FY18 MSRP Program Announcements and General Application Instructions for the following award mechanisms are posted on Grants.gov.

As directed by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, the Defense Health Agency (DHA), J9 Research and Development Directorate manages the Defense Health Program (DHP) Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) appropriation. The managing agent for the anticipated Program Announcements/Funding Opportunities is the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP).

Applications submitted to the FY18 MSRP must address at least one of the following Focus Areas:

1) Obstacles to Remyelination and/or Obstacles to Axonal Protection in MS

• Examples of acceptable studies include, but are not limited to, the roles of inhibitory factors, trophic factors, cell-cell interactions, and cell intrinsic factors.
• Utilization and/or development of models that reflect the disease progression and translational approaches to evaluate benefit are encouraged.

Note: Projects addressing the basic mechanisms of demyelination and neurodegeneration, inflammation or prevention of secondary injury following inflammation will not be considered for funding.

(2) Correlates of Disease Activity and Progression in MS

Studies may identify or validate correlates of disease activity and progression using pre-existing specimens and/or data acquired from well-characterized, adequately controlled, and sufficiently powered patient cohorts.

• Correlates include clinical outcome measures, patient self-reported measures, and imaging and non-imaging biomarkers.
• Examples of acceptable cohorts for study include controlled clinical trials, observational studies, and registries. Analyses may utilize existing clinical data and outcome measures, specimens, and/or imaging data.

Note: The study must leverage pre-existing specimens and/or data that are available at the time of application submission; collection of additional data on the existing cohort is allowed.

(3) Biology and Measurements of MS Symptoms (Exploration – Hypothesis Development Award ONLY!)

• Symptoms may include pain, fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, visual impairment, motor impairment, impaired mobility, loss of bladder control, sexual dysfunction, depression, and anxiety.
• Examples of acceptable studies include, but are not limited to, the following: development of measurements for future interventional studies to alleviate symptoms, rehabilitation, mechanisms underlying symptoms of MS, development and/or validation of outcome measures and tools for symptoms, and observational studies on the prevalence or significance of symptoms.

Note: Studies of disease-modifying or regenerative therapies that secondarily impact symptoms will not be considered for funding.

http://cdmrp.army.mil/funding/msrp

Exploration - Hypothesis Development Award – Preproposal due June 26, 2018

Independent investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent)

• Pre-application submission is required; application submission is by invitation only.
• Supports the initial exploration of innovative, high-risk, high-gain, and potentially groundbreaking concepts in the MS research field.
• Preliminary data and/or published data not required.
• Anticipated that budgets will not exceed $150,000 in direct costs (plus indirect costs)
• Period of performance not to exceed 2 years
• Clinical trials not allowed.

Investigator-Initiated Research Award – Preproposal due June 26, 2018

Independent investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent)

• Pre-application submission is required; application submission is by invitation only.
• Supports highly rigorous, high-impact research with the potential to make an important contribution to MS research and/or patient care.
• Preliminary and/or published data required.

• Anticipated that budgets will not exceed $600,000 in direct costs (plus indirect costs)

• Period of performance not to exceed 3 years
• Clinical trials not allowed.

A pre-application is required and must be submitted through the electronic Biomedical Research Application Portal (eBRAP) at https://eBRAP.org prior to the pre-application deadline. All applications must conform to the final Program Announcements and General Application Instructions available for electronic downloading from the Grants.gov website. The application package containing the required forms for each award mechanism is also found on Grants.gov. A listing of all CDMRP funding opportunities can be obtained on the Grants.gov website by performing a basic search using CFDA Number 12.420.

Applications must be submitted through the federal government’s single-entry portal, Grants.gov. For email notification when Program Announcements are released, subscribe to program-specific news and updates under “Email Subscriptions” on the eBRAP homepage at https://eBRAP.org. For more information about the MSRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (http://cdmrp.army.mil).

Point of Contact:

CDMRP Help Desk
301-682/5507
help@eBrap.org