U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command

March 7, 2001

Department of Defense Neurofibromatosis Research Program for Fiscal Year 2001

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2001 Defense Appropriations Act provides $17 million to the Department of Defense Neurofibromatosis Research Program (NFRP) to support innovative research directed toward decreasing the impact of neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) and NF2. This program has been administered since FY96 by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command through the Office of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP).

The FY01 NFRP Program Announcement is anticipated to be released later in March 2001, with receipt of proposals in July 2001. The NFRP will continue to offer the following mechanisms:

• New Investigator Awards
• Idea Awards
• Investigator-Initiated Research Awards
• Clinical Trial Awards
• Therapeutic Development Awards

Therapeutic Development Awards, intended to support the development and evaluation of preclinical animal or cell-based model systems for NF1 and NF2, are new this year. The overall goal of this award mechanism is to allow NF investigators to develop the skills and generate the preclinical data necessary to conduct clinical trials after completion of the research.

Detailed descriptions of each of these mechanisms, evaluation criteria, and submission requirements can be found in the FY01 NFRP Program Announcement. This document can be downloaded from the CDMRP website (https://CDMRP.HEALTH.MIL) upon its release.

For more information about the NFRP, NFRP awardees, previous NFRP Program Announcements (https://CDMRP.HEALTH.MIL/funding/archive/archive), and other CDMRP-sponsored programs and events, please visit the CDMRP website.