Optimizing Behavioral Sleep Interventions for Adolescents and Young Adults (R34 Clinical Trial Required)

The Optimizing Behavioral Sleep Interventions for Adolescents and Young Adults funding opportunity is administered by the National Institutes of Health under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, specifically through the National Institute of Mental Health. This program reflects NIH’s broader mission to advance scientific knowledge to improve health outcomes, with a focused emphasis here on mental health research. The initiative targets a growing public health concern: sleep disturbances among adolescents and young adults, particularly those with or at risk for mental health disorders. By supporting early-stage clinical research, the program aims to refine behavioral interventions that can be tested and scaled in real-world settings. The primary purpose of this funding opportunity is to support pilot clinical trials that adapt, optimize, and evaluate behavioral sleep interventions. These interventions are expected to address common sleep problems while also examining their relationship to mental health outcomes. Applicants are encouraged to explore not only whether interventions work, but also how and why they work by identifying underlying mechanisms of change. The research scope includes feasibility, tolerability, acceptability, safety, and preliminary effectiveness, making this a preparatory step toward larger-scale trials. Funding is structured as a discretionary grant mechanism, with an estimated total program funding of 1500000 dollars and approximately six awards anticipated. While specific award ceilings and floors are not defined in the available materials, the program is intended to support pilot-scale research rather than large, fully powered trials. There is no cost sharing or matching requirement, which lowers financial barriers for applicants. Funds may be used to support clinical trial activities, interdisciplinary collaboration, data collection, and analysis aligned with the stated research objectives. Eligibility for this opportunity is broad across U.S.-based entities. Eligible applicants include state and local governments, federally recognized tribal governments and organizations, public and private institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations with or without 501(c)(3) status, small businesses, and certain for-profit organizations. However, foreign organizations and non-U.S. components of domestic organizations are explicitly excluded. The program strongly encourages interdisciplinary teams, including expertise in mental health, sleep medicine, developmental science, clinical trials methodology, behavioral economics, implementation science, data science, and human-computer interaction. The application process requires submission through Grants.gov and adherence to NIH application procedures. Applicants must prepare a full clinical trial proposal that includes detailed research plans, methodology, and evaluation strategies. While no pre-application requirement such as a letter of intent is specified in the summary, applicants are expected to follow all NIH submission guidelines and include required components typical of NIH R34 clinical trial applications. Applications are evaluated based on scientific merit, innovation, feasibility, and the potential to generate data that can inform future large-scale trials. The timeline for this opportunity includes a posted date of May 28, 2026, with the current and original application deadline set for October 22, 2026. The opportunity remains open for submissions until that date, after which it will be archived in December 2026. While no explicit award notification timeline is provided, NIH funding cycles typically involve several months of peer review and administrative processing following submission. The opportunity does not explicitly state recurrence, but similar NIH funding announcements are often reissued periodically. Overall, this funding opportunity represents a strategic investment in early-stage clinical research addressing the intersection of sleep and mental health in youth populations. By emphasizing real-world applicability and interdisciplinary collaboration, the program aims to generate actionable insights and foundational data that can lead to more effective, scalable interventions in future research phases.