Who funds mental health research?

We count 335 funded mental health projects, active between 2020 and 2034, from 6 funders. The most came from Wellcome (169 projects), EU · ERC (38 projects) and EU · MSCA (30 projects). The median award is $2.1M, across the 294 of 335 projects that list an amount.

Funded projects

335

Funders

6

Median award

$2.1M

Open calls now

24

Top funders of mental health research

Projects whose title or summary mentions mental health. Median award: of the projects that list an amount, in US dollars; “—” when fewer than 3 do.

Open mental health funding calls

24 open calls mention mental health today; the 12 most on-topic are listed.

• Accelerating Solutions to Improve Access and Quality of Empirically-Supported Practices for Youth Mental Health (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)
  National Institutes of HealthNot specifiedDeadline: January 7, 2027 ·
  Real odds: About 1 in 8 funded (13% · NIH R01-equivalent grants, all NIH institutes, FY2025)
• Full-Scale Hybrid Effectiveness-Implementation Trials for Mental Health Interventions (R01 - Clinical Trial Required)
  National Institutes of HealthNot specifiedDeadline: October 15, 2027 ·
  Real odds: About 1 in 8 funded (13% · NIH R01-equivalent grants, all NIH institutes, FY2025)
• Pilot Hybrid Effectiveness-Implementation Trials for Mental Health Interventions (R01 Clinical Trial Required)
  National Institutes of HealthNot specifiedDeadline: October 15, 2027 ·
  Real odds: About 1 in 8 funded (13% · NIH R01-equivalent grants, all NIH institutes, FY2025)
• Effectiveness Trials to Test Mental Health System Interventions (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Required)
  National Institutes of HealthNot specifiedDeadline: October 15, 2027 ·
• Neuromodulation/Neurostimulation Device Development for Mental Health Applications (R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
  National Institutes of HealthNot specifiedDeadline: January 7, 2028 ·
  Real odds: About 1 in 9 funded (11% · NIH R21 (exploratory/developmental), all NIH institutes, FY2025)
• Neuromodulation/Neurostimulation Device Development for Mental Health Applications (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
  National Institutes of HealthNot specifiedDeadline: January 7, 2028 ·
  Real odds: About 1 in 8 funded (13% · NIH R01-equivalent grants, all NIH institutes, FY2025)
• Utilizing Invasive Recording and Stimulating Opportunities in Humans to Advance Neural Circuitry Understanding of Mental Health Disorders (R21 Clinical Trial Optional)
  National Institutes of HealthUp to $200,000Deadline: January 7, 2028 ·
  Real odds: About 1 in 9 funded (11% · NIH R21 (exploratory/developmental), all NIH institutes, FY2025)
• Utilizing Invasive Recording and Stimulating Opportunities in Humans to Advance Neural Circuitry Understanding of Mental Health Disorders (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)
  National Institutes of HealthNot specifiedDeadline: January 7, 2028 ·
  Real odds: About 1 in 8 funded (13% · NIH R01-equivalent grants, all NIH institutes, FY2025)
• Navigator Emergency Department Diversion Models for Non-Urgent Mental Health Concerns (R01 Clinical Trial Required)
  National Institutes of HealthNot specifiedDeadline: January 7, 2028 ·
  Real odds: About 1 in 8 funded (13% · NIH R01-equivalent grants, all NIH institutes, FY2025)
• Navigator Emergency Department Diversion Models for Non-Urgent Mental Health Concerns (R34 Clinical Trial Required)
  National Institutes of HealthNot specifiedDeadline: January 7, 2028 ·
• Innovative Mental Health Services Research Not Involving Clinical Trials (R01 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)
  National Institutes of HealthNot specifiedDeadline: January 7, 2028 ·
  Real odds: About 1 in 8 funded (13% · NIH R01-equivalent grants, all NIH institutes, FY2025)
• Innovative Pilot Mental Health Services Research Not Involving Clinical Trials (R34 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
  National Institutes of HealthUp to $225,000Deadline: January 7, 2028 ·

Real odds

• About 1 in 8 funded · 13% · NIH R01-equivalent grants, all NIH institutes, FY2025 · NIH Data Book, report 29
• About 1 in 9 funded · 11% · NIH R21 (exploratory/developmental), all NIH institutes, FY2025 · NIH Data Book, report 202

Published success rates for the programs behind the open calls above: the share of applications the funder funded, program-wide, not for this topic.

