Category Archives: Announcements

Defense Health Program Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program Anticipated Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20)

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The FY20 Defense Appropriations Act provides funding to the Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program (PRCRP) to support innovative, high-impact cancer 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 Development Command (USAMRDC).

The PRCRP is providing the information in this pre-announcement to allow investigators time to plan and develop ideas for submission to the anticipated FY20 funding opportunity.  This pre-announcement should not be construed as an obligation by the Government.  The FY20 PRCRP Program Announcements and General Application Instructions for the following award mechanisms will be posted on the Grants.gov website.  Pre-application and application deadlines will be available when the Program Announcements are released. 

Congressionally Directed Topic Areas:  The PRCRP appropriation of $110,000,000 will provide funds for research into cancers not addressed in the breast, pancreatic, prostate, ovarian, kidney, lung, melanoma, and rare cancer research programs.  To be considered for funding, applications for the FY20 PRCRP must address at least one of the FY20 PRCRP Topic Areas as directed by Congress.  Research applications in the areas of breast, prostate, lung (excluding mesothelioma), kidney, melanoma, pancreatic, rare cancer, or ovarian cancer will not be accepted. The inclusion of the individual rare cancer research program shall not prohibit the PRCRP from funding the below mentioned cancers or cancer subtypes that may be rare by definition.

The FY2020 PRCRP Topic Areas are:

  • Bladder cancer
  • Blood cancers
  • Brain cancer
  • Colorectal cancer
  • Esophageal cancer
  • Head and neck cancer
  • Immunotherapy
  • Liver cancer
  • Mesothelioma
  • Metastatic cancer
  • Neuroblastoma
  • Pediatric, adolescent, and young adult cancers (PAYAC)
  • Pediatric brain tumors
  • Stomach cancer

The FY20 PRCRP Military Health Focus Areas are listed below:

It is central to the vision and mission of the PRCRP that applications address how the proposed research is related to military health, mission readiness, and the cancer health needs of both deployed and non-deployed military personnel, their dependents, Veterans, and other military beneficiaries (i.e., family members of retirees).  The FY20 PRCRP requires all applications to answer at least one of the following Military Health Focus Areas:

  • Environmental/exposure risk factors associated with cancer
  • Mission Readiness
    • Gaps in cancer prevention, early detection/diagnosis, prognosis, and/or treatment that may affect the general population but have a particularly profound impact on the health and well-being of military Service members, Veterans, and their beneficiaries
    • Gaps in quality of life and/or survivorship that may affect the general population but have a particularly profound impact on the health and well-being of military Service members, Veterans, and their beneficiaries

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 that will be 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 USAMRDC extramural funding opportunities can be obtained on the Grants.gov website by performing a basic search using CFDA Number 12.420. 

Submission deadlines are not available until the Program Announcements are released.  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 PRCRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (https://cdmrp.army.mil).

Additional information, including proposal and award mechanisms, can be found on the CDMRP site.

Defense Health Program Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Orthopaedic Research Program Anticipated Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20)

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The FY20 Defense Appropriations Act provides funding to the Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Orthopaedic Research Program (PRORP) to support innovative, high-impact, clinically-relevant research to advance optimal treatment and rehabilitation from musculoskeletal injuries.  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 Development Command (USAMRDC).

The PRORP is providing the information in this pre-announcement to allow investigators time to plan and develop ideas for submission to the anticipated FY20 funding opportunities.  This pre-announcement should not be construed as an obligation by the Government.  The FY20 PRORP Program Announcements and General Application Instructions for the following award mechanisms will be posted on the Grants.gov website.  Pre-application and application deadlines will be available when the Program Announcements are released. 

Applications submitted to the FY20 PRORP must address one or more of the following FY20 Focus Areas:

  1. Compartment Syndrome: Novel treatment strategies to improve current diagnoses for compartment syndrome. Alternatives to intracompartmental pressure measurements are encouraged.
  2. Limb Stabilization and Protection: Development and/or clinical assessment of rapid limb stabilization and novel wound protectants for severely wounded limbs to enable transport at the point of need.
  3. Orthotic Devices: Refinement of high-performance novel orthotic devices designed to enhance whole person performance and decrease pain in patients with limb salvage and impairment.
  4. Osseointegration: Identification of best practices to address infection, rejection, and/or failure of percutaneous osseointegrated prosthetic limbs.
  5. Retention Strategies: Development, optimization, and/or validation of battlefield-feasible diagnostic capabilities, decision support tools, interventions, and/or rehabilitation strategies that can facilitate retention on duty for common combat-related musculoskeletal injuries.  Biomarker studies are excluded.  The current standard of care must be noted.  The rehabilitation strategy and the standard of care must be specified, as applicable.
    1. Point of Injury: Battlefield-feasible strategies that can be utilized at or near the point of injury to allow an injured Service member to remain on duty and stay on mission without the need for immediate evacuation.
    2. Point of Duty: Strategies that can be utilized along the continuum of care to allow an injured Service member to return to duty without separation from Service.
  6. Tissue Regeneration Therapeutics: Development of advanced tissue regeneration therapeutics in nerve, muscle (to include volumetric muscle loss), and/or composite tissue for the restoration of traumatically injured extremities.  Isolated bone or cartilage tissue engineering studies are excluded.
  7. Translation of Early Findings: Translation of early research findings in the orthopaedic surgical care topic areas listed below to move the research toward clinical trials and clinical practice.
    1. Soft Tissue Trauma: Strategies to develop and/or identify musculoskeletal extremity soft tissue trauma treatments for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) or shoulder instability only, to optimize return to duty, work, or reintegration.
    2. Fracture-Related Infection: Strategies to decrease the burden of fracture-related infections (may include prevention, early detection, or improved eradication).  Alternatives to systemic and/or local antibiotic delivery are encouraged. 

