that incur substantial suffering for patients and present major challenges to our health care system. Difficulties with emotion regulation (i.e., the ability to control the emotion response using strategies) significantly predict the development and maintenance of psychotic…

• Understand and mitigating the influence of extreme weather events on HIV outcomes: A global investigation

  3R01AI179420-04S2
  Denis Nash · GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND HEALTH POLICY, NY · $70,498 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · R01

  Project Summary/Abstract The health challenges arising from extreme weather events (EWEs), such as droughts, floods, and major storms (e.g., hurricanes, typhoons) are increasingly common and severe, threatening to undermine public health progress made over the past century. There is limited evidence on how EWEs affect care outcomes among the 37 million…

• Integration of a collaborative care model for mental health services into HIV care for pregnant and postpartum women in Kenya (the Tunawiri Study)

  3R01MH133260-04S1
  Lisa Abuogi · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER, CO · $218,649 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · R01

  Common mental disorders (CMD) of depression and anxiety are prevalent and largely untreated among Kenyan pregnant and postpartum women living with HIV (PPWH). CMD lead to poor maternal and child health outcomes and contribute to lack of HIV care engagement and virologic failure in PPWH. While efficacious treatments for CMD exist, scaling treatment within…

• Group-based Prevention of Postpartum Depression: In-person vs. Virtual Delivery

  3R01MH130976-05S1
  Galena Rhoades · UNIVERSITY OF DENVER (COLORADO SEMINARY), CO · $116,880 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · R01

  Modified Project Summary Section Depression is one of the most common perinatal complications, with 1 in 7 mothers qualifying for a diagnosis of postpartum depression (PPD). This project addresses a major gap in services to prevent PPD. It tests the benefit of a virtual perinatal preventive intervention in English and Spanish to increase scalability and…

• Stepped Care, Peer-Delivered Intervention to Improve ART Adherence and SUD in Primary Care

  3R01DA056102-04S2
  Jessica Magidson · UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK, MD · $244,186 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · R01

  Significance: This proposal is for a type 2 hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial to test an intervention and implementation strategy of a peer-delivered, stepped care approach for integrating HIV and substance use (SU) services in a resource-limited primary care setting. Globally, a SU treatment gap exists, with only 1-4% of individuals who need…

• Structured Peer-delivered ART and Reentry Community Strategy (SPARCS) to overcome barriers to HIV care continuity during community reentry from incarceration in South Africa

  5R01MH131445-04
  CHRISTOPHER HOFFMANN · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, MD · $182,457 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · R01

  PROJECT SUMMARY HIV remains the leading cause of death among adults in South Africa despite the availability of antiretroviral therapy (ART) due to failure to initiate ART and failure to remain on ART. Gaps in HIV care are especially prominent among key populations at high risk for both HIV and reduced use of HIV services. One population with an HIV…

• Health expectations after acute respiratory failure in survivor-care partner dyads

  5R01HL163660-04
  Alison Turnbull · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, MD · $781,143 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · R01

  PROJECT SUMMARY The vast majority of adults with Acute Respiratory Failure (ARF) in the U.S. now survive hospitalization as a result of clinical advances. Many ARF survivors experience new and persistent physical, cognitive, and mental health impairments and >50% of survivors remain dependent on caregiver assistance 1 year after discharge. Family/caregivers…

• 1/3 Akili: Phenotypic and genetic characterization of ADHD in Kenya and South Africa

  5R01MH132968-04
  Elise Robinson · BROAD INSTITUTE, INC., MA · $646,978 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · R01

  ADHD is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that includes attention difficulty, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. The diagnosis is associated with many challenges to educational, occupational, and health outcomes, particularly when untreated. Genetic studies of ADHD have the potential to clarify the disorder’s biological underpinnings, its heterogeneity, and…

• Using person-specific networks to uncover sex differences in vulnerability to internalizing disorders

  4DP5OD036142-04
  Sheila Shanmugan · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, PA · $812,500 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · DP5

  PROJECT SUMMARY/ ABSTRACT Internalizing disorders such as major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder show marked sex differences in prevalence, presentation, and trajectory. For example, depression and anxiety disorders are more prevalent in females than males. The neural mechanisms underlying such sex differences, however, are not well…

• INSPIRE: INterventionS for Promoting kIdney tRansplant Empowerment

  5U01DK137259-04
  Lili Chan · ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI, NY · $836,530 · awarded Aug 28, 2026 · U01

  (30 Lines) Modified Grant Title: INSPIRE: INterventionS for Promoting kIdney tRansplant Empowerment Kidney transplantation (KTx) is the preferred treatment for patients with end-stage kidney disease. Despite recent changes to the kidney allocation system some individuals are less likely to receive a KTx evaluation, a multi-step process requiring patient…

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