CDMRP Funding Opportunities and Strategies for Success

Webinar Script

Slide 1

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining this webinar, hosted by the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. During the next half hour, I will take you through the basics of how to find our research opportunities, and show you how to use the information in a program announcement to help your application be as successful as possible.

Slide 2

First – how to find our funding opportunities, also called program announcements or PAs. There are many, and while most come out around the same time each year (often Spring), we do have some that come out at other times, so it’s important to know where to look for them.

Slide 3

Finding the funding opportunities is the first step and there are several sources for you to check.

*CDMRP website - On the CDMRP homepage, there is a link at the top for Funding Opportunities, as well as one in the “For Investigators” section

*eBRAP – They can also be found at our electronic biomedical research application portal, or ebrap.org. This is the site where pre-applications are submitted.

*Grants.gov – Finally, they can be found at grants.gov. The best way to locate them is to use the “Search Grants” function, and enter the number 12.420 in the CFDA field. This will bring up all open CDMRP funding opportunities.

Slide 4

To avoid finding out it’s too late to apply to that perfect funding opportunity, we recommend you sign up to receive e-mail notifications when new funding opportunities are released. This can be done at the CDMRP website shown on the upper left, or at ebrap.org, shown on the upper right.

You can choose which programs to receive notifications from, though we recommend choosing all so you don’t miss anything. We try to group notices together to keep clutter out of your inbox. The e-mails you receive will have links back to the CDMRP website where you can find more details on each funding opportunity.

Slide 5

Now we will cover the submission process and the components of an application, along with some tips to help you take your idea to a funded project.

Slide 6

Here is a broad overview of the application process. The main takeaway of the flow chart here is that submission requires steps by both you as the PI, shown in gray in the diagram, and the Business Official at your organization, shown in blue, so you will need to plan for that coordination.

Submission has two main required steps – submission of a pre-application, followed by submission of the full application. A third optional, but recommended step, is also shown here – once the full proposal is submitted, the PI has an opportunity to verify and correct some of the application components if needed – I will talk a bit more about that later.

Slide 7

Once you’ve identified the funding opportunity that best fits your research, you will need to refer to the Program Announcement and the General Application Instructions. These are the TWO documents that must be followed and referenced in concert as you put your application together. The General Application Instructions, on the right, will guide you through the logistics of the pre- and full application processes. It will also inform you about regulatory requirements, formatting instructions, national policy information, and restrictions that you must be aware of during application process and after if you are awarded. Typically the General Application Instructions are the same for all funding opportunities in a given fiscal year, but check to make sure you are referencing the correct version of the General Application Instructions for your Program Announcement of interest – this information can be found on the cover sheet of the Program Announcement. The Program Announcement, shown on the left, contains program-specific and funding opportunity-specific information. Unlike the General Application Instructions, each Program Announcement is different.

The most important tip I can give you is to read both of these documents very carefully. I also want to note here that the submission deadlines will be listed right on the front page of each Program Announcement, as highlighted in the red box on the left. These deadlines are very important, and not at all flexible. We strongly advise that to make sure you do not run up against these deadlines, you start your submissions early – do not leave them until the very last day.

Slide 8

Let’s dive into a Program Announcement, or PA. First, it’s important to understand the intent of the PA, and how it will be reviewed. I’m going to walk through the sections you’ll find in a PA, and show you where you can find information on all of the elements listed here. Don’t worry about reading the screenshots – the important thing to understand is how you can find this information for any CDMRP funding opportunity.

Slide 9

Every PA begins with a description of the program and its goals—the overarching need the program is looking to address.

Highlighted in this example are the vision statement and goals of the Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program.

A successful application will clearly show how your project addresses the program’s needs.

Slide 10

The next section typically lists the specific areas of research being solicited. Programs have different names for these, such as focus areas, topic areas, overarching challenges, or research priorities, for example. These may be mandatory or encouraged. Make sure you understand which applies to your PA of interest. Mandatory areas are required, and therefore if you do not address one in your proposed research, your application may be withdrawn. Encouraged areas are not required but are of special importance to the program, giving you insight into the program’s funding priorities.

These areas can change from year to year for a given program. Also keep in mind that a program likely has multiple funding opportunities in a single fiscal year, and these focus areas can be different from PA to PA even within the same program.

Slide 11

The Focus or Topic Areas that programs include in their PAs can be quite specific, like the example focus area shown at the top here from the Peer Reviewed Orthopaedic Research Program. Make sure you read them carefully and can articulate how your project addresses the stated need, particularly if it is mandatory to address one.

In addition, some PAs may have both mandatory Focus or Topic Areas, as well as optional Areas of Encouragement, for example as seen in the FY18 Peer Reviewed Alzheimer’s Research Program.

Slide 12

Next is the award information section of the PA.

A program typically issues multiple PAs in the same fiscal year because they are looking to support different kinds of research; for example, small, innovative, high-risk projects, larger impact translational research, and clinical trials – there may be a different PA for each of those types of awards. Being sure you understand the intent of an award mechanism will not only help you decide which PA within a program to apply to, but also what your application should emphasize.

