The FY19 Defense Appropriation provides $15 million (M) to the Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Alzheimer’s Research Program (PRARP) to support research which addresses the long-term consequences of traumatic brain injury (TBI) as they pertain to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias (ADRD). 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).
FY19 PRARP Program Announcements and General Application Instructions for the following award mechanisms are posted on the Grants.gov website.
FY19 PRARP Overarching Challenges and Focus Areas:
All applications for FY19 PRARP Program Announcements must address at least one of the following FY19 Overarching Challenges. The FY19 Overarching Challenges will be award mechanism-specific.
FY19 PRARP Overarching Challenges are listed below.
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PRARP FY19 Overarching Challenges
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Paucity of Research Resources: The paucity of research resources and models to examine the interrelationship between TBI and subsequent AD/ADRD for the military, Veteran, and civilian communities and translate these findings
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Paucity of Clinical Studies: The paucity of clinical studies to examine the interrelationship between TBI and subsequent AD/ADRD for the military, Veteran, and civilian communities
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Diagnostics and Prognostics: The need for technologies, tests, surveys, questionnaires, devices, biomarkers, or analyses to detect TBI and sequelae to include AD/ADRD utilizing new and/or pre-existing datasets
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Epidemiology: The paucity of epidemiological research to examine the interrelationship between TBI, risk and resiliency factors, and subsequent AD/ADRD for the military, Veteran, and civilian communities
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Quality of Life: The need for technologies, assessments, interventions, or devices to benefit individuals living with the common symptoms of TBI and/or AD/ADRD
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Family and Care Support: The need for technologies, assessments, interventions, or devices that enhance the lives of those providing care and families of individuals living with the common symptoms of TBI and/or AD/ADRD
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In addition to addressing one or more of the specified FY19 Overarching Challenges, applications should also address at least one of the following FY19 Focus Areas in support of the FY19 Overarching Challenges. An application that proposes research outside of the FY19 Focus Areas is acceptable, as long as the applicant provides a strong rationale. The Focus Areas will be award mechanism-specific.
The PRARP FY19 Focus Areas are listed below.
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PRARP FY19 Focus Areas
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Mechanisms of Pathogenesis: Identification of contributing mechanisms to include circuit dysfunction associated with TBI and subsequent AD/ADRD
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Biomarkers: Development of methods to diagnose, prognose, or characterize neurological changes or risk/resiliency factors associated with TBI and subsequent AD/ADRD
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Quality of Life: Research intended to alleviate, stabilize, or characterize the symptoms, or deficits, common to TBI and AD/ADRD
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Family and Caregiver Support: Research intended to reduce the burden of care on the caregivers or families of individuals living with the common symptoms or deficits of TBI and AD/ADRD
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Epidemiology: Utilize new and existing studies and datasets to examine the relationships between risk and resiliency factors for TBI and subsequent AD/ADRD
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Novel Target Identification: Basic research (non-human) directly leading to identification of new targets for the development of existing or new investigational medicines, drugs, or agents for TBI and subsequent AD/ADRD
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Nonpharmacological Interventions and Devices: Research into non-medication-based interventions and devices to improve quality of life or caregiving for those living with the common symptoms of TBI and AD/ADRD
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Bioinformatics: Tools, including machine learning, to access, annotate, curate, store, and visualize large existing or novel datasets, e.g., multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), other imaging techniques, surveys, questionnaires, and diagnostics for TBI and subsequent AD/ADRD
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The following is a summary of the FY19 PRARP Program Announcements. Three award mechanisms will be offered for FY19.
https://cdmrp.army.mil/funding/prarp
Convergence Science Research Award – Letter of Intent due June 26, 2019
Level I: The Principal Investigator (PI) must be an independent, early-career investigator within 3 years of his/her first independent faculty position (or equivalent).
Level II: The PI must be an independent investigator at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent).
Intent: Support innovative or novel efforts to generate research resources, tools, or research efforts for researchers and/or practitioners in health sciences.
Applications must address one or more of the following FY19 PRARP Overarching Challenges:
· Paucity of Research Resources
· Paucity of Clinical Studies
· Diagnostics and Prognostics
· Epidemiology
Applications should address at least one of the following FY19 PRARP Focus Areas:
· Mechanisms of Pathogenesis
· Biomarkers
· Epidemiology
· Novel Target Identification
· Bioinformatics
Research considering pharmacologic interventions is specifically discouraged under this mechanism.
Preliminary data, while not required, are encouraged.
Level I:
· Maximum funding of $225,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs).
· Maximum period of performance is 3 years.
· Indirect costs may be proposed in accordance with the institution's rate agreement.
Level II:
· Maximum funding of $500,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs).
· Maximum period of performance is 3 years.
· Indirect costs may be proposed in accordance with the institution's rate agreement.
Innovation in Care and Support award – Letter of Intent due June 26, 2019
Level 1: The PI must be an independent, early-career investigator within 3 years of his/her first independent faculty position (or equivalent).
Level II: The PI must be an independent investigator at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent)
Intent: To support innovative research that improves the quality of life and care for individuals living with the common symptoms of TBI and/or Ad/ADRD and/or their families and care providers.
Applications must address one or more of the following FY19 PRARP Overarching Challenges:
· Paucity of Clinical Studies
· Diagnostics and Prognostics
· Epidemiology
· Quality of Life
· Family and Care Support
Applications should address at least one of the following FY19 PRARP Focus Areas:
· Biomarkers
· Quality of Life
· Family and Caregiver Support
· Epidemiology
· Nonpharmacological Interventions and Devices
· Bioinformatics
· Research considering pharmacologic interventions is specifically discouraged under this mechanism.
· Preliminary data, while not required, are encouraged.
Level I:
· Maximum funding of $225,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs).
· Maximum period of performance is 3 years.
· Indirect costs may be proposed in accordance with the institution's rate agreement.
Level II:
· Maximum funding of $500,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs).
· Maximum period of performance is 3 years.
· Indirect costs may be proposed in accordance with the institution's rate agreement
Research Partnership Award – Letter of Intent due June 26, 2019
The PI must be an independent investigator at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent).
Intent: To create an avenue for collaborative research partnerships between/among investigators to address a research problem or question in a manner that would be unachievable through separate efforts.
Applications must include clearly stated plans for interactions between the partners.
Applications must address one or more of the following FY19 PRARP Overarching Challenges:
· Paucity of Research Resources
· Paucity of Clinical Studies
· Diagnostics and Prognostics
· Epidemiology
· Quality of Life
· Family and Care Support
Applications should address at least one of the following FY19 PRARP Focus Areas:
· Mechanisms of Pathogenesis
· Biomarkers
· Quality of Life
· Family and Caregiver Support
· Epidemiology
· Novel Target Identification
· Nonpharmacological Interventions and Devices
· Bioinformatics
· Research considering pharmacologic interventions is specifically discouraged under this mechanism.
· Preliminary data are required.
· Funding limit is $1.3M in total costs.
· Maximum period of performance is 3 years.
· Indirect costs may be proposed in accordance with the institution’s rate agreement.
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 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.
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 PRARP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (https://cdmrp.army.mil).
Point of Contact:
CDMRP Help Desk
301-682-5507
help@eBrap.org
