The CARE Consortium, the concussion research alliance launched in 2014 by the NCAA and Department of Defense, is nearing the end of its current, five-year phase. And while a grant proposal is currently before the Department of Defense to extend research support for another five years, the NCAA is noncommittal about its future funding of the project.
CARE has become a cornerstone of concussion research, with tens of thousands of college athletes and military service academy members participating to help scientists better understand the long-term consequences of head injuries and inform the effort to prevent and them.
An NCAA spokesperson said the association is “engaged in ongoing discussions regarding the next steps,” but would not directly answer whether that includes providing money after its $10 million contribution to the consortium’s most recent grant.
However, a source familiar with the situation told Sportico that the NCAA is not currently part of the latest funding discussions, which are focused squarely on the Pentagon. The source expressed optimism that the military money would come through but cautioned that it neither had been secured nor guaranteed. It is not known how much CARE is currently seeking, but the consortium’s previous grant, awarded in 2021, totaled $42.65 million. That, in addition to the NCAA’s contribution, included $25 million from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command and $7.65 million from the Defense Health Agency.
That funding is set to expire at the end of this month.
At the start of this year, Congress reduced the Defense Department’s basic research funding by 4.9%, a much smaller amount than President Donald Trump had sought to slash. DOD, rechristened the Department of War under Trump, has since shifted its scientific research budget to focus on military capabilities, at the exclusion of non-defense fields. That shift carries potential implications for concussion and traumatic brain injury (TBI) research, which has relied principally on federal support, particularly from the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health.
A Defense Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Over the past 12 years, CARE has received more than $105 million in funding over the past dozen years, of which the NCAA has contributed at least $23 million, according to public reports. The study initially enrolled 53,000 varsity college athletes and service academy members; roughly one-quarter remain participants today.
The research is being led by the University of Michigan, Indiana University, the Medical College of Wisconsin and the Uniform Services University. The principal investigators at those institutions either declined to comment or did not respond to emailed inquiries. Indiana has served as CARE’s administrative operations core, while Michigan has led the group’s longitudinal clinical study, which involves dozens of other universities.
A March 2026 study published in Neurology, based on CARE data from 3,910 former college athletes across 20 sports, found that a history of multiple concussions was associated with declines in physical, mental, behavioral and cognitive health five years after graduation.
CARE’s 2014 launch coincided with the NCAA’s recent appointment of sports neurologist Brian Hainline to serve as its first-ever chief medical officer. Hainline, now a clinical professor at NYU Langone, retired from the NCAA in 2024 and confirmed via email that he is no longer involved in CARE.
On July 1, the NCAA updated its conclusion protocols to add flag football and stunt to the list of sports requiring medical personnel with expertise in concussion management to be “present” for competitions and “available” for practices.
“The association remains committed to advancing the understanding, prevention and management of sport-related concussion research,” the NCAA spokesperson said.