Technology & Innovation· Daily Pulse

NIH HEAL is still the biggest addiction-tech grant pool no one applies for

FY24 HEAL budget: $355M, 280 projects, $3.9B cumulative. NIDA's SBIR/STTR programs are an explicit door for digital therapeutics — and the FY27 fight is the moment to engage, not retreat.

ByThe Rize NewsroomMay 21, 20262 min read

NIH HEAL is still the biggest addiction-tech grant pool no one applies for

The NIH HEAL Initiative — jointly run by NIDA and NINDS — disbursed $355 million in FY24 across 280+ active research projects supporting more than 250 investigators. Cumulative since 2018: $3.9 billion across 2,200+ projects in all 50 states + DC. Every one of those numbers is bigger than the entire venture-capital category for addiction-tech.

The SBIR/STTR door

The piece of HEAL most relevant to recovery-tech founders is NIDA’s Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs. These are non-dilutive, contract-based federal awards — Phase I typically $300K over 6–12 months, Phase II $2M+ over 2 years — designed for exactly the kind of FDA-regulated digital therapeutic, mobile health platform, or health-IT solution that fits the recovery-navigation thesis. NIDA’s Strategic Plan Priority Area 5 — “Translate Research into Innovative Health Applications” — explicitly elevates this pathway as a strategic priority.

The cautionary tale is right next door. Pear Therapeutics — the FDA-approved digital therapeutic for SUD that went bankrupt in 2023 — built on top of NIH-funded science but staked its commercial model on payer reimbursement that never materialized. The lesson is not “skip federal funding”; it is “use federal funding for what it is good for (validation, evidence base, regulatory preparation), and build a commercial model that does not require single-payer adoption to survive.”

The FY27 fight

The administration’s FY27 budget proposal would merge NIDA and NIAAA into a “National Institute of Substance Use and Addiction Research” with roughly $165M in net cuts versus FY26 enacted levels. Congress rejected the more aggressive FY26 reorganization (NIDA + NIAAA + NIMH → “National Institute of Behavioral Health” with a 40% NIH discretionary cut). The FY27 fight is now beginning, and the addiction-tech founder community is largely absent from it.

For Rize specifically: the SBIR/STTR pathway is on the near-term roadmap as a non-dilutive parallel to the pre-seed raise. We are tracking PA-25-302 (Translational Research) and NIDA’s Avenir Award for FY27 deadlines.

→ How NIH funding fits the Rize roadmap (founder perspective)

Sources Cited

Filed Under

policysciencetreatment

More from this section

Technology & Innovation

Relationship between attentional bias and psychological craving in methamphetamine use disorder

There's no FDA-approved medication for methamphetamine addiction. A dual-target TMS trial enrolling in 2026 targets the MPFC and DPFC simultaneously — the two brain regions most compromised by chronic stimulant use. Here's the science behind the approach.

Technology & Innovation

An AI Can Now Diagnose Addiction With 83% Accuracy. The Treatment System Still Can't Keep Up.

University of Cincinnati researchers built an AI that diagnoses substance use disorder with 83% accuracy using behavioral economics tools. The harder problem is what happens after the diagnosis.

Technology & Innovation

Ozempic for Addiction? The Science Is Catching Up to the Headlines

GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide show 50-56% lower AUD risk in a 2024 Nature study, with VA data confirming effects across 5+ substance classes. Clinical trials now running for opioid and cocaine use disorder.