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 that will be 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 USAMRDC extramural funding opportunities can be obtained on the Grants.gov website by performing a basic search using CFDA Number 12.420. 

Submission deadlines are not available until the Program Announcements are released.  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 PRORP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (https://cdmrp.army.mil).

Additional information, including the award mechanisms, can be found on the CDMRP site.

National Science Foundation: Salary & Wages Policy

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The NSF recently released the PAPPG 20-1, which applies to proposals submitted or due, or awards made, on or after June 1, 2020. Section IIC2g(i) includes the following language for Senior Personnel & Wages:

“NSF regards research as one of the normal functions of faculty members at institutions of higher education. Compensation for time normally spent on research within the term of appointment is deemed to be included within the faculty member’s regular organizational salary.”

“As a general policy, NSF limits the salary compensation requested in the proposal budget for senior personnel to no more than two months of their regular salary in any one year. (See Exhibit II-3 for the definitions of Senior Personnel.) It is the organization’s responsibility to define and consistently apply the term “year”, and to specify this definition in the budget justification. This limit includes salary compensation received from all NSF-funded grants. This effort must be documented in accordance with 2 CFR § 200, Subpart E, including 2 CFR § 200.430(i). If anticipated, any compensation for such personnel in excess of two months must be disclosed in the proposal budget, justified in the budget justification, and must be specifically approved by NSF in the award notice budget.16“

Please note that any proposals submitted or due, or awards made, prior to June 1, 2020 will still be subject to the policies and procedures established in the PAPPG 19-1.

Department of Transportation: Competitive Academic Agreement Program (CAAP)

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The US Department of Transportation has published a CAAP grant opportunity under CFDA 20.703 – Interagency Hazardous Materials Public Section Training and Planning Grants associated with the Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).

Section 12 of the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2002 (Pub. L. No. 107-355) mandates that DOT and other designated federal agencies must “carry out a program of research, development, demonstration and standardization to ensure the integrity of pipeline facilities.”

Specifically, PHMSA’s Pipeline Safety R&D Program’s mission is to sponsor R&D projects focused on providing near-term solutions that will improve the safety, reduce the environmental impact, and enhance the reliability of the Nation’s pipeline transportation system. The goals and objectives of the CAAP initiative, as discussed below, directly support both this mission and the congressional mandate.

The CAAP initiative is intended to spur innovation by enabling academic research focused on high technical risk and high payoff solutions for many pipeline safety challenges. It will potentially deliver solutions that can be handed off to PHMSA’s core research program for demonstration and deployment. The goal is to validate proof of concept for a thesis or theory along a logical path towards commercialization.

The pipeline industry and federal/state regulators are experiencing low numbers of entry-level applicants for engineering or technically focused positions. Consequently, another goal of the CAAP initiative is to expose undergraduate and graduate research students to subject matter that is common to pipeline safety challenges, encourage them to participate in these subjects, and illustrate how their engineering or technical disciplines are highly needed in the pipeline field. The ultimate benefit would be to cultivate new talent in all aspects of the pipeline industry.

New Funding Opportunity: Department of Defense National Defense Education Program

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The Department of Defense (DoD) recently published the RFP for the National Defense Education Program (NDEP) for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education, Outreach, and Workforce Initiative Programs, Fiscal Year 2020.

DOD seeks innovative applications on mechanisms to implement STEM education, outreach, and/or workforce initiative programs, here onto will be referred as STEM activities. The Department intends to award multiple grants, subject to the availability of funds. Each individual award will be up to a maximum of $3,000,000, for a period of up to three years. Applications for larger amounts may be considered on a case-by-case basis.

The Federal STEM Strategy states, “The pace of innovation is accelerating globally, and with it the competition for scientific and technical talent. Now more than ever the innovation capacity of the United States—and its prosperity and security—depends on an effective and inclusive STEM education ecosystem”. In addition, the National Defense Strategy has called for the Department of Defense to make significant investments in science and technology modernization priority areas to meet key capability and capacity needs. 

DoD is the largest employer of scientists and engineers in the United States. Therefore, the Department must maintain a robust pipeline of STEM talent by investing in pre-kindergarten through undergraduate STEM activities to ensure the DoD has enduring access to the best and brightest talent. The NDEP enables the DoD to cultivate and access high-quality STEM personnel vital to national defense now and in the future. This solicitation seeks innovative approaches to support DoD STEM education, outreach, and workforce development that aligns with DoD and Federal STEM Strategic Plans.