The Award Information section includes:

A description of the overall intent and type of research targeted –this PA, for example, is clearly focused on product-oriented, translational research.

It may include definitions, such as what CDMRP considers to be a clinical trial vs a clinical study, or what a knowledge product is.

And it includes any other important requirements, such as whether preliminary data are required or not, if clinical trials are allowed or required, if the review is blinded – this means identifying information must be left out of all application components that undergo peer and programmatic review -- a description of regulatory requirements, and other specifics.

Note that PAs from different programs have different requirements, even if the funding opportunity has the same name. For example, not all Idea Award PAs are the same. Also, programs do change their requirements from year to year, so don’t assume you know what the requirements are if you’ve applied in the past.

Slide 13

Skipping ahead a bit, you will find important information on funding restrictions. This section provides the maximum period of performance for the project, and the budget limit. Awards will not be supported that exceed these restrictions. Look carefully at the funding limits in particular, as the budget limit can be determined two ways. Some PAs cap the direct costs, with indirect costs allowed in accordance with your organization’s negotiated government rate, while other PAs cap the total costs – direct plus indirect costs. Be sure you understand which framework your PA is using to determine funding limits. The blue box here is drawing your attention to the fact that for CDMRP, indirect costs of a subaward count as part of the DIRECT cost of the prime – this has tripped people up in the past, so I wanted to mention it. And finally, this section also includes information on what types of costs may be included, are required to be included, or are prohibited.

Slide 14

Moving on to the submission process, let’s talk about the steps to take and the content of the submissions.

As has been mentioned already, there is a mandatory two-step submission process, with pre-applications submitted through eBRAP, and then full applications submitted through either grants.gov for extramural applicants or eBRAP again for intramural institutions. Intramural organizations are DOD organizations only; all others, including other government agencies, are considered extramural.

Slide 15

Each PA breaks down the submission process in a table outlining submission guidelines for both extra and intramural applicants. This is an important section to review with your business official, and in it you will find software requirements, where to find the application package, a list of each required component, instructions on where to submit, and guidelines for the verification period.

The PA then goes on to describe each of the required and optional components of the application. A great deal of detail is provided on the various attachments for the full application, which typically include the Project Narrative, Supporting Documentation, Abstracts, the Statement of Work, Impact Statement, and often several other components. Please read the description of what is required for each attachment carefully, and make sure to address each point.

Slide 16

Here I’d like to mention the application verification period, which typically ends about 3-5 days after the application submission deadline.

The self-verification period allows you to see your application in eBRAP after it has been submitted through grants.gov by your Business Official. If you take advantage of it, you can make sure the files are correct, and make some changes if necessary. Be aware that after the application submission deadline, you are not permitted to change the Project Narrative or the Budget during the open verification period. The only way to submit a revised Budget or Project Narrative is to submit a revised application package through grants.gov (for extramural applications) or eBRAP (for intramural applications) before the application submission deadline. But most other application components can be changed during the verification period in eBRAP if needed. This is a valuable tool that I encourage you to use to double check your application once it has been submitted.

Slide 17

A helpful checklist is provided at the back of each PA so you can be sure your submission is complete. Go through and check to see if you have all of the components and that they are in the correct order.

Slide 18

Shown here is the program cycle for each of our programs. The CDMRP has developed and uses common program management approaches, though each program has individually tailored goals. There are many steps, and I will not be going over each one. However, I do want to talk about the steps that come directly after pre-application submission and full application submission, and give you some tips to sail through the review process.

If you’d like more information regarding the CDMRP review process, there is a short video posted at the link noted on this slide that you can view at your leisure.

Slide 19

As I have mentioned, all pre-application submission is done through eBRAP, and there are two types - be sure you read and understand which is being used in your PA.

Some PAs require a letter of intent, or LOI, which is just the title of the application and a brief description of the project. An LOI is NOT screened — it is only used for administrative purposes, such as planning for peer review panels. For these PAs, you should submit your LOI by the pre-application deadline, which is usually 2-4 weeks before the full application deadline, and then you can go ahead and submit your full application. If you are submitting to a PA that uses an LOI, you DO NOT wait for a letter of invitation.

In the second type of pre-application, the PA may use a pre-application screening process, as is the case of this Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program PA. Here you submit a preproposal for screening—usually a 2-3 page preproposal narrative with a few other simple components. A description of what is required can be found in the PA under the Pre-Application Submission Content section. This type of pre-application gets reviewed, usually by the programmatic panel, and only those PIs who receive notification that they are invited can move on to submit full applications.

The intent of preproposal screening is to review research ideas before you’ve spent a lot of time putting a full application together and weed out those that may not be as relevant to the program goals. The PA tells you exactly how your preproposal will be evaluated in the pre-application review criteria, like the example shown here - be sure you have addressed all these points clearly.

Once the selection is made, you will receive a notification that the status of your pre-application has been updated in eBRAP, and you can check to see if you are invited there. You will not receive feedback on your preproposal.

