The FY19 Defense Appropriation provides $10 million (M) to the Department of Defense Chronic Pain Management Research Program (CPMRP) to support research of exceptional scientific merit with the potential to make a significant impact on improving the health and quality of life of Service members, Veterans, and all Americans living with chronic pain.  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 Development Command (USAMRDC).The CPMRP is providing the information in this pre-announcement to allow investigators time to plan and develop applications.  FY19 CPMRP Program Announcements and General Application Instructions for the following award mechanisms are anticipated to be posted on the Grants.gov website in July 2019.  Pre-application and application deadlines will be available when the Program Announcements are released.  This pre-announcement should not be construed as an obligation by the government.

Per the FY19 CPMRP Congressional appropriation, chronic pain is defined as a pain that occurs on at least half the days for six months or more, and which can be caused by issues including, but not limited to:  combat- and training-related physical or mental stress and trauma, migraines and chronic headaches, traumatic brain injury, arthritis, muscular-skeletal conditions, neurological disease, tick and vector-borne disease, other insect-transmitted or tropical disease, and cancer.  The CPMRP seeks to support and promote innovative, high-impact research to prevent the development and improve the management of chronic pain, with specific emphasis on the utilization and implementation of non-opioid therapies or non-addictive complementary methods.  Applications from investigators within the military Services and applications involving multidisciplinary collaborations among academia, industry, the military Services, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and other Federal Government agencies are highly encouraged.

For FY19, the CPMRP Focus Areas will be required.  Each award mechanism (listed below) will require at least one of the FY19 CPMRP Focus Areas as indicated in the table.

Award Mechanism	FY19 Focus Area
Investigator-Initiated Research Award	“Chronification” of Pain (i.e., the acute-to-chronic pain transition)
Translational Research Award	Comparative Effectiveness
Translational Research Award	Implementation Science (evidence-based, efficacious interventions to manage chronic pain)

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

Investigator-Initiated Research Award

Investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent)

·      Emphasis on innovative and impactful research

·      Applications must include preliminary and/or published data or clinical observations that originated from the research team that support the rationale for the proposed study.

·      Should be relevant to active duty Service members, Veterans, military beneficiaries, and/or the American public.

·      Multidisciplinary collaborations are encouraged.

·      Clinical trials are not allowed.

·      Maximum funding of $900,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs)

·      Maximum period of performance is 4 years

Translational Research Award

Investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent)

·      Supports acceleration of evidence-based ideas and research into clinical applications (e.g., healthcare products, technologies, practice guidelines).

·      Applications must include preliminary and/or published data collected by the research team that support the rationale for the proposed study.

·      Effectiveness-implementation hybrid type 2 and type 3 studies are encouraged.

·      Projects may include studies using prospective human subject enrollment or retrospective data analysis; limited clinical studies are allowed.

·      Animal studies are not allowed.

·      Maximum funding of $1,400,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs)

·      Maximum period of performance is 4 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 USAMRDC 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 CPMRP 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