Defense Health Program
Department of Defense Psychological Health/Traumatic Brain Injury Research Program

Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18)

The FY18 Defense Appropriation provides $125 million (M) to the Department of Defense Psychological Health/Traumatic Brain Injury Research Program (PH/TBIRP) to support critical PH- and 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 managing agent for the anticipated Program Announcement/Funding Opportunity is the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC).  The CDMRP provides PH/TBIRP execution management support for DHP core research program areas, including the Joint Program Committee 6/ Combat Casualty Care Research Program (JPC-6/CCCRP).  JPC-6/CCCRP provides strategic oversight for the PH/TBI funds associated with this funding Program Announcement.  The Defense Health Agency is working in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and other Federal agencies on research efforts to improve the lives of Service members and Veterans affected by traumatic brain injury, posttraumatic stress disorder, and other mental health conditions.

The FY18 PH/TBIRP Program Announcement and General Application Instructions for the following award mechanism is posted on the Grants.gov website.

http://cdmrp.army.mil/funding/phtbi

FY18 PHTBIRP Joint DoD and VA Long-term Impact of Military-relevant Brain Injury Consortium (LIMBIC) – Preproposal due October 8

• Independent investigators at all academic levels (or equivalent)
• Supports a consortium conducting a single large longitudinal study and supporting sub-studies to analyze a large TBI cohort to include Service member and Veterans.
• Applicants must be able to demonstrate the ability to enroll relevant cohorts, including military and Veteran populations, and follow them over time.
• Applicants must address the Required Research Elements outlined in the Program Announcement.
• Applications should describe a single large longitudinal cohort study and a minimum of four related sub-studies.
• All projects shall be limited to clinical and epidemiological research.
• Clinical trials are not supported.
• Coordinating Center and study sites must apply through a single application.
• Preproposal is required; application submission is by invitation only.
• Maximum allowable costs (direct and indirect) are $25M via the DoD.
• Up to an additional $5M per year for 5 years will be provided by the VA to VA sites, depending on availability of funds.
• Maximum period of performance is 5 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 Announcements and General Application Instructions available for electronic downloading from the Grants.gov website.  The application package containing the required forms for each award mechanism will also be found on Grants.gov.  A listing of all CDMRP and other USAMRMC extramural funding opportunities can be obtained on the Grants.gov website by performing a basic search using CFDA Number 12.420.

For email notification when Program Announcements are released, subscribe to program-specific news and updates under “Email Subscriptions” on the eBRAP homepage at https://eBRAP.org.  For more information about the PH/TBIRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (http://cdmrp.army.mil).

Point of Contact:

CDMRP Help Desk
301-682-5507
help@eBrap.org

Defense Health Program
Department of Defense Vision Research Program

Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18)

The FY18 Defense Appropriation provides $15 million (M) to the Department of Defense Vision Research Program (VRP) to support innovative, high-impact vision research.  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 managing agent for the anticipated Program Announcements/Funding Opportunities is the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC).

FY18 VRP Program Announcements and General Application Instructions for the following award mechanisms are posted on the Grants.gov website.

Focused Translational Team Science Award (FTTSA) – Preproposal due September 4, 2018

PIs must be independent investigators at or above the level of Associate Professor (or equivalent) with experience in developing and running large-scale initiatives.

• Co-investigators may be independent investigators at all academic levels (or equivalent).

• Preproposal is required; application submission is by invitation only.
• Support highly collaborative and translational team initiatives that would fundamentally advance the understanding and treatment of vision trauma.
• Proposed research must focus on eye injury or visual dysfunction as related to a traumatic event.  Examples of trauma include, but are not limited to:
• Blast, blunt, thermal or chemical trauma;
• Trauma caused by directed energy weapons such as laser, microwaves and particle beams;
• Ionizing radiation

• Supports a multifaceted, multidisciplinary and highly coherent investigation with 3-5 teams addressing complementary and synergistic questions that center around a specific trauma.  Examples of questions include, but are not limited to:
• Elucidation of molecular, cellular, and biophysical mechanisms;
•  Identification of biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets;
• Development and validation of therapeutic agents and/or devices;
• Development and validation of drug delivery platforms appropriate for said trauma;
• Development or improvement of clinically relevant models for said trauma;
• Design of protection to mitigate the impact of said trauma on eye and vision.
• The proposal should spell out the goals of individual teams as well as describe the ways for the teams to cooperate and effectively share and utilize the newly acquired knowledge in moving the project forward.

Preliminary data required.

May include a pilot clinical trial component that collects preliminary data to support the feasibility, rationale and design of subsequent clinical trials.

Emphasis is on synergy, translational potential, and strategy to transition findings into products.

Maximum funding of $5.0M for direct costs (plus indirect costs)

Maximum period of performance is 4 year

Investigator Initiated Research Award (IIRA) – Preproposal due September 4, 2018

• Independent investigators at all academic levels (or equivalent).

• Preproposal is required; application submission is by invitation only.
• Supports studies that will yield highly impactful discoveries or major advancements in the research and/or patient care of the military-relevant vision trauma.
• Must focus on eye injury or visual dysfunction as related to a military-related traumatic event.  Examples of trauma include, but are not limited to:

o   Blast, blunt, thermal or chemical trauma;

o   Trauma caused by directed energy weapons such as laser, microwaves and particle beams;

o   Ionizing radiation

• Preliminary data required.
• Clinical trials are not allowed.
• Maximum funding of $500K for direct costs (plus indirect costs)

• Maximum period of performance is 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 Announcements and General Application Instructions available for electronic downloading from the Grants.gov website.  The application package containing the required forms for each award mechanism will also be found on Grants.gov.  A listing of all CDMRP and other USAMRMC extramural funding opportunities can be obtained on the Grants.gov website by performing a basic search using CFDA Number 12.420.

