Hello, and welcome! So you want to apply for federal funding from the CDMRP? Excellent! In this video, you’ll learn more about different funding opportunities, where CDMRP posts opportunities, and how to start the application process once you’ve found the opportunity most appropriate for your research.

Let’s start with funding opportunity pre-announcements. These pre-announcements, although not provided for all programs or all funding opportunities, provide information about a program’s anticipated research priorities and short summaries about potential funding opportunities for the fiscal year.

When available, programs often post pre-announcements weeks, and sometimes even months, before the actual funding opportunities are open for applications. Remember, CDMRP cannot release funding opportunities until the President signs the Defense Appropriations Bill. Staying aware of when pre-announcements are posted can be helpful and give you a head start in planning your applications.

CDMRP notifies potential applicants about preannouncements by sending out email blasts from the electronic Biomedical Research Application Portal, or eBRAP, and posting them on the CDMRP website.

After the Defense Appropriations Bill is signed into law, CDMRP can release funding opportunities to the public. Once funding opportunities are open and accepting applications, programs post the funding opportunity announcements in multiple places.

First, you can go onto Grants.gov and enter the CFDA number "12.420" into the search box to pull up the available CDMRP funding opportunities. Alternatively, if you just want to see opportunities from a specific program, you can perform a keyword search using the program’s initials. For example, for the Melanoma Research Program, you would enter MRP into the keyword search.

Next, funding opportunities are posted in the "Funding Opportunities" tab of the CDMRP homepage. Click the tab, and then click on "Program Funding Opportunities." All current funding opportunities are also listed on the "Funding Opportunities and Forms" page of eBRAP.

Finally, notices of funding opportunities that allow for contracts, such as broad agency announcements, or BAAs, will be posted to Sam.gov.

Different research programs may release funding opportunities on different dates, and the release dates of a specific program’s funding opportunities can vary year to year depending on when that year’s appropriations arrive. The best way for you to stay informed and to be one of the first people notified when CDMRP releases pre-announcements and funding opportunities is to subscribe for our email notifications.

Anyone who wants to receive these notifications can sign up to receive email alerts by clicking on "Subscribe to Funding Opportunities and Program Communications" on the CDMRP homepage or navigating to the "Email Subscriptions" section of the eBRAP home page. Both options allow you to choose the specific program, or programs, of interest to you and relevant to your research. Subscribing to email notifications will ensure that you only receive emails related to the selected program or programs.

Once you identify funding opportunities that interest you, it is important to understand the CDMRP application process.

All funding opportunities for CDMRP follow a similar 3-step process.

First, you need to submit a pre-application through eBRAP. A pre-application is required for every application submission. Each funding opportunity will specify one of two types of pre-application-- a letter of intent or a pre-proposal. Regardless of the type of pre-application specified, pre-application submission is required.

For some funding opportunities, a letter of intent, or LOI, is required. The LOI is not reviewed and is for program planning purposes only. An invitation to submit a full application is not provided after LOI submission.

For other funding opportunities, a preproposal is required. Unlike LOIs, preproposals are reviewed during pre-application screening, and applicants must receive a formal invitation letter to submit a full application.

You need to carefully read each funding opportunity you are applying to. The specific type of pre-application can vary from one opportunity to the next and can even vary between opportunities from the same program.

Be sure to address all pre-application requirements outlined in the funding opportunity.

Always give yourself enough time to write and submit the pre-application, and resolve issues if needed, before the pre-application deadline listed on the first page of the funding opportunity.

Then, please submit your pre-application on eBRAP.

On eBRAP, you can see that under "My Application: Pre-Application Files," there are six numbered tabs in the grey header. You can complete tab numbers two through five in any order. The PI named on the application needs to complete the sixth and final tab.

It is critical that the PI press "submit" on the draft pre-applications.

After you submit the pre-application, you will receive an automated email notification stating that the submission is complete.

Once again, all opportunities require pre-application submission, which must occur prior to the pre-application submission deadline specified in the funding opportunity.

If you submitted a pre-application in the form of an LOI, you should start working on your full application as soon as possible. You may submit the full application any time after the successful LOI submission and before the full application deadline, as specified in the funding announcement.

If you submitted a pre-application in the form of a pre-proposal, you will need to wait for an invitation to submit a full application. Your application will not be accepted if you were not invited to submit one.

In either case, you should plan ahead to meet all deadlines stated in the funding announcement.

There are a couple important differences to the full application submission process for PIs from intramural DoD organizations versus PIs from extramural organizations.

PIs from intramural organizations may submit their full applications through eBRAP or Grants.gov, and there are tasks for both the PI and the Authorized Organizational Representative, or equivalent intramural business official, that need to be completed for the full application submission to be successful.

In contrast to intramural applicants, PIs from extramural organizations must work with their Authorized Organizational Representative, who submits the full application through Grants.gov. The extramural organization’s AOR must be registered and authorized to submit applications on behalf of the organization.

There is no competitive advantage for applications received through Grants.gov versus eBRAP.

Regardless of whether you are an intramural or extramural applicant, if you apply to a funding opportunity that supports multiple partnering Principal Investigators, you, as the initiating PI, and your partnering PI or PIs are required to submit separate full application submissions, even if you are located within the same organization. The partnering PI application is an abbreviated package that only includes components required to make a separate award.

In addition, the same rules apply regarding timelines, with full applications due any time after submission of the LOI or receipt of a formal invitation following screening of pre-proposals, but before the application submission deadline.

For both intra and extramural submissions, the applicant will receive an automated email notification stating that the full application submission is complete.

The verification period begins after the application is submitted as soon as it is available in eBRAP and ends on the date specified in the funding opportunity.

You can take advantage of this opportunity to review, verify, and make changes to components of your application package. Before the application submission deadline passes, changes are allowed on the entire package, so it pays to submit early. Use the verification period to ensure the correct application documents are submitted and that they are arranged in the correct order. Also check details such as spelling of names and email addresses and that the names in the full application match those provided in the pre-application. Keep in mind that you cannot edit the project narrative or the budget after the application submission deadline, and once the verification period ends, you can no longer modify the full application.

Finally, let’s highlight some of the key items to check before you submit your pre-applications and applications.

First and foremost, you should be familiar with the various Administrative Actions described at the end of the funding opportunity, detailing the reasons that an application may or will be rejected, modified, withdrawn, or withheld.

Some of the reasons these actions may be taken include naming a current Programmatic Panel member for the program as a co-investigator or collaborator in the application; components of the application failing to meet the requirements of the program announcement; and/or missing components specified as required in the funding opportunity.

For more information about funding opportunities, please visit the CDMRP program pages and find other helpful videos on our YouTube channel.