The FY20 Defense Appropriations Act is anticipated to provide funding to the Department of Defense Neurofibromatosis Research Program (NFRP) to support innovative, high-impact NF research. 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).
FY20 NFRP Program Announcements and General Application Instructions for the following award mechanisms are posted on the Grants.gov website.
Areas of Emphasis: The NFRP encourages applications that specifically address the critical needs of the NF community in one or more of the FY20 Areas of Emphasis. Not all Areas of Emphasis are applicable to each award mechanism offered by the FY20 NFRP. If the proposed research project does not address one of the FY20 Areas of Emphasis, justification that the proposed research project addresses an important problem related to NF research and/or patient care should be provided. Applications submitted to the FY20 NFRP must address one or more of the following Areas of Emphasis:
- Biomarker discovery, utility, development, and validation
- Non-tumor manifestations not limited to:
o Pain
o Cognitive Manifestations
o Sleep
- Heterogeneity of NF-related tumors
- Novel disease and treatment response markers using genetics, genomics, epigenetics, systems biology, metabolomics, or similar approaches
- Preclinical efficacy studies
- Target identification, drug discovery
- Nutritional, environmental, and other modifiers of NF
- Health services research
Investigator-Initiated Research Award – Letter of Intent due June 25, 2020
Must be an investigator at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent) and must plan to commit at least a 30% level of effort for each budget period for the entirety of the award.
· Supports highly rigorous, high-impact research with the potential to make an important contribution to NF research and/or patient care.
· Optional Features: Applications meeting criteria identified in the program announcement may apply for a higher level of funding for the following options: Qualified Collaborator and/or NF Open Science Initiative (NF-OSI).
· Preliminary and/or published data required.
· Clinical trials not allowed.
· The maximum period of performance is 3 years.
· The maximum allowable funding for the entire period of performance is $525,000 in direct costs
· The maximum allowable funding for applications including either the Optional Qualified Collaborator or the NFOSI Option is $575,000 in direct costs
· The maximum allowable funding for applications including both the Optional Qualified Collaborator and the NF-OSU Option is $625,000 in direct costs
· Indirect costs may be proposed in accordance with the institutions negotiated rate agreement
Synergistic Idea Award (NEW for FY20) – Letter of Intent due June 25, 2020
Must be an Investigator at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent) and must plan to commit at least 10% level of effort for each budget period throughout the entirety of the award.
· Supports new ideas that represent synergistic approaches involving two or three Principal Investigators to address a central problem or question in NF research.
· Preliminary and/or published data is required.
· Clinical trials are not allowed.
· The maximum allowable funding for the entire period of performance is $200,000,000 in direct 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 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.
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 NFRP 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
