NEWS RELEASE

Released: February 24, 2026

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

The FY26 Defense Appropriations Act provides funding for the ORP to support innovative, high-impact research with clinical relevance that will advance treatment and rehabilitation from orthopaedic injuries sustained during combat and service-related activities to optimize function and maximize return to duty. As part of the DHA R&D-MRDC, the CDMRP is the program office managing these anticipated FY26 funding opportunities.

The ORP 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 ORP 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 ORP must address one or more of the following focus areas unless otherwise noted:

• Battlefield Fracture-Related Infection: Strategies to decrease the burden of fracture-related infections on the battlefield, which may include prevention, early detection or improved eradication. The ORP encourages applications proposing alternatives to systemic antibiotic delivery. The ORP will not consider applications proposing strategies not feasible in a battlefield or combat environment.
• Composite Tissue Regeneration: Advanced tissue regeneration therapeutics in composite tissue for the restoration of traumatically injured extremities. The ORP encourages applications proposing techniques aimed at improving outcomes following high-energy extremity trauma, with a focus on improving wound healing and neuromuscular recovery following composite tissue loss and segmental bone loss. The ORP will not consider tissue engineering studies that solely address bone, cartilage, muscle or nerve.
• Ligamentous Trauma: Musculoskeletal extremity soft tissue trauma treatments specifically for shoulder, knee or chronic ankle instability and sequelae to optimize return to duty, work or reintegration.
• Limb Stabilization and Protection: Development and/or clinical evaluation of rapid limb stabilization and novel wound protectants for severely or critically wounded limbs to enable prolonged care and eventual transport to the point of definitive treatment. The ORP will not consider applications proposing interventions that solely address infection.
• Osteointegration Outcomes: Identification of best practices to optimize outcomes of patients who have percutaneous osseointegrated prosthetic limbs, e.g., infection, rejection, adapters and fail-safe devices, clinical outcomes.
• Return-to-Duty Strategies: Optimization and/or validation of decision-support tools, interventions and/or rehabilitation strategies that can retain a Service Member on duty, enable them to return to duty within one year of injury, or avoid reinjury for common combat-related musculoskeletal injuries. Applications must describe the current standard of care and the proposed rehabilitation strategy, as applicable. The ORP encourages applications proposing treatment strategies for use along the continuum of care, capabilities for diagnosis of underlying pathology, and efficacy of intervention measurements. The ORP will not consider applications proposing biomarker studies.
• Military Women's Health: Studies that assess the impact of novel or established orthopaedic injury care interventions on military women's health. Applications must describe how outcomes of the proposed research will address areas and conditions that affect women uniquely, disproportionately or differently from men. The ORP encourages applications addressing preservation of function and physical ability, quality of life, symptom management and resilience in military women, as well as sex-specific considerations following orthopaedic injury and treatment.