DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE - CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED MEDICAL RESEARCH PROGRAMS
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Lupus

NEWS RELEASE

Released: February 27, 2025

Department of Defense
Defense Health Agency
Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP)
Lupus Research Program
Anticipated Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25)

The FY25 Defense Appropriations Bill has not been signed into law. The CDMRP is unable to release new funding opportunities under the current Continuing Resolution. The CDMRP is providing pre-announcement information to allow investigators time to plan and develop ideas for submission to anticipated funding opportunities should the CDMRP receive FY25 appropriations. Pre-announcements should not be construed as an obligation or promise by the government. Once funding is available, CDMRP funding opportunities will be posted on the Grants.gov website. Pre-application and application deadlines will be available when opportunities are released, contingent upon future funding.

The FY25 Defense Appropriations Act is anticipated to provide funding for the Lupus Research Program (LRP) to support the full spectrum of research projects or ideas that specifically focus on scientific and clinical lupus issues which, if successfully addressed, have the potential to make a major impact in lupus research. The CDMRP at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC) is the program office managing these anticipated FY25 funding opportunities.

Applications submitted to the FY25 LRP must address one or more of the following focus areas:

  • Understanding how lupus disease heterogeneity impacts risk of disease, disease presentation, clinical course, and outcomes using a diverse range of research disciplines including, but not limited to, biopsychosocial studies, personalized medicine, variation in treatment studies, health economics, socioeconomic studies, environmental studies, and epidemiological studies. (Idea Award and Impact Award only.)
  • Understanding the biological mechanisms of lupus disease, including, but not limited to, studies of informative/rare patients. (Idea Award and Impact Award only.)
  • Determining the pathobiology of end organ injury related to lupus disease in target human tissues. (Idea Award and Impact Award only.)
  • Improving quality of life for individuals living with lupus, including, but not limited to, addressing social determinants of health, nutrition, alternative therapies, access to health care resources, outcomes research, patient-reported outcomes, symptom and disease control, comparative effectiveness research, and issues and challenges that, when addressed, make day-to-day living with lupus easier and life more fulfilling. (Idea Award and Impact Award only.)
  • Understanding the underlying genetic and epigenetic components and gene-environment interactions of lupus and how they may relate to clinical disease characteristics, variations, disparities, and differences in response to therapies using functional genomic studies. (Idea Award and Impact Award only.)
  • Innovative health care delivery models improving outcomes for lupus. (Impact Award, Transformative Vision Award (TVA), and Transformative Vision Development Award only.)
  • Design and implement an intervention at either the individual and/or health care system level to improve the quality of life for individuals living with lupus. Example interventions include, but are not limited to, access to health care resources, outcomes research, symptom and disease control, comparative effectiveness research, and issues and challenges that, when addressed, make day-to-day living with lupus easier and life more fulfilling. (Impact Award, Transformative Vision Award, and Transformative Vision Development Award only.)

Award Mechanism Eligibility Key Mechanism Elements Funding
Idea Award Investigators at or above the level of postdoctoral fellow (or equivalent)
  • Supports innovative, high-risk/high-reward research that could ultimately lead to a critical discovery or major advancement.
  • Emphasis is on innovation.
  • Clinical trials are not allowed.
  • Preliminary data are permitted but not required, and future directions of the work should be included.
  • Maximum funding of $300,000 for total costs (direct plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 2 years
Impact Award Investigators at or above Assistant Professor (or equivalent)
  • Supports high-risk/high-reward research which, if successfully addressed, has the potential to make a major impact in lupus research.
  • Emphasis is on impact.
  • Clinical trials are not allowed.
  • Preliminary data are encouraged but not required.
  • Maximum funding of $1.0 million (M) for total costs (direct plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 4 years
Transformative Vision Award Investigators at or above Assistant Professor (or equivalent)
  • Supports research that will have an intervention at the individual and/or health care system level which will result in near-term impact on the health-related quality of life of persons living with lupus.
  • Emphasis is on near-term impact to quality of life.
  • Clinical trials are allowed.
  • Animal studies are not allowed.
  • Preliminary data are required.
  • Applications must include at least one lupus consumer advocate as a member of the research team.
  • Partnering Principal Investigator (PI) Option allows one Initiating Investigator and a maximum of two Partnering PIs.
  • Maximum funding of $2.0M for total costs (direct plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 4 years
Transformative Vision Development Award Investigators at or above Assistant Professor (or equivalent)
  • Intends to provide support to conduct pilot studies that will generate preliminary data and demonstrate feasibility for achieving the aims of a future TVA project or equivalent type project.
  • Emphasis is on research strategy to gain preliminary data and demonstrate feasibility.
  • Clinical trials are not allowed.
  • Animal studies are not allowed.
  • Preliminary data are permitted but not required.
  • Applications must include at least one lupus consumer advocate as a member of the research team.
  • Maximum funding of $250,000 for total costs (direct plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 2 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 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 CFDA Number 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 at https://eBRAP.org. For more information about the LRP 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 Thursday, February 27, 2025