U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Epilepsy Research Program Preannouncement

The Fiscal Year 2016 (FY16) Defense Appropriations Act provides $7.5 million (M) to the Department of Defense Epilepsy Research Program (ERP).  The ERP supports research that will explore the causative links between TBI and epilepsy, with the hope that one day post-traumatic epilepsy will be preventable.  As directed by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, the Defense Health Agency, Research, Development, and Acquisition (DHA RDA) Directorate manages and executes 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).

The ERP is providing the information in this pre-announcement to allow investigators time to plan and develop applications.  The FY16 ERP Program Announcement and General Application Instructions for the following award mechanism are anticipated to be posted on the Grants.gov website in July 2016. 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.

FY16 ERP Focus Areas:

All applications for the FY16 ERP funding opportunities must address at least one of the following FY16 Focus Areas.  An application that proposes research outside of these FY16 Focus Areas is acceptable, as long as the applicant provides a strong rationale as to the relevance of the research to the ERP’s mission.

The ERP FY16 Focus Areas are as follows:

Epidemiology:  Epidemiological characterization of post traumatic epilepsy (PTE) following TBI, which may include:

·         Risk factors such as demographics, genetic factors, organic head injury factors, or type of insult

·         Differentiation of PTE and Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures (PNES)

·         Outcomes including latency to epilepsy, morbidities and comorbidities, and mortality

·         Pre-existing conditions including psychological and psychiatric risk factors

Markers and Mechanisms:  Identifying markers or mechanisms (via clinical or preclinical models) that address PTE:

·         Early detection

·         Diagnosis

·         Prognosis

·         Comorbidity

·         Mortality

·         Risk stratification

Models of PTE:  Development of new models or better characterization of existing etiologically relevant models for PTE, including repetitive TBI.

Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures:  Exploration of the epidemiology, mechanisms, risk factors, or markers of PNES subsequent to TBI.  Research on non-pharmacological interventions in this population is also encouraged.

http://cdmrp.army.mil/pubs/press/2016/16erppreann.shtml

The FY16 ERP will offer the Idea Development Award. This Award Mechanism will offer two levels of research funding.

Idea Development Award

For either Level I or II, the PI must be an independent investigator at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent).

Intent:  Solicit research to understand the magnitude and underlying mechanisms of Post Traumatic Epilepsy (PTE), especially in Service members and Veterans while benefitting the civilian community.

Level I:  Intended to support investigator-initiated research that may be high-risk and/or high-gain.

Level II:  Intended to support advanced studies that may be multidisciplinary in nature, and/or have multiple collaborators.

Applications should provide relevant preliminary data to support the application’s research hypothesis (or hypotheses).

Preproposal submission is required; application submission is by invitation only.

Level I:

·         Funding limit is $500,000 direct costs.

·         Maximum period of performance is 3 years.

·         Indirect costs may be proposed in accordance with the institution's rate agreement.

Level II:

·         Funding limit is $3.7M total (direct and 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 funding opportunities can be obtained on the Grants.gov website by performing a basic search using CFDA Number 12.420.

Applications must be submitted through the federal government's single-entry portal, Grants.gov.  Submission deadlines are not available until the Program Announcements are released.  For email notification when Program Announcements are released, go to the CDMRP website (http://cdmrp.army.mil) and select Subscribe to Funding Opportunities & Program Communications.  For more information about the ERP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (http://cdmrp.army.mil).

For questions about the research programs, please contact the MRO Research Grants & Contracts Team (adm-researchgrants.contracts@monash.edu).