Forecast: announced, not open yet

10 forecast calls on mental health. Funders publish forecasts before a call opens; you can't apply to these yet, and dates can change.

• ForecastChildren's Mental Health Initiative
  Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services AdminisNot specifiedExpected to open December 15, 2026
• ForecastAIDS Research Center on Mental Health and HIV/AIDS (P30 Clinical Trial Optional)
  National Institutes of HealthUp to $1,500,000Expected to open February 25, 2027
• ForecastAdvancing Real-World Effectiveness Evidence for Rapid-Acting Psychotropic Interventional Drugs (RAPIDs)
  National Institutes of HealthNot specifiedExpected to open October 10, 2026
• ForecastHealthy Tomorrows Partnership for Children Program (HTPCP)
  Health Resources and Services AdministrationUp to $75,000Expected to open November 6, 2026
• ForecastUrban Indian Health 4-in-1 Program
  Indian Health ServiceNot specifiedExpected to open December 1, 2026
• ForecastState Pilot Program for Treatment for Pregnant and Postpartum Women
  Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services AdminisNot specifiedExpected to open December 15, 2026
• ForecastRural Communities Opioid Response Program - Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health
  Health Resources and Services AdministrationUp to $1,000,000Expected to open January 22, 2027
• ForecastAdvanced Laboratories for Accelerating the Reach and Impact of Treatments for Youth and Adults with Mental Illness (ALACRITY) Research Centers
  National Institutes of HealthNot specifiedExpected to open January 27, 2027

Funded mental health projects

A sample, latest start first, at most three per program.

• Innovations in Mental Health Fund
  Wellcome · £8,000,000 · ends 2034
• Cognitive Rewards: Mechanisms, Development & Well-Being
  Wellcome · £3,778,510 · ends 2034
• Lonely Minds - Characterizing the neurocognitive effects of social disconnection in adolescence
  Wellcome · £1,679,230 · ends 2033
• CAREER: Using Novel Neural Measures to Investigate Attention Bias
  NSF · SBE · $884,290 · ends 2031
• CAREER: From sensing to action: Enabling robot speech, gestures, and touch to provide supportive responses for human emotional distress
  NSF · CISE · $699,961 · ends 2031
• Collaborative Research: Mental Health Care Pathways: Examining Help Seeking Behaviors in Engineering Graduate Students
  NSF · EDU · $542,805 · ends 2031
• Advancing methods for pharmacological fMRI to improve discovery and development of treatments for mental health
  UKRI · MRC · £1,963,070 · ends 2031
• SaTC 2.0: RES: Collaborative Research: Protecting Young Adults from Unsafe AI-Generated Content
  NSF · CISE · $1,200,000 · ends 2030
• The nez perce tribe extension program works to improve the health, well-being, and quality of life of people living on the nez perce…
  USDA · $102,000 · ends 2030
• Closed-loop non-invasive stimulation for improving brain and mental health
  UKRI · MRC · £2,364,041 · ends 2030

How we count

Funded projects come from public award records (NIH RePORTER, NSF, EU CORDIS, UKRI Gateway to Research, Wellcome, the Gates Foundation, DOE, NASA and USDA NIFA) whose title or summary matches “mental health”. NIH lists each budget year separately; one project counts once. Amounts are as the funder lists them; medians use only projects that list one, in US dollars. Open calls and forecasts are from our listings of October 28, 2026. A project can mention a topic without being mainly about it, so treat the counts as a guide to who funds the area.