DoD Scleroderma Research Program Announcement
The FY21 Defense Appropriations Act provides funding to the Department of Defense Scleroderma Research Program (SRP) to support innovative, high-impact scleroderma 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).
The FY21 SRP program announcements and General Application Instructions for the following award mechanisms are posted on the Grants.gov website.
Applications submitted to the FY21 SRP Idea Development Award must address one or more of the following Focus Areas:
- Define biomarkers (‘omics and/or molecular markers, cell subsets, imaging, patient-reported outcomes) that help inform therapeutic choices (immunosuppressive/anti-fibrotic) or predict course (morbidity) and quality of life.
- Utilize systems biology, multi-omics and preclinical screening approaches (including but not limited to high-throughput screens, the development of animal models, three-dimensional [3D] tissue culture and/or organoids) with the intent to develop drug testing models in order to understand the heterogeneity of disease as well as to develop prevention and therapeutic interventions.
- Studies of diverse populations to include the development of cohorts and identification of potential measures of patient outcomes.
○ Understand the unique burden of disease in diverse populations.
- Define functional role of epigenetic changes, multiple cell types, and molecules that mediate pathogenesis and/or initiate or propagate organ-specific disease activity using preclinical models and clinical samples.
- Develop and validate short- and long-term organ-specific and composite clinical outcomes measures to determine treatment efficacy.
○ Develop better quantifiable and reproducible measures to assess clinical manifestations including skin, heart, Raynaud phenomenon, calcinosis cutis, or gastrointestinal tract morbidity in scleroderma.
○ Validate patient-reported outcome measurements to aid in the approval of drug and therapies.
○ Develop and validate intermediate biological/surrogate endpoints to support larger clinical proof-of-concept/proof-of-mechanism trials.
Applications submitted to the FY21 SRP Translational Partnership Research Award must address one or more of the following Focus Areas:
- Define biomarkers (‘omics and/or molecular markers, cell subsets, imaging, patient-reported outcomes) that help inform therapeutic choices (immunosuppressive/anti-fibrotic) or predict course (morbidity) and quality of life.
- Utilize systems biology, multi-omics and preclinical screening approaches (including but not limited to high-throughput screens, the development of animal models, 3D tissue culture and/or organoids) with the intent to develop drug testing models in order to understand the heterogeneity of disease as well as to develop prevention and therapeutic interventions.
- Studies of diverse populations to include the development of cohorts and identification of potential measures of patient outcomes.
○ Understand the unique burden of disease in diverse populations.
- Define functional role of epigenetic changes, multiple cell types, and molecules that mediate pathogenesis and/or initiate or propagate organ-specific disease activity using preclinical models and clinical samples.
- Conduct population-based or cohort studies to understand the prevalence, heterogeneity, and course of this disease, its manifestations, and its impact on health outcomes and activities for daily living.
○ Understanding the unique burden of disease in disease in diverse populations.
○ Understand disease heterogeneity (course of disease, prevalence, and associated factors).
○ Utilize disease registries linked to biological samples and high-quality clinical data and patient-reported outcomes.
○ Conduct fine phenotyping of clinical subsets to address heterogeneity.
- Understand and improve the impact of disease and its treatment on the patient’s experience and quality of life.
○ Develop interventions to improve coping with disease.
○ Identify main concerns of patients to inform development and validation of patient-reported outcomes.
○ Identify interventions that improve quality of life.
○ Understand the link between molecule, laboratory, and clinical measures and the patient’s quality of life.
- Develop and validate short- and long-term organ-specific and composite clinical outcomes measures to determine treatment efficacy.
○ Develop better quantifiable and reproducible measures to assess clinical manifestations including skin, heart, Raynaud phenomenon, calcinosis cutis, or gastrointestinal tract morbidity in scleroderma.
○ Validate patient-reported outcome measurements to aid in the approval of drug and therapies.
○ Develop and validate intermediate biological/surrogate endpoints to support larger clinical proof-of-concept/proof-of-mechanism trials.
https://cdmrp.army.mil/funding/srp
Idea Development Award – Letter of Intent due August 11, 2021
Independent investigators at all academic levels (or equivalent). New Investigators: • Terminal degree must be within the last 10 years. • Must not have received National Institutes of Health R01 funding. • Must not have received a New Investigator Award previously from any program within the CDMRP.
|
Translational Research Partnership Award – Letter of Intent due August 11, 2021
Clinicians must be an M.D., D.O. or equivalent with clinical duties and/or responsibilities.
- At least one member of the partnership must have experience in either scleroderma research or scleroderma patient care as demonstrated by active funding and/or recent publications.
- Supports partnerships between clinicians, research scientists and/or other disciplines that accelerate the movement of promising ideas in scleroderma research into clinical applications. At least one partner must be a clinician.
• Preliminary data are required but need not be from the scleroderma research field.
• Clinical trials are 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 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 SRP 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