DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE - CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED MEDICAL RESEARCH PROGRAMS

NEWS RELEASE

Released: January 7, 2025

Department of Defense
Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP)
Vision 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 Vision Research Program (VRP) to support impactful military-relevant vision research. The CDMRP at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC) is the program office managing these anticipated FY25 funding opportunities.

The VRP hereby provides a pre-announcement for the Mentored Clinical Research Award mechanism. The VRP anticipates releasing a pre-announcement for additional award mechanisms after March 14, 2025.

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

  • Understand and treat eye injury or visual dysfunction as related to military exposure
  • Restore visual function after military exposure-related vision loss or severe visual impairment
  • Diagnose, stabilize, and treat eye injuries in austere environments and prolonged care settings

Award Mechanism* Eligibility Key Mechanism Elements Funding
Mentored Clinical Research Award Principal Investigator (PI) must be an established clinician or Ph.D. clinical scientist.

Mentee must be a clinician in training (e.g., fellow, resident, junior clinician, clinician in a Ph.D. program) and, at the award start date, have sufficient time remaining in their training program to complete the research proposed.

  • Submission of a pre-application in the form of a Letter of Intent is required prior to full application submission.
  • Supports clinical research (e.g., research conducted with human subjects, samples, or data of human origin) by a clinician in training under an established mentor.
  • The mentor will be the PI of the MCRA.
  • Key personnel must include a clinician in training (e.g., a fellow, resident, junior clinician, clinician in a PhD program). The clinician in training should have sufficient time remaining in their training program to complete the research proposed under the MCRA.
  • While multiple junior scientists or clinicians may participate in the research, only one clinician in training may be designated as mentee on the MCRA.
  • The proposed clinical research can be a stand-alone study of high impact to vision injury care or the generation of clinical research data in preparation for a more expansive study.
  • The MCRA may not be used to conduct preclinical research (including animal research) or clinical trials.
  • Evidence of Institutional Review Board (IRB)/Ethics Committee (EC) submission is required at the time of application submission.
  • Documentation of IRB/EC approval or exemption by December 1, 2025, is required for an MCRA application to be considered for funding.
  • The award may be used to cover costs of labs/supplies/small equipment and/or to provide salary support for supportive personnel, but not salary support for the PI or the clinician mentee.
  • Maximum funding of $75,000 for total costs (including direct costs and indirect costs)
  • The maximum period of performance is 18 months.

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 https://ebrap.org. For more information about the VRP or other CPMRP-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 Tuesday, January 7, 2025