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DEPARTMENT OF WAR - CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED MEDICAL RESEARCH PROGRAMS
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Tick-Borne Disease

NEWS RELEASE

Released: February 12, 2026

Defense Health Agency Research and Development
Medical Research and Development Command
Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs
Tick-Borne Disease Research Program
Anticipated Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2026

The FY26 Defense Appropriations Act provides funding for the TBDRP to support innovative, high-impact research with clinical relevance that will provide solutions to prevent, detect and resolve Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases and conditions for the benefit of Service Members, Veterans, their Families and the American public. As part of the DHA R&D-MRDC, the CDMRP is the program office managing these anticipated FY26 funding opportunities.

The TBDRP 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 TBDRP 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 TBDRP must address one or more of the following focus areas listed by award mechanism. The TBDRP encourages applicants to submit applications focused on persistent Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases and conditions endemic to the United States. The proposed research must focus on directly impacting human health and diseases/conditions that affect Service Members, Veterans, their Families and the American public.

Idea Development Award Focus Areas

  • Pathogenesis
    • Studies to assess the interaction among tick-borne pathogens in mammals, with an emphasis on Lyme disease and associated co-infections
    • Studies of persistent clinical manifestations associated with Lyme disease; studies providing insight into neurologic symptoms particularly encouraged
    • Studies, including epidemiologic or animal studies, to evaluate the role of tick-borne diseases on maternal health and pregnancy outcomes, improve understanding of congenital tick-borne infections, and/or assess the impact of maternal-to-fetal transmission of tick-borne infections
  • Treatment
    • Proof-of-concept studies for the development of novel therapeutics, or studies to support the repurposing of available or approved compounds for treatment of tick-borne diseases
    • Target identification and/or validation and early refinement of therapeutic candidates including, but not limited to, high throughput screening, lead optimization and structure/activity relationships
  • Diagnosis
    • Development and optimization of innovative approaches that provide diagnostic advantages for single or multiple tick-borne pathogens, with priority given to direct detection of Borrelia burgdorferi or tests that detect multiple tick-borne pathogens or diseases
    • Development and optimization of more accurate or novel approaches capable of distinguishing active Lyme infection from previous exposure and/or resolution of infection
    • Development and optimization of approaches for the detection/diagnosis of maternal-to-fetal transmission of Lyme disease and/or other tick-borne infections, including the development of relevant animal models

Therapeutic/Diagnostic Research Award Focus Areas

  • Treatment
    • Evaluation of novel therapeutics or repurposed compounds for treatment of tick-borne diseases
    • Extensive refinement of therapeutic candidates in a drug development program including, but not limited to, structure/activity relationships and pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic and toxicologic studies
  • Diagnosis
    • Evaluation/validation of approaches that provide diagnostic advantages for single or multiple tick-borne pathogens, with priority given to direct detection of Borrelia burgdorferi or tests that detect multiple tick-borne pathogens or diseases
    • Evaluation/validation of more accurate or novel approaches capable of distinguishing active Lyme infection from previous exposure and/or resolution of infection
    • Evaluation/validation of approaches for the detection/diagnosis of maternal-to-fetal transmission of Lyme disease and/or other tick-borne infections

Award Mechanism Eligibility Key Mechanism Elements Funding
Idea Development Award Idea Development Award:
Independent investigators at all career levels.
Idea Development Award - Career Development Option:
  • Principal Investigator - Investigators within 10 years of completing terminal degree at the time of application submission.
    • Excludes time in medical residency or on family medical leave but not time as a postdoctoral fellow.
    • Investigators must exhibit a strong desire to pursue careers in tick-borne disease research.
  • Mentor - Independent investigators at or above the level of associate professor, or equivalent. The mentor must demonstrate experience as a tick-borne disease researcher by providing a 5-year history of funding and publications in tick-borne disease research, specifically in the field of the proposed studies.
  • The Idea Development Award - Career Development Option requires mentorship. The PI and mentor may originate from different organizations.
  • Supports research that could lead to impactful discoveries or significant advancements toward reducing the burden of Lyme disease and/or other tick-borne diseases and conditions.
  • Mechanism-specific pathogenesis, treatment and diagnosis focus areas only.
  • Conceptually innovative, non-incremental research exhibiting high levels of creativity, or research challenging existing paradigms.
  • Career Development Option: Supports early-career investigators conducting impactful research under the mentorship of an experienced tick-borne disease researcher. Invited pre-applications require a career development plan describing planned coordination between the PI and mentor. A separate, dedicated peer review panel will review applications submitted under this option using career development-specific evaluation criteria described in the funding opportunity.
  • Applications must include either preliminary data or a strong rationale for achieving interpretable results.
  • Applications cannot support clinical trials; human studies/clinical research permitted.
  • The TBDRP requires submission of a preproposal; application submission is by invitation only.
 Idea Development Award:
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years
  • Maximum funding is $800,000 for total costs*
Idea Development Award - Career Development Option:
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years
  • Maximum funding of $550,000 for total costs*
Therapeutic/ Diagnostic Research Award Independent investigators at all career levels.
  • Supports hypothesis-driven therapeutic and diagnostic development research aimed at reducing the burden of Lyme disease and/or other tick-borne diseases and conditions and improving patient care and/or quality of life.
  • Mechanism-specific treatment and diagnosis focus areas only.
    • Treatment-focused applications should include therapeutic evaluation studies designed to advance early/preclinical drug or treatment discoveries.
    • Diagnosis-focused applications should propose diagnostic approaches readily integrated into clinical settings.
  • Research should demonstrate translational potential.
  • Strongly encourages applicants with limited tick-borne disease experience to collaborate with experienced tick-borne disease investigators.
  • Strongly encourages applicants with substantial tick-borne disease experience to partner with experts in therapeutic and diagnostic assay development and transition, particularly those from the commercial sector.
  • Applications require preliminary data.
  • Applications cannot support clinical trials; human studies/clinical research permitted.
  • The TBDRP requires submission of a preproposal; application submission is by invitation only.
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years
  • Maximum funding of $1,325,000 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 TBDRP 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 Tuesday, February 17, 2026