For email notification when Program Announcements are released, subscribe to program-specific news and updates under “Email Subscriptions” on the eBRAP homepage at https://eBRAP.org.  For more information about the VRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (http://cdmrp.army.mil).

Point of Contact:

CDMRP Help Desk

301-682-5507
help@eBrap.org

AIMM Research Award

Detailed descriptions of the funding opportunity, evaluation criteria, and submission requirements can be found in the Program Announcement. The Program Announcement is available electronically for downloading from the Grants.gov website (http://www.grants.gov), the CDMRP website (http://cdmrp.army.mil/funding/prgdefault.shtml) and the electronic Biomedical Research Application Portal (eBRAP) (https://eBRAP.org).

All CDMRP funding opportunities, both recently and previously released, are available on the CDMRP website (http://cdmrp.army.mil).

Subsequent notifications will be sent when additional funding opportunities are released. A listing of all open CDMRP funding opportunities can be obtained on the Grants.gov website by performing a basic search using CFDA Number 12.420

Submission is a two-step process requiring both pre-application submission and full application submission.  All pre-applications must be submitted through eBRAP (https://eBRAP.org/).  Full applications from extramural organizations (non-DoD organizations) must be submitted through Grants.gov (http://www.grants.gov/).  Intramural DoD organizations may submit full applications to either eBRAP or Grants.gov.  Refer to the General Application Instructions, Section II.A. for registration and submission requirements for eBRAP and Grants.gov.  For detailed information on the submission process, refer to Section II.D. of the Program Announcement/Funding Opportunity.

eBRAP is a multifunctional web-based system that allows PIs to submit their pre-applications electronically through a secure connection, to view and edit the content of their pre-applications and full applications, to receive communications from the CDMRP, and to submit documentation during award negotiations and period of performance.  A key feature of eBRAP is the ability of an organization’s representatives and PIs to view and modify the Grants.gov application submissions associated with them.  eBRAP will validate Grants.gov application files against the specific Program Announcement/Funding Opportunity requirements and discrepancies will be noted in an email to the PI and in the Full Application Files tab in eBRAP.  It is the applicant’s responsibility to review all application components for accuracy as well as ensure proper ordering as specified in this Program Announcement/Funding Opportunity.

Please do not respond directly to this message. To be added or removed from this email list please use the “Subscribe/unsubscribe” to program specific news and updates at https://ebrap.org.

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Defense Health Program
Department of Defense Psychological Health/Traumatic Brain Injury Research Program

Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2018/2019 (FY18/19)

The FY18 Defense Appropriation provides $125 million (M) to the Department of Defense Psychological Health/Traumatic Brain Injury Research Program (PH/TBIRP) to support critical traumatic brain injury (TBI)- and psychological health (PH)-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 (DHA) J9, Research and Development Directorate, manages the Defense Health Program’s Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation 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 FY18/19 PH/TBIRP will solicit research applications for the following CTRR Focus Areas:

Mechanisms of Recovery following isolated or cumulative TBI(s) in Service member-relevant injuries:  Clinical research in human subjects that measures physiologic responses to cognitive rehabilitation with the intent to better understand how rehabilitation remediates cognitive or sensorimotor deficits, and ultimately to optimize rehabilitation prescription.

Ecological Assessment:  Investigation of outcome measures focused on military-specific tasks that inform return-to-duty/participation decisions following rehabilitation in patients with TBI.

Cognitive Rehabilitation:  Evaluation of rehabilitation intervention effectiveness in remediating cognitive impairments and functional limitations after TBI.

https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/search-grants.html

CTRR – Clinical Research Award (CTRR-CRA) – Preproposal due September 24, 2018

Independent investigators at all academic levels (or equivalent)

• Supports applied and translational research to advance the development of knowledge and materiel products for rehabilitation and restoration of function following TBI.
• Supported research can include preclinical studies using human subjects or samples and observational or mechanistic clinical research studies.
• Clinical trials are not allowed.
• Preclinical research using animals is not allowed.
• Must address one or more FY18/19 PH/TBIRP CTRR Focus Areas.

Preproposal is required; application submission is by invitation only.

• Maximum funding of $2.0M for total costs (includes direct and indirect costs).
• Maximum period of performance is 3 years.

CTRR – Clinical Trial Development Award (CTRR-CTDA) – Preproposal due September 24, 2018

Independent investigators at all academic levels (or equivalent)

• Supports design and development of the necessary research resources that will serve as a foundation for investigator-initiated clinical trials as described above under CTRR – Clinical Trial Award (CTRR-CTA)
• Final supporting studies required for approval of Investigational New Drug Applications/Investigational Device Exemptions (IND/IDE-enabling) are allowed.  Other preclinical studies are not allowed.
• Clinical trials are not allowed within the period of performance of the CTRR-CTDA.
• Must address one or more FY18/19 PH/TBIRP CTRR Focus Areas.

Preproposal is required; application submission is by invitation only.

• Maximum funding of $200,000 for total costs (includes direct and indirect costs).
• Maximum period of performance is 12 months.

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 Announcements and General Application Instructions available for electronic downloading from the Grants.gov website.  The application package containing the required forms for each award mechanism is also on Grants.gov.  A listing of all CDMRP and other USAMRMC extramural funding opportunities can be obtained on the Grants.gov website by performing a basic search using CFDA Number 12.420.

For email notification when Program Announcements are released, subscribe to program-specific news and updates under “Email Subscriptions” on the eBRAP homepage at https://eBRAP.org.  For more information about the PH/TBIRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (http://cdmrp.army.mil).

Point of Contact:

CDMRP Help Desk

301-682-5507
help@eBRap.org