The FY19 Defense Appropriation provides $125 million (M) to the Department of Defense Psychology Health/Traumatic Brain Injury Research Program (PH/TBIRP) to support critical psychological health (PH) – and traumatic brain injury (TBI)-related research and development efforts to benefit Service members, Veterans, and other beneficiaries of the military health system. As directed by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, the Defense Health Agency J9, Research and Development Directorate manages the Defense Health Program (DHP) Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) appropriation. The U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) provides execution management support for DHA research program areas, including the Joint Program Committee-8/Clinical and Rehabilitative Medicine Research Program (JPC-8/CRMRP). The managing agent for this Program Announcement is the CDMRP with strategic oversight from the JPC-8/CRMRP.

The JPC-8/CRMRP seeks to implement long-term strategies to develop knowledge and materiel products to reconstruct, rehabilitate, and provide definitive care for injured Service members. The ultimate goal is to return Service members to duty and improve their quality of life. FY19 PH/TBIRP Complex TBI Rehabilitation Research (CTRR) Program Announcements and General Application Instructions for the following award mechanisms are anticipated to be posted on Grants.gov.

Additional information can be found here.

CTRR – Clinical Research Award (CTRR-CRA) – Preproposal due September 10, 2019

• Supports applied and translational research to advance the development of knowledge and materiel products for rehabilitation and restoration of function following traumatic brain injury (TBI).
• Supported research can include preclinical studies using human subjects or samples and observational or mechanistic clinical research studies.
• Supported research should investigate effectiveness of rehabilitation in remediating post-concussive sequelae across the spectrum of known post-concussive vulnerabilities.
• Clinical trials are not allowed.  Preclinical research using animals is not allowed.
• Must address one or more FY19 PH/TBIRP CTRR Areas of Emphasis.
• Maximum funding of $2,000,000 total costs and a maximum period of performance of 3 years.

CTRR – Clinical Trial Award (CTRR-CTA) – Preproposal due September 10, 2019

• Supports clinical trials to validate existing complex mild TBI (mTBI) rehabilitation interventions and practice patterns in Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs rehabilitation facilities.
• Supported clinical trials should measure the effect of the intervention as well as measure the effectiveness of standard-of-care practices in remediating post mTBI sequelae across the spectrum of known functional vulnerabilities.
• Encourages clinical trials that identify determinants of successful recovery, return to duty/work, functional restoration, and objective brain function measurement(s) following mTBI.
• Preclinical studies are not allowed
• Maximum funding of $4,000,000 total costs and a maximum period of performance of 3 years.

A pre-application is required and must be submitted through the electronic Biomedical Research Application Portal (eBRAP) at https://eBRAP.org prior to the pre-application deadline. All applications must conform to the final Program Announcement and General Application Instructions that will be available for electronic downloading from the Grants.gov website. The application package containing the required forms will also be found on Grants.gov. A listing of all CDMRP and other USAMRDC extramural funding opportunities can be obtained on the Grants.gov website by performing a basic search using CFDA Number 12.420.