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. Vision
  4. Research Highlights/News
  5. 2026 Vision Research Program

Vision

NEWS RELEASE

Released: February 20, 2026

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

The FY26 Defense Appropriations Act provides funding for the VRP to support innovative, high-impact research with clinical relevance that will target the various causes, effects and treatment of visual injury resulting from exposures to the elements during combat operations and damage from explosive devices. As part of the DHA R&D-MRDC, the CDMRP is the program office managing these anticipated FY26 funding opportunities.

The VRP 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 VRP 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 VRP must address one or more of the following focus areas:

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

Award Mechanism Eligibility Key Mechanism Elements Funding
Clinical Trial Award Independent investigators affiliated with an eligible organization
  • Supports the rapid implementation of early-phase clinical trials, i.e., phase 0 through phase 2a, of new interventions service-related eye injury or visual dysfunction.
  • Applications must provide Investigational New Drug or Investigational Device Exemption application by application submission deadline.
    • Applications must provide evidence of IND or IDE approval to receive funding.
  • Applications must demonstrate access to the proposed intervention(s).
  • Applications must demonstrate access to the target subject population(s).
  • The VRP requires submission of a preproposal, application submission by invitation only.
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years
  • Maximum allowable funding is $2.6 million for total costs*
Investigator-Initiated Research Award Independent investigators affiliated with an eligible organization
  • Funding Level 1 supports exploratory, high-risk and high-reward research in the earliest stages of development.
    • Research must have the potential to yield new avenues of investigation, such as new approaches, research tools or paradigms.
    • Application does not require preliminary data but must provide solid rationale of the research idea and demonstrate sufficient expertise on the investigating team.
  • Funding Level 2 supports the advancement of research toward clinical translation.
    • Applications may include any phase of research from basic through translational.
    • Applications must include preliminary data.
    • Partnering Principal Investigator Option: Supports meaningful and productive partnerships between two investigators, termed the initiating PI and partnering PI, collaborating on a single application.
  • The VRP requires submission of a letter of intent prior to full application submission.
 Funding Level 1
  • Maximum period of performance is 2 years
  • Maximum allowable funding is $400,000 for total costs*
Funding Level 2
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years
  • Maximum allowable funding is $1.2M for total costs*
Translational Research Award Independent investigators affiliated with an eligible organization
  • Supports translational research that moves promising laboratory research into clinical applications.
  • The VRP expects investigators will submit an Investigational New Drug or Investigational Device Exemption application during or by the end of the period of performance.
  • Applications may include, but do not require, expansion of a highly impactful research project previously funded by the VRP.
  • Applications must include preliminary data.
  • Applications may include, but do not require, a pilot clinical trial component that collects preliminary data to support the feasibility, rationale and design of subsequent clinical trials.
  • Partnering Principal Investigator Option: Supports meaningful and productive partnerships between two investigators, termed the initiating PI and partnering PI, collaborating on a single application.
  • The VRP requires submission of a preproposal; application submission by invitation only.
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years
  • Maximum allowable funding is $1.6M for total costs*
Mentored Clinical Research Award
  • Principal investigator and mentor: Established clinician or Ph.D. clinical scientist affiliated with an eligible organization
  • Mentee: Clinician in training, e.g., fellow, resident, junior clinician, clinician in a Ph.D. program, who has sufficient time remaining in their training program to complete the research proposed
  • Supports clinical research, e.g., research conducted with human subjects, samples, or data of human origin, by a mentee under an established mentor.
  • Key personnel must include one established clinician, as the mentor and principal investigator, and one clinician in training as the mentee.
    • While multiple junior scientists or clinicians may participate in the research, the application may only designate one mentee.
  • Applications may include 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.
  • Applications cannot support preclinical research.
  • Applications cannot support clinical trials.
  • Applications must provide evidence of institutional review board or ethics committee submission by application submission deadline.
    • Applications must provide documentation of IRB or EC approval or exemption to receive funding.
  • The award may cover costs of laboratory supplies or small equipment or provide salary support for supportive personnel, but the award may not provide salary support for the mentor or the mentee.
  • The VRP requires submission of a letter of intent prior to full application submission.
  • Maximum period of performance is 1.5 years
  • Maximum allowable funding is $75,000 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 VRP 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 Friday, February 20, 2026