DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE - CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED MEDICAL RESEARCH PROGRAMS
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NEWS RELEASE

Released: March 27, 2009

Department of Defense Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Research Program
Funding for Fiscal Year 2009 (FY09)

The Fiscal Year 2009 (FY09) Defense Appropriations Act provides $5 million (M) to the Department of Defense ALS Research Program (ALSRP) to find and fund the best research to improve treatments and find a cure for ALS. This program is administered by the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command through the Office of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP).

The FY09 ALSRP encourages proposals that focus research on ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, specifically on the pre-clinical development of novel therapies to treat this disease. While a number of drugs are in clinical trials, no effective treatments exist now to combat the effects of this neurodegenerative disease. Military service members are more likely than the general public to develop ALS; in addition, veterans of the 1990-1991 Gulf War are twice as likely to be diagnosed with ALS.

FY09 ALSRP program announcements and application instructions for the following award mechanisms (including deadlines) are anticipated to be posted and available for downloading on Grants.gov in April 2009.

Award Mechanism Eligibility Key Mechanism Elements Funding
Therapeutic Development Award Independent investigators at all academic levels (or equivalent)
  • Fund pre-clinical studies to develop new therapies for the treatment of ALS
  • Specific focus areas include development of high-throughput screens up to the submission of IND for later clinical trials
  • Preproposal is required; proposal submission is by invitation only
  • Maximum funding of $1.5M in direct costs (plus indirect costs)
  • Smaller, more cost-effective proposals below the maximum funding limit are encouraged
  • Period of performance can be up to 4 years
  • Anticipate 2 - 3 awards

A pre-application is required and must be submitted through the CDMRP eReceipt websit (http://cdmrp.org) prior to proposal submission. Proposals must be submitted through the federal government's single-entry portal, Grants.gov. Individual program announcements and required forms will also be found on the Grants.gov website.

Information in this pre-announcement is being provided to allow investigators time to plan and develop proposals. All proposals submitted must conform to the final program announcements, which will be posted on Grants.gov and the CDMRP website (https://CDMRP.HEALTH.MIL) at a later date. The number of awards anticipated in each mechanism is based on available funds, average cost of proposals, and quality of proposals received. The ALSRP reserves the right to make awards in greater or lesser numbers than anticipated. Each program announcement will be available electronically for downloading from the Grants.gov website. The application package containing the required forms for each award mechanism will also be found on Grants.gov.

Requests for email notification of the Program Announcements release may be sent to help@cdmrp.org. For more information about the ALSRP or other CDMRP-sponsored programs, please visit the CDMRP website (https://CDMRP.HEALTH.MIL).

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