The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) will award a total of $2 million to researchers who study the impact of adolescent drinking on the developing brain.

"We now know that the brain continues to develop into a person's 20s with dramatic changes in structure and function coincident with a period of life during which most youth initiate and escalate their consumption of alcohol," NIAAA noted in the grant announcement.

"This [announcement] calls for applications to propose and test the feasibility of research-study designs addressing the following fundamental questions ... what are the effects (both long and shorter-term) of alcohol exposure on the developing brain ... what is the effect of timing, dose and duration of alcohol exposure on brain development; and ... to what extent do these effects resolve or persist."

Grants of up to $350,000 will be awarded via the R21 grantmaking process. Nonprofits, for-profit companies, schools and governments may apply.

Applications are due March 29, 2007. For more details, see the NIAAA grant announcement online.