The FY19 Defense Appropriation provides $10 million (M) to the Department of Defense Hearing Restoration Research Program (HRRP)to support promising, necessary research for treatment of burdensome and very prevalent auditory system injury.  As directed by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, the Defense Health Agency 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) at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC).

The HRRP is providing the information in this pre-announcement to allow investigators time to plan and develop applications.  FY19 HRRP Program Announcement and General Application Instruction for the following award mechanism are anticipated to be posted on the Grants.gov website in May 2019.  Pre-application and application deadlines will be available when the Program Announcement is released.  This pre-announcement should not be construed as an obligation by the government.

https://cdmrp.army.mil/pubs/press/2019/19hrrppreann

Focused Research Award

Independent investigators at all academic levels (or equivalent) are eligible to submit applications.

Preproposal is required; application submission is by invitation only.

·      Supports promising research that has the potential to make, or lead to, significant advancement in hearing restoration.

·      Must address at least one of FY19 HRRP Focus Areas:

• Develop or validate techniques/methods to assess or diagnose auditory dysfunction as related to synaptopathy, hidden hearing loss, and central auditory processing disorders.  For example: diagnostic tests that help differentiate sensory, neural, synaptic, and central processing disorders; diagnostic tools for use in forward or remote deployed settings; treatments for the various types of damage that result in auditory dysfunction.
• Accelerate translation of biological regeneration/repair mechanisms into therapies that restore auditory function.
• Develop reliable in vitro human models for evaluating hearing restoration therapies.  

·      It is the responsibility of the PI to select the funding level that is most appropriate for the research proposed.  The funding level should be selected based on the scope of the research project, rather than the amount of the budget.

·      Funding Level 1 requires preliminary data to support the rationale of the research idea and the investigating team’s expertise in the subject area.

·      Funding Level 2 requires preliminary data to support the feasibility of the proposed research strategy.

·      Funding Level 2 may include a pilot clinical trial where limited clinical testing of a novel intervention is conducted to inform the feasibility, rationale, and design of subsequent clinical trials.

Tinnitus or vestibular-related research is excluded.

Funding Level 1:

·        Maximum funding of $250,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs)

·        The maximum period of performance is 2 years.

Funding Level 2:

·        Maximum funding of $1M for direct costs (plus indirect costs)

·        The maximum period of performance is 3 years.

Funding Level 2 with Pilot Clinical Trial Option:

·        Maximum funding of $1.25M for direct costs (plus indirect costs)

The maximum period of performance is 3 years.

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 that will be available for electronic downloading from the Grants.gov website.  The application package containing the required forms for each award mechanism will also be found on Grants.gov.  A listing of all CDMRP and other USAMRMC extramural funding opportunities can be obtained on the Grants.gov website by performing a basic search using CFDA Number 12.420. 

Submission deadlines are not available until the Program Announcements are released.  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 HRRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (https://cdmrp.army.mil).

Point of Contact:

CDMRP Public Affairs
301-619-9783
usarmy.detrick.medcom-cdmrp.mbx.cdmrp-public-affairs@mail.mil