Defense Health Program Department of Defense Autism Research Program Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20)

The FY20 Defense Appropriation provides $15 million (M) to the Department of Defense Autism Research Program (ARP) to provide support for research of exceptional scientific merit and innovation with high impact that focuses on autism spectrum disorders (ASD).  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’s 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).

Subject to the FY20 Congressional appropriation for ARP funding, FY20 ARP 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. 

Additional information is available at the CDMRP website.

Award mechanisms include:

  • Clinical Trial Award
    • Investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent), or Nested Early-Career Investigator Option: Investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent) may collaborate on a single application with a young investigator (at the level of postdoctoral fellow up to early-career independent faculty) who meets the following criteria at the application submission deadline date
    • Maximum funding of $2,000,000 for direct costs for a maximum program period of 4 years
  • Clinical Transitional Research Award
    • Investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent)
    • Maximum funding of $600,000 for direct costs and a maximum period of performance of 3 years
  • Idea Development Award
    • Investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent)
    • Possible multiple PI option
    • Maximum funding of $550,000 for direct costs and a maximum project period 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 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 ARP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (https://cdmrp.army.mil).