DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE - CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED MEDICAL RESEARCH PROGRAMS

NEWS RELEASE

Released: March 17, 2014

Defense Health Program
Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program
Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2014

The Fiscal Year 2014 (FY14) Defense Appropriations Act provides $200 million to the Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program (PRMRP). The vision of the PRMRP is to improve the health and well-being of all military service members, veterans, and beneficiaries. The PRMRP challenges the scientific and clinical communities to address one of the FY14 congressionally directed topic areas with original ideas that foster new directions in basic science and translational research; novel product development leading to improved therapeutic or diagnostic tools; or clinical trials that address an immediate clinical need. 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 PRMRP is providing the information in this pre-announcement to allow investigators time to plan and develop applications. FY14 PRMRP Program Announcements and General Application Instructions are anticipated to be posted on Grants.gov in April 2014. Pre-application and application deadlines will be available when the Program Announcements are released. This pre-announcement should not be construed as an obligation by the government.

Congressionally Directed Topic Areas. The FY14 PRMRP will solicit research applications for the following 25 topics areas:

  • Acupuncture
  • Arthritis
  • Chronic Migraine and Post-Traumatic Headaches
  • Congenital Heart Disease
  • DNA Vaccine Technology for Postexposure Prophylaxis
  • Dystonia
  • Epilepsy
  • Food Allergies
  • Fragile X Syndrome
  • Hereditary Angioedema
  • Illnesses Related to Radiation Exposure
  • Inflammatory Bowel Disease
  • Interstitial Cystitis
  • Lupus
  • Malaria
  • Metabolic Disease
  • Neuroprosthetics
  • Pancreatitis
  • Polycystic Kidney Disease
  • Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis
  • Psychotropic Medications
  • Respiratory Health
  • Rheumatoid Arthritis
  • Segmental Bone Defects
  • Tinnitus

Military Relevance: Relevance to the healthcare needs of the military service members, veterans, and beneficiaries is a key feature of each FY14 PRMRP award mechanism.

Award Mechanism Eligibility Key Mechanism Elements Funding
Clinical Trial Award Assistant Professor level or above (or equivalent)
  • Supports the rapid implementation of clinical trials of novel interventions with the potential to have a significant impact on patient care in the topic area of interest
  • Investigational New Drug or Investigational Device Exemption applications, if needed, should be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration before the PRMRP Grants.gov application submission deadline
  • A clinical trial is expected to be initiated within 12 months of the award date
  • Preproposal submission is required; application submission is by invitation only
  • Funding limit not defined; requested funding must be appropriate for the scope of work proposed
  • Maximum period of performance is 5 years
Discovery Award All Investigators
  • Supports the exploration of a highly innovative new concept or untested theory
  • Not intended to support the logical progression of an already established line of questioning
  • Clinical trials will not be funded
  • Maximum of $200,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 18 months
Focused Program Award Full Professor level or above (or equivalent)
  • New mechanism for FY14!
  • Restricted to the topic areas of Acupuncture, Congenital Heart Disease, Illnesses Related to Radiation Exposure, Metabolic Disease, Neuroprosthetics, Psychotropic Medications, Respiratory Health, and Segmental Bone Defects
  • Supports a synergistic, multidisciplinary research program of multiple distinct but complementary projects addressing an overarching goal in one of the topic areas listed directly above
  • Projects should work together to answer critical questions, resolve differing hypotheses, and translate laboratory findings to clinical applications
  • Projects may range from exploratory/hypothesis-developing through small-scale clinical trials that together will address the overarching goal/question
  • Research team of highly qualified, multidisciplinary project leaders should be led by a Principal Investigator with demonstrated success in directing large, focused projects
  • Individual projects submitted as part of a Focused Program Award application may be submitted to one other FY14 PRMRP Program Announcement/Funding Opportunity to increase chances of funding; however, accepting multiple grants to support the same project will not be allowed
  • Preproposal submission is required; application submission is by invitation only
  • Maximum of $10 million for total costs (includes direct and indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 5 years
Investigator-Initiated Research Award Assistant Professor level or above (or equivalent)
  • Supports research that will make an original and important contribution to the field of research or patient care in the topic area of interest
  • Partnering Principal Investigator (PI) Option available
  • Clinical trials will not be funded
  • Preproposal submission is required; application submission is by invitation only
  • Maximum of $1.2 million for direct costs (plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum of $1.5 million for direct costs (plus indirect costs) for applications including a Partnering PI Option
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years
Technology/Therapeutic Development Award Assistant Professor level or above (or equivalent)
  • Supports the development of diagnostics or therapies that have the potential to make a strong impact on patient care in the topic area of interest
  • Product-oriented: device, drug, clinical guidelines
  • Clinical trials will not be funded
  • Preproposal submission is required; application submission is by invitation only
  • Maximum of $1.5 million for direct costs (plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 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 is required and must be submitted through the CDMRP electronic Biomedical Research Application Portal (eBRAP) (https://eBRAP.org) prior to the pre-application deadline. Applications must be submitted through the federal government's single-entry portal, Grants.gov. Submission deadlines are not available until the Program Announcements are released. Requests for email notification of the Program Announcement release may be sent to help@eBRAP.org. Email notifications of funding opportunities are sent as a courtesy and should not be used as a sole source of notification; applicants should monitor Grants.gov for official postings of funding opportunities.

For more information about the PRMRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (https://cdmrp.army.mil).

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