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Spinal Cord Injury

NEWS RELEASE

Released: February 9, 2024

Department of Defense
Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP)
Spinal Cord Injury Research Program
Anticipated Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24)

The Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) Defense Appropriations Bill has not been signed into law. Although FY24 funds have not been appropriated for the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program (SCIRP), the SCIRP is providing the information in this pre-announcement to allow investigators time to plan and develop ideas for submission to the anticipated FY24 funding opportunities. This pre-announcement should not be construed as an obligation by the government.

The FY24 Defense Appropriations Act is anticipated to provide funding for the SCIRP to support innovative, high-impact spinal cord injury (SCI) research. The managing agent for the anticipated funding opportunities is the CDMRP at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC).

The FY24 SCIRP funding opportunity announcements for the following award mechanisms will be posted on the Grants.gov website. Pre-application and application deadlines will be available when the announcements are released.

Applications submitted to the FY24 SCIRP must address one or more of the following Focus Areas:

  • Preserving and protecting spinal cord tissue at time of injury for improved neurologic outcomes
  • Identifying and validating biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis, and for evaluation of treatment efficacies
  • Developing, testing, and validating promising interventions to address bowel, genitourinary, neuropathic pain, cardiopulmonary, or autonomic dysfunction across the lifespan of people with SCI
  • Investigating psychosocial issues relevant to people with SCI, their families, and/or their care-partners across the life span
  • Rehabilitation and regeneration—maximizing the function of the residual neural circuitry, including harnessing neuroplasticity and recovery to improve function after SCI

Early-Career Partnering Principal Investigator (PI) Option: For all FY24 SCIRP funding opportunities, the program anticipates continuing to offer an Early Career Partnering PI option in an effort to promote enhanced research capacity within the SCI field. This option is structured to accommodate two PIs who will work together on a single research project, but each will be named to separate individual awards within the recipient organization(s). To exercise this option, at least one of the PIs must be an early-career investigator with at least 3 years research experience (independent or non-independent) beyond a terminal degree but no more than 7 years within their first faculty appointment, or equivalent independent research position. Applications that employ the Early Career Partnering PI option are subject to a larger direct cost maximum and may divide budgetary costs across the two awards as appropriate for their separate efforts toward the research project proposed.


Award Mechanism Eligibility Key Mechanism Elements Funding
Clinical Trial Award Principal Investigator (PI): Independent investigators at all career levels

Optional Early-Career Partnering PI:
An investigator with at least 3 years research experience (independent or non-independent) beyond a terminal degree but no more than 7 years within their first faculty appointment, or equivalent independent research position.		 Pre-application submission is required; full application submission is by invitation only.
  • Supports the rapid implementation of clinical trials with the potential to have a significant impact on the treatment or management of spinal cord injury (SCI).
  • Proposed projects may range from small proof-of-concept trials to demonstrate feasibility or inform the design of more advanced trials, through large-scale trials to determine efficacy in relevant populations.
  • Alternative trial designs to traditional randomized clinical trials are allowed but should be appropriate to the objective of the trial.
  • Applications are expected to name at least two community partners (e.g., SCI Lived Experience Consultants, representatives of community-based organizations) who will provide advice and consultation throughout the planning and implementation of the research project.
Allows for an Early-Career Partnering PI Option 		      Single PI Option:
  • Maximum funding of $3.00 million (M) for direct costs (plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 4 years

      Early-Career Partnering PI Option:
  • Maximum funding of $3.10M for direct costs (plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 4 years
Clinical Translation Research Award Principal Investigator (PI):
Independent investigators at all career levels

Optional Early-Career Partnering PI:
An investigator with at least 3 years research experience (independent or non-independent) beyond a terminal degree but no more than 7 years within their first faculty appointment, or equivalent independent research position.		 Pre-application submission is required; full application submission is by invitation only.
  • Supports high-impact and/or new/emerging clinical research that may not be ready for a larger-scale clinical trial and for which feasibility/pilot/optimization studies are necessary.
  • Proposed studies may be interventional or observational and may involve some retrospective data analysis BUT purely retrospective or database-related research will not be supported under this funding opportunity.
  • Applications must support clinical research or clinical trials and may not be used for animal research.
  • Applications are expected to name at least two community partners (e.g., SCI Lived Experience Consultants, representatives of community-based organizations) who will provide advice and consultation throughout the planning and implementation of the research project.
Allows for an Early-Career Partnering PI Option 		      Single PI Option:
  • Maximum funding of $1.25M for direct costs (plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years

      Early-Career Partnering PI Option:
  • Maximum funding of $1.35M for direct costs (plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years
Translational Research Award Principal Investigator (PI):
Independent investigators at all career levels

Optional Early-Career Partnering PI:
An investigator with at least 3 years research experience (independent or non-independent) beyond a terminal degree but no more than 7 years within their first faculty appointment, or equivalent independent research position.		 Pre-application submission is required; full application submission is by invitation only.
  • Funds studies that accelerate the movement of promising ideas in SCI research toward clinical application.
  • Applications may include preclinical animal studies (except where otherwise specified) and/or clinical research involving human subjects and human anatomical substances.
  • May include a pilot clinical trial ONLY as a part of the proposed research where limited clinical testing of a novel intervention or device is necessary to inform the next step in the continuum of translational research.
  • Applications are expected to name at least one community partner (e.g., SCI Lived Experience Consultant, representative of community-based organization) who will provide advice and consultation throughout the planning and implementation of the research project.
Allows for an Early-Career Partnering PI Option 		      Single PI Option:
  • Maximum funding of $1.25M for direct costs (plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years

      Early-Career Partnering PI Option:
  • Maximum funding of $1.35M for direct costs (plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years
Investigator-Initiated Research Award Principal Investigator (PI):
Independent investigators at all career levels

Optional Early-Career Partnering PI:
An investigator with at least 3 years research experience (independent or non-independent) beyond a terminal degree but no more than 7 years within their first faculty appointment, or equivalent independent research position. 		Pre-application submission is required; full application submission is by invitation only.
  • Funds research that has the potential to make an important contribution to SCI research, patient care, and/or quality of life.
  • Permitted research includes preclinical studies in animal models (except where otherwise specified), research with human subjects, or human anatomical substances, as well as ancillary studies associated with an existing clinical trial.
  • Clinical trials are not allowed.
  • Studies focused exclusively on target identification are discouraged.
Allows for an Early-Career Partnering PI Option 		      Single PI Option:
  • Maximum funding of $0.50M for direct costs (plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years

      Early-Career Partnering PI Option:
  • Maximum funding of $0.60M for direct costs (plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years

A pre-application is required and must be submitted through the Biomedical Research Application Portal (eBRAP) at https://eBRAP.org prior to the pre-application deadline. All applications must conform to the final funding opportunity announcements that will be available for 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 Assistance Listing Number (ALN, formerly CFDA) 12.420.

Submission deadlines are not available until the funding opportunity announcements are released. For email notification when announcements are released, subscribe to program-specific news and updates under “Email Subscriptions” on the eBRAP homepage. For more information about the SCIRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (https://cdmrp.health.mil).


Point of Contact:

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


Last updated Friday, February 9, 2024