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Psychological Health/Traumatic Brain Injury

NEWS RELEASE

Released: May 31, 2018

Defense Health Program
Department of Defense Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury Research Program and JPC-6
Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18)

The FY18 Defense Appropriation provides $125 million (M) to the Department of Defense Psychological Health/Traumatic Brain Injury Research Program (PH/TBIRP) to support critical PH- and TBI-related research and development efforts to benefit Service members, Veterans, and other beneficiaries of the military health system. As directed by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, the Defense Health Agency, J9 Research and Development Directorate manages the Defense Health Program (DHP) Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) appropriation. The managing agent for the anticipated Program Announcement/Funding Opportunity is the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC). The CDMRP provides PH/TBIRP execution management support for DHP core research program areas, including the Joint Program Committee 6/ Combat Casualty Care Research Program (JPC-6/CCCRP). JPC-6/CCCRP provides strategic oversight for the PH/TBI funds associated with this funding Program Announcement. The Defense Health Agency is working in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and other Federal agencies on research efforts to improve the lives of Service members and Veterans affected by traumatic brain injury, posttraumatic stress disorder, and other mental health conditions.

The PH/TBIRP is providing the information in this pre-announcement to allow investigators time to plan and develop applications. The FY18 PH/TBIRP Program Announcement and General Application Instructions for the following award mechanism is anticipated to be posted on the Grants.gov website in July 2018. Pre-application and 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
FY18 PHTBIRP Joint DoD and VA Long-term Impact of Military-relevant Brain Injury Consortium (LIMBIC) Independent investigators at all academic levels (or equivalent)
  • Preproposal is required; application submission is by invitation only.
  • The objective of this funding opportunity is to support a single consortium to study a large cohort of TBI subjects to include Service members and Veterans.
Required Focus Areas: (each must be addressed in application)
  • Identification of differences in long-term neurological outcomes from blast-related vs. impact only TBI.
  • Identification of pathophysiological and biomarker signatures that may be predictive of long-term outcomes and healthcare utilization.
  • Analysis of existing biorepositories and/or biospecimens from a longitudinal cohort to identify novel biomarkers for chronic TBI.
  • Stratification and characterization of TBI subgroups based on recovery and neurodegeneration.
  • Analysis of existing DoD and VA TBI databases for correlations and associations of TBI comorbidities.
Secondary Focus Areas (in no particular order)
  • Understanding the economic burden of TBI.
  • Identification of potential differences between single vs. multiple TBI history on outcomes.
  • Identification of potential differences in long-term neurological outcomes from blast-related vs. impact-only TBI.
  • Identification of potential differences between individuals with exposure to repetitive low-level blast and those without.
  • Identification and investigation of neurodegeneration and TBI-associated comorbidities.
  • Evaluation of chronic mTBI biomarker profile(s) over time and injury severity.
  • Identification of potential variations in long-term outcomes in deployment-related vs nondeployment-related TBI.
  • Determination of whether a history of TBI is associated with lower performance metrics.
  • Maximum allowable costs (direct and indirect) are $25M via the DoD.
  • Up to an additional $5M per year for 5 years will be provided by the VA to VA sites, depending on availability of funds.
    • To be eligible for VA funding at a specific research site, a participating investigator must have a VA-paid appointment of at least five-eighths at the time of pre-application submission, unless a previous eligibility waiver has been granted.
  • Maximum period of performance is 5 years.

A pre-application is required and must be submitted through the electronic Biomedical Research Application Portal (eBRAP) at https://eBRAP.org prior to the pre-application deadline. All applications must conform to the final Program Announcements and General Application Instructions that will be available for electronic downloading from the Grants.gov website. The application package containing the required forms for each award mechanism will also be found on Grants.gov. A listing of all CDMRP and other USAMRMC extramural funding opportunities can be obtained on the Grants.gov website by performing a basic search using CFDA Number 12.420.

Submission deadlines are not available until the Program Announcements are released. For email notification when Program Announcements are released, subscribe to program-specific news and updates under "Email Subscriptions" on the eBRAP homepage at https://eBRAP.org. For more information about the PH/TBIRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (httpcdmrp.health.mil.mil).

Point of Contact:

CDMRP Public Affairs
301-619-9783
usarmy.detrick.medcom-cdmrp.mbx.cdmrp-public-affairs@mail.mil


Last updated Monday, December 16, 2024