DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE - CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED MEDICAL RESEARCH PROGRAMS
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NEWS RELEASE

Released: February 24, 2012

Defense Health Program
Department of Defense Multiple Sclerosis Research Program
Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2012

The Fiscal Year 2012 (FY12) Defense Appropriations Act provides $3.8 million to the Department of Defense Multiple Sclerosis Research Program (MSRP). This program is administered by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command through the Office of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP).

The MSRP challenges the scientific community to design innovative research relevant to the prevention, etiology, pathogenesis, assessment, and treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS). The vision of the MSRP is to prevent the occurrence, cure, reverse, or slow the progression, and lessen the personal and societal impact of MS. The FY12 MSRP specifically encourages applications that address critical needs of the MS community as listed below:

  • Pathophysiological basis of disease progression
    • Biological mechanisms of cortical damage in MS
    • Pathological basis of cognitive impairment in MS
    • New and/or improved measures for evaluating cognition in clinical research
    • Treatment strategies for cognitive deficits including, but not limited to new or repurposed agents, and rehabilitation
  • Gene-environment interactions in MS
    • Environmental influences that modify specific genetic pathways associated with MS disease risk and/or progression
    • Maternal environment influences on MS risk in genetically susceptible offspring
    • Genetic influences on biological processes that are relevant to MS and responsive to environmental factors
    • Epigenetic changes due to environmental exposures and their impact on biological processes that are relevant to MS
  • Technological development of hardware and/or software instruments for clinical research data capture and modeling
    • Development and validation of measuring tools for real-time assessment of patient outcomes relevant to MS progression or activity
    • Development of in vivo biosensors relevant to MS
    • Novel integrated analysis and modeling of multidisciplinary MS patient data sets (clinical, neuroscience, endocrine, genomic, exomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, microbiomic data, etc.) to better understand MS disease activity, progression, and clinical outcomes.

The MSRP is providing information in this pre-announcement to allow investigators time to plan and develop applications. FY12 MSRP program announcement and general application instructions for the following award mechanism are anticipated to be posted on Grants.gov in March 2012. Application deadlines will be available when the program announcement is released. This pre-announcement should not be construed as an obligation by the Government.

Award Mechanism Eligibility Key Mechanism Elements Funding
Idea Award Investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent)
  • Supports conceptually innovative, high-risk/potentially high-reward research that could ultimately lead to critical discoveries in understanding the causes and progression of MS and/or improvements in patient care and/or quality of life.
  • Preliminary data that are relevant to MS and the proposed research project should be included
  • Clinical trials are not allowed
  • Preproposal submission is required; application submission is by invitation only
  • Maximum funding of $400,000 in direct costs (plus indirect costs)
  • Period of performance not to exceed 2 years

All applications must conform to the final program announcement and general application instructions that will be available for electronic downloading from the Grants.gov website. The application package containing the required forms for the award mechanism will also be found on Grants.gov. A listing of all USAMRMC funding opportunities can be obtained on the Grants.gov website by performing a basic search using CFDA Number 12.420.

A pre-application (i.e., preproposal) is required and must be submitted through the CDMRP eReceipt website (http://cdmrp.org) prior to the pre-application deadline. Applications must be submitted through the federal government's single-entry portal, Grants.gov.

Requests for email notification of the release of CDMRP program announcements may be sent to help@cdmrp.org. For more information about the MSRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (https://cdmrp.health.mil).

Point of Contact:

CDMRP Public Affairs
301-619-9783
CDMRP.PublicAffairs@amedd.army.mil