Note that preproposals are short and have limited information. An invitation to submit a full application means the program would like to see more from you. It is not a guarantee of funding, nor does it mean that every aspect of your proposal will meet all PA requirements.

Slide 20

Following full application receipt, all applications receive a peer review to establish technical merit – this is the first tier of our two-tier review process. Peer review is done by panels of consumers, scientists, clinicians and other specialists with expertise in the area of the applications being reviewed.

As with the preproposal screening, the PA again tells you how your application will be evaluated by outlining the peer review criteria in detail. There are both scored and unscored peer review criteria. The scored criteria contribute directly to the overall score of the application and may be of equal importance or, like the example shown here from a Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program PA, in decreasing order of importance for peer review scoring.

In the PA, each criteria will have several descriptive elements listed below it which tell you how that criterion will be evaluated. This is valuable information, and you should make sure that your application addresses each point. Using the peer review criteria from the PA wisely gives you the opportunity to clearly explain how your work meets these requirements.

Keep in mind that if we are asking the peer reviewers to evaluate something, then there is a corresponding component of the application package where you can address it. We recommend you make it as easy as possible for the peer reviewers to find the information they need to evaluate your application.

Slide 21

The second part of the two-stage review process is programmatic review, where applications are compared to each other and funding recommendations are made.

During programmatic review, programmatic reviewers discuss applications with high technical merit, as established during peer review, and identify those that best meet program goals. Again, the PA tells you how your application will be evaluated. The PA lists the programmatic review criteria that are considered by each programmatic panel. These criteria often include factors such as:

• portfolio composition, where a panel will look to ensure it is supporting applications that address different focus areas;
• relative impact, which identifies the applications that have the potential for highest impact;
• how well the intent of the mechanism (those specific elements called out in the Award Information section) is addressed;
• and for some programs, relevance to military populations.

The majority of feedback you will receive comes from peer review in the form of a summary statement, but recently, we’ve also begun providing some feedback from programmatic review in your notification letter.

Note that each program publishes a list of its programmatic panel one its webpage – you are not allowed to contact these individuals about your application, but you can see who they are, who your audience is, and also make sure you don’t include them in your submission.

Slide 22

The final section of the PA deals with administrative information, including a list of what you should NOT do to avoid having your application withdrawn, rejected, or modified.

Rejection typically happens if the project narrative is missing or too long, or if the budget is missing.

Modification occurs when an element of the application is modified – usually this involves removing extra pages in certain attachments, such as biosketches or abstracts. These applications continue on in the review process in shortened form.

A withdrawal can happen for a variety of reasons that may be discovered at any time during the review process, such as not meeting clinical trial requirements, not meeting a required focus or topic area, or including a programmatic panel member in the submission.

Slide 23

I want to mention some things that can trip you up during application submission and cause your application to be withdrawn or rejected.

First, don’t include any programmatic panel members for the program and fiscal year to which you are applying. These individuals are involved in setting the vision and investment strategy for the program, as well as the review and funding selection process, and they are not allowed to submit or be named in any applications.

Don’t exceed the page limit – in particular, check that the limits are correct after each file is converted to a PDF.

Do not miss the submission deadline – as I mentioned earlier, there is no flexibility on this. Keep in mind that it can take up to 72 hours for grants.gov to validate your submission, so you may not know if there is a problem right away. Also, we have seen that sometimes there are problems with system-to-system submissions – if your organization uses such a system, you may want to ensure extra time as a cushion.

Finally, make sure you submit the correct version of your project narrative and budget, as these two components cannot be modified during the verification period in eBRAP.

Slide 24

Overall, our goal is for you to submit your best possible application.

This slide, and the one that follows, summarizes some of the points I made, and I want to emphasize the importance of using the PA to help you address them.

Make sure your application is relevant by understanding program and PA goals, and describing how you plan to address them.

Make sure you know what the program considers to be high impact – take a close look at those focus areas – and ensure your application is filling an important gap in the research field.

Many mechanisms include Innovation as a review criteria, but even for those that don’t, applicants should be proposing to meet an unaddressed need, and typically this involves doing something no one has done before. If your research could be considered more “next step”/less innovative, then make sure you are proposing a solution to a very important problem, with excellent potential for translation down the road.

Strong applications clearly demonstrate the technical feasibility, with statistics and access to all the necessary expertise, resources, and populations that are needed to support that feasibility.

Slide 25

Make sure you plan early, and give yourself enough time to put all the components together, and troubleshoot any issues with your organization and your collaborators.

Finally, grantsmanship is important. Write clearly, communicate effectively for the different audiences that will be looking at your applications, and make things as easy as possible for review.

We very much want you to succeed in this, as it helps us in our quest to find innovative and impactful research that will transform healthcare for Service members and the American public – without you, we cannot reach this goal.

Slide 26

Thank you for your time and attention. If you have additional questions not answered by this webinar, I encourage you to visit the CDMRP website, where, among other resources, you can view an introductory overview video about our organization, or find contact information for our Help Desk. I also encourage you to look out for additional installments of our webinar series, planned for released in the first half of 2019, which will have focused information on specific types of funding opportunities.