DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE - CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED MEDICAL RESEARCH PROGRAMS

NEWS RELEASE

Released: May 11, 2021

Defense Health Program
Department of Defense Alcohol and Substance Abuse Disorders Research Program
Anticipated Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2021 (FY21)

The FY21 Defense Appropriations Act provides funding to the Department of Defense Alcohol and Substance Abuse Disorder Research Program (ASADRP) to support research of exceptional scientific merit in the area of alcohol, opioid, and other substance use disorders research. 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 ASADRP is providing the information in this pre-announcement to allow investigators time to plan and develop ideas for submission to the anticipated FY21 funding opportunity. This pre-announcement should not be construed as an obligation by the government. The FY21 ASADRP program announcement and General Application Instructions for the following award mechanism will be posted on the Grants.gov website. Pre-application and application deadlines will be available when the program announcements are released. 

Consortium Award applications submitted to the FY21 ASADRP should address how the Consortium will conduct multidisciplinary, team-based translational research efforts to identify promising compounds; conduct proof-of-principle basic research and conduct human proof-of-concept trials with promising compounds to address effective treatments for Alcohol and Substance Use Disorders (ASUD), to include reducing the overall number of opioid-related overdose deaths.

Areas of Emphasis: The consortium is encouraged to address these areas of emphasis in order to reduce the overall number of opioid-related overdose deaths.

  • Improved formulations to treat opioid use disorder with comorbid substance use
  • Improved formulations to treat opioid use disorders with comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other psychological disorders
  • New formulations and/or combinations of existing medications to improve treatment compliance, prevent relapse, and reduce risk of misuse
  • Stronger, longer-duration formulations to counteract opioid (including fentanyl analogs) overdose
  • Novel medications and immunotherapies to treat substance and/or alcohol use disorders
  • New medication targets for the treatment of substance and/or alcohol use disorders

The overall strategy of the ASADRP supports the following Research Aims:

Aim 1 ‒ Discover: Testing new chemical entities and repurposing existing medications in preclinical and non-clinical models of ASUD with comorbid PTSD and other psychological disorders.

Aim 2 ‒ Proof of Concept: Human studies of potential medications that include assessment of medical safety and doses for potential efficacy in subjects with ASUD and comorbid PTSD and other psychological disorders.

Aim 3 ‒ Phase II Safety and Preliminary Efficacy: Multiple site clinical trials to test potential medications or medication combinations in humans with ASUD and comorbid PTSD and other psychological disorders, and to also explore precision medicine tools for matching patients to these medications.


Award Mechanism Eligibility Key Mechanism Elements Funding
Consortium Award Investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent)
  • The consortium will consist of a single management core as well as basic research and clinical trial sites.
  • The consortium management core will be responsible for developing and managing proof-of-principle basic research and proof-of-concept human clinical trials to develop a roadmap to translate promising basic science knowledge into enhanced clinical pharmacological treatment protocols for ASUD, including a product-driven, regulatory strategy for FDA compliance to include building on research previously supported by the ASADRP.
  • The consortium management core PI must have strong collaborative leadership experience in managing a consortium and must include a multidisciplinary team of exceptional subject matter experts that demonstrate a broad understanding of ASUD research, including knowledge of reducing the overall number of opioid-related overdose deaths.
  • The CDMRP expects to allocate FY21-23 funding, if appropriated, to fund approximately one ASADRP Consortium Award. The ASADRP Consortium will be funded initially with allocations from the FY21 ASADRP Congressional appropriation ($3.525M). The maximum allowable total costs (direct and indirect) for the entire period of performance are $10.572M (base year plus 2 option years). Two additional options, to be included in the application, may be funded from allocations from the FY22 and FY23 Congressional appropriation (up to $3.525M each year) subject to Programmatic Panel review, approval of the Grants Officer, and receipt of future congressional appropriations.
  • Period of performance not to exceed 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 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 ASADRP 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