The National Advisory Mental Health Council (NAMHC) met on September 15, chaired by Andrea Beckel-Mitchener, PhD, Acting Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The meeting covered NIMH budget challenges, changes to NIH grants and policies, and three new concepts for review. NIMH has not yet provided an update on the search for a permanent director.
Meeting Agenda | Watch the VideoCast
NIMH Updates and Budget Outlook
Dr. Beckel-Mitchener provided an update on fiscal year 2027 (FY27) appropriations, noting that the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS) Appropriations bill includes $2.2 billion for NIMH, a decrease of $98 million from FY26. The bill was approved by the full House Appropriations Committee on June 9. While the Senate has reported that they have written their bill, no details have been shared publicly. She highlighted several active NIMH funding opportunities focused on rapid-acting psychotropic drugs, interventions for older adults with serious mental illness, and behavioral sleep interventions for adolescents and young adults. She also announced the selection of 25 awardees for the seventh cohort of the Outstanding Scholars in Neuroscience Award Program (OSNAP).
During the Q&A, Council members pressed for transparency regarding the NIMH’s declining grant success rate, which has fallen from approximately 21 percent in FY24 to 11 percent in FY25. Dr. Beckel-Mitchener noted that both the future budget and number of applications remain uncertain, making it difficult to project future success rates. As of October 1, NIMH is operating under a continuing resolution through December at FY26 funding levels and has not yet completed its FY27 budget modeling.
NIH Policy Updates
Deputy Director of the NIH Office of Extramural Research (OER), Anna Taylor, PhD, provided an update on NIH efforts to simplify the grant application process. NIH has reduced the number of Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs) by approximately 50 percent compared to January 2025 and is increasing the use of Parent NOFOs for investigator-initiated research. NIH is also streamlining Data Management and Sharing Plans and has eliminated several application requirements, including letters for applications requesting less than $500,000 in annual direct costs and pre-approval for conference (R13) grant applications.
NIH is also reducing the number of Career Development (K) award activity codes from 26 to approximately five and ending the modular budget pilot. For most grant types, applicants will no longer need to provide detailed budgets, although budget justifications will remain required.
NIH Unified Funding Strategy
Dr. Taylor also outlined the early impacts of the Unified Funding Strategy, which launched in January 2026. Under the new framework, institutes and centers will make funding decisions based on peer review, institute priorities, investigator career stage, workforce sustainability, and available funds rather than strictly relying on fixed paylines. NIH will continue to report annual success rates but will no longer publish paylines.
Additionally, NIH is reviewing mixed feedback from a recent request for information (RFI) regarding a proposed cap on the number of simultaneous Research Project Grants held by a single principal investigator. Respondents raised notable concerns about how a cap might negatively impact collaboration and team science.
In the last session of the meeting, NIMH staff presented three scientific concepts for Council review.
