Speech Processor Optimization for Cochlear Implants

The summary for the Speech Processor Optimization for Cochlear Implants grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the National Institutes of Health, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Speech Processor Optimization for Cochlear Implants: The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) seeks investigator-initiated applications for research project grant awards (R01) or Exploratory/Developmental research grant awards (R21) to advance the design of speech processors for cochlear implants. The goal of this RFA is to support the development of innovation and enhancements for cochlear implants that will increase the level of patient performance. The proposed research may involve conceptualization, design, fabrication, and/or testing of algorithms for evoking neural activity with cochlear implants. Applications responsive to this RFA will seek improvements in patient benefit under adverse conditions, such as background noise, unfavorable states of neural survival, long-term deafness, prelingual deafness, etc. Applications should contain clearly formulated plans leading to improvements in patient performance, which has traditionally been quantified by speech recognition tasks. Applicants may propose the development of hardware or software that can be widely used by biomedical or clinical researchers studying patients already implanted with commercially-available devices. Applicants may also propose novel, unproven approaches for implant function which promise patient performance beyond the capabilities of devices currently available. Applications received in response to this RFA may employ either the R21 or the R01 mechanism. The R21 is designed to support the early and conceptual stages for innovative approaches that lack proof-of- principle. Investigators with substantial preliminary data and utilizing a more incremental approach to the problem should seek an R01.