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Scleroderma

NEWS RELEASE

Released: June 5, 2020

Defense Health Program
Department of Defense Scleroderma Research Program
Anticipated Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20)

The FY20 Defense Appropriations Act provides funding to the Department of Defense Scleroderma Research Program (SRP) to support innovative, high-impact scleroderma research. 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 Announcements/Funding Opportunities is the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC).

The SRP is providing the information in this pre-announcement to allow investigators time to plan and develop ideas for submission to the anticipated FY20 funding opportunities. This pre-announcement should not be construed as an obligation by the Government. The FY20 SRP Program Announcements and General Application Instructions for the following award mechanisms will be posted on the Grants.gov website. Pre-application and application deadlines will be available when the Program Announcements are released. 

Applications submitted to the FY20 SRP Idea Development Award must address one or more of the following Focus Areas:

  • Development of clinical trial platforms that enable the rapid comparison of different therapeutic approaches on a pilot basis
  • Define biomarkers (‘omics and/or molecular markers, cell subsets, imaging, patient-reported outcomes) that help inform choice therapeutics (immunosuppressive/anti-fibrotic) or predict course (morbidity, mortality) and quality of life
  • Secondary analysis of genomics and other datasets (scleroderma and datasets from other similar diseases), integration to identify novel targets and biomarkers to create a more analyzable set of data that can be validated in existing or new models

Applications submitted to the FY20 SRP Translational Partnership Research Award must address one or more of the following Focus Areas:

  • Understanding the different biological/metabolic pathways that differentiate subsets of patients (gender, age, genetic, clinical phenotype, race/ethnicity)
  • Utilizing systems biology and multi-omics approaches for understanding disease heterogeneity, primary prevention, therapeutics, interventions, and screening
  • Development of cohorts from diverse populations (longitudinal) to validate potential biomarkers (i.e., replication studies)
  • Define biomarkers (‘omics, and/or molecular markers, cell subsets, imaging, patient-reported outcomes) that help inform choice of therapeutics (immunosuppressive/anti-fibrotic) or predict course (morbidity, mortality) and quality of life
  • Defining epigenetic changes, multiple cell types, and molecules that mediate pathogenesis 
Award Mechanism Eligibility Key Mechanism Elements Funding
Idea Development Award Investigators at all academic levels (or equivalent).

New Investigators:

Terminal degree must be within the last 10 years.

Must not have received National Institutes of Health R01 funding.

Must not have received a New Investigator Award previously from any program within the CDMRP.
  • Supports conceptually innovative, high-risk/
    potentially high-reward research that could ultimately lead to critical discoveries and/or improvements in patient care and/or quality of life.
  • Innovation and impact are important aspects of the award.
  • Clinical trials are not allowed.
  • Preliminary data are required.
  • New Investigator Collaboration Option: Supports the continued development of promising independent investigators that are early in their faculty appointment through collaboration with an established scleroderma investigator.
  • Submission of a preproposal is required; application submission is by invitation only.
  • Maximum funding of $300,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs).

New Investigator Collaboration Option

  • Maximum funding of $450,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs).
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years.
Translational Research Partnership Award Investigators above the level of post-doctoral fellow (or equivalent).

Clinicians must be an M.D., M.D./Ph.D, or equivalent with clinical duties and/or responsibilities. 

New Investigators:

Terminal degree must be within the last 10 years.

Must not have received National Institutes of Health R01 funding.

Must not have received a New Investigator Award previously from any program within the CDMRP.
  • Supports partnerships between clinicians and laboratory scientists that accelerate ideas in scleroderma into clinical applications. At least one partner must be a laboratory scientist and at least one partner must be a clinician.
  • One investigator must be a New Investigator.
  • Preliminary data are required.
  • Clinical trials are not allowed.
  • Submission of a preproposal is required; application submission is by invitation only.
  • Maximum funding of $750,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs).
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 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 USAMRDC 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 SRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (https://cdmrp.army.mil).

Point of Contact:

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


Last updated Thursday, May 26, 2022