USA Flag An official website of the United States government
Official websites use .mil
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of War organization.
Secure .mil websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
DEPARTMENT OF WAR - CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED MEDICAL RESEARCH PROGRAMS
  1. Home
  2. Research Programs
  3. Military Burn
  4. Research Highlights/News
  5. 2026 Military Burn Research Program

Military Burn

NEWS RELEASE

Released: March 12, 2026

Defense Health Agency Research and Development
Medical Research and Development Command
Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs
Military Burn Research Program
Anticipated Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2026

The FY26 Defense Appropriations Act provides funding for the MBRP to support innovative, high-impact research with clinical relevance that will support military-relevant burn trauma care. As part of the DHA R&D-MRDC, the CDMRP is the program office managing these anticipated FY26 funding opportunities.

The MBRP provides the information in this pre-announcement to allow investigators time to plan and develop ideas for submission to the anticipated FY26 funding opportunities. Investigators should not construe this pre-announcement as an obligation or promise by the government. The CDMRP will post FY26 MBRP funding opportunity announcements on the Grants.gov website. Once released, the funding opportunity announcements will include pre-application and application deadlines.

Applications submitted to the FY26 MBRP must address one or more of the following focus areas:

  • Development and/or validation of methods to triage, treat and/or prevent complications of cold injury
  • Research to innovate best practices in the acute burn care continuum in a combat setting
  • Development and/or validation of methods for use in a combat setting to prevent, assess and/or treat burn injury-related complications, including:
    • Over or under fluid resuscitation
    • Endotheliopathy
    • Sepsis
    • Inhalation injuries
    • Fungal infections
    • Hypermetabolism
  • Early, acute phase interventions that reduce later development of chronic pain, neuropathy, pruritus and temperature dysregulation. Studies must provide preliminary evidence for long-term effectiveness.

Award Mechanism Eligibility Key Mechanism Elements Funding
Discovery Award Investigators at all academic levels, or equivalent.
  • Supports innovative, untested, groundbreaking research that provides new insights and explores early concepts in combat-relevant burn care.
  • Applications may include exploratory, hypothesis-driven or hypothesis-generating studies, but must demonstrate novelty, strong scientific rationale, and a well-developed study design and plan of analysis.
  • The research should lay the groundwork for future avenues of scientific investigation or product development for burn care delivered in an austere, resource-limited, battlefield environment.
  • Applications allow, but do not require, non-interventional clinical research studies.
  • Applications cannot support clinical trials.
  • Applications allow, but do not require, inclusion of preliminary data.
  • The MBRP Discovery Award requires submission of a preproposal; application submission is by invitation only.
  • Maximum period of performance is 2 years
  • Maximum allowable funding is $200,000 for total costs*
Patient-Centered Research Award Independent investigators at all academic levels, or equivalent.
  • Bridges the gap between research, practice and policy by building a knowledge base that provides clinically useful findings about how to deploy interventions, clinical practices/guidelines, tools and policies to burn patients in an austere, resource-limited, battlefield environment.
  • Applications must support clinical research or clinical trials, which may include descriptive, observational and experimental studies.
  • New for FY26, Mentorship Option: Supports synergistic relationships between an experienced researcher, termed the mentor, and one or two junior researchers, termed the mentee(s), collaborating on a single application to address a critical gap in combat burn care while simultaneously fostering the development of the next generation of military burn research leaders.
  • Applications cannot support preclinical or animal research.
  • Applications must include preliminary data.
  • The MBRP PCRA requires submission of a preproposal; application submission is by invitation only.
  • Maximum period of performance is 4 years
  • Maximum allowable funding:
    • Single PI: $1.6 million for total costs*
    • Mentorship Option: $1.8 million for total costs*
Technology/Therapeutic Development Award Independent investigators at all academic levels, or equivalent.
  • Supports the translation of promising preclinical findings into burn products for clinical application in an austere, resource-limited, battlefield environment.
  • Applications must describe a tangible product or knowledge supporting the development of a tangible product, e.g., medical device, drug, clinical practice guidelines involving a therapeutic or technology.
  • Applications must include preliminary data and proof of concept demonstrating the potential utility of the proposed product or a prototype or preliminary version of the proposed product.
  • New for FY26, Mentorship Option: Supports synergistic relationships between an experienced researcher, termed the mentor, and one or two junior researchers, termed the mentee(s), collaborating on a single application to address a critical gap in combat burn care while simultaneously fostering the development of the next generation of military burn research leaders.
  • Applications cannot support clinical research or clinical trials.
  • The MBRP TTDA requires submission of a preproposal; application submission is by invitation only.
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years
  • Maximum allowable funding:
    • Single PI: $1.6 million for total costs*
    • Mentorship Option: $1.8 million for total costs*
*Total costs include direct and indirect costs.

Before full application submission, the CDMRP requires submission of a pre-application through the electronic Biomedical Research Application Portal, eBRAP, prior to the pre-application deadline. All applications must conform to the final funding opportunity announcements available for downloading from Grants.gov. To obtain a listing of all CDMRP funding opportunities on the Grants.gov website, perform a basic search using CFDA number 12.420.

To receive email notifications upon release of funding opportunity announcements, subscribe to program-specific news and updates under "Email Subscriptions" on the eBRAP homepage. For more information about the MBRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website.

Point of Contact:
CDMRP Public Affairs
301-619-7071
dha.detrick.cdmrp.mbx.public-affairs@health.mil


Last updated Thursday, March 12, 2026