DOD Tick-Borne Disease, Investigator-Initiated Research Award | W81XWH 19 TBDRP IIRA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 19 TBDRP IIRA

The Department of Defense (DoD), through the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) Tick-Borne Disease Research Program (TBDRP), offered the FY19 Investigator-Initiated Research Award (IIRA) to support ambitious, highly rigorous projects aimed at producing meaningful advances in Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases. The core intent of this mechanism is to fund research that can credibly move the field forward in ways that matter to patients and to public health, including improvements in understanding disease biology, informing better clinical care, and ultimately improving quality of life. The program is deliberately broad in scientific scope, welcoming studies that range from basic science to translational work, including preclinical research in animal models, studies involving human subjects, and correlative studies that leverage data and samples connected to an existing clinical trial. The expectation is that funded projects will establish a solid proof-of-principle that can justify and shape larger follow-on efforts.

A central feature of the opportunity is that applications must be hypothesis-driven and built on a strong scientific foundation. Investigators are expected to present a clear, well-formulated, testable hypothesis supported by logical reasoning, a thoughtful and critical reading of existing literature, and preliminary evidence that makes the proposed direction credible. Preliminary data is not optional under this mechanism; applicants must include relevant supporting data, whether generated in the principal investigator’s lab, contributed by named collaborators, and/or drawn from published work that directly strengthens the rationale for the project. In practice, this means the DoD is looking for proposals that are ready to execute and likely to generate interpretable, impactful results rather than speculative ideas without sufficient support.

The program highlights three major review emphases: impact, relevance, and preliminary data. For impact, applicants are asked to explain both the near-term and longer-term significance of the work, making a persuasive case that success would substantially advance tick-borne disease research and/or translate into tangible benefits for patients, such as better diagnostics, treatments, prevention approaches, or improved understanding of persistent symptoms and disease burden. For relevance, proposals must align with at least one of the FY19 TBDRP Focus Areas and should explicitly connect the science to real-world, evidence-based burden of disease. The DoD also stresses the importance of considering military-specific needs, meaning the work should be framed in a way that speaks to the health and readiness of active duty Service members, the wellbeing of Veterans, military beneficiaries, and also the broader American public. In other words, even if the science is broadly applicable, the proposal should clearly articulate why it matters in military and civilian contexts.

Methodological rigor and smart use of existing resources are also strongly encouraged. The announcement points applicants toward leveraging established biorepositories and databases for Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, particularly when retrospectively collected human specimens or linked clinical data are essential to the research aims. This emphasis reflects a desire to maximize statistical power, improve reproducibility, and avoid reinventing datasets when high-quality resources already exist. The program also calls out several best-practice elements investigators should incorporate where appropriate: authenticating cell lines, applying strong statistical rigor to in vitro and animal studies, and validating findings in well-characterized patient cohorts with consistent documentation. Projects that make use of large patient datasets with long-term health records and biospecimen repositories are viewed favorably, as are studies that apply modern analytic approaches such as genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, or mathematical modeling to extract deeper insights from complex data.

From a funding and administrative standpoint, the IIRA offered support via assistance agreements, which could be structured either as a grant or as a cooperative agreement depending on how much substantial involvement the DoD anticipated during the project. If the DoD expected minimal involvement, the award would generally be a grant; if collaboration, participation, or other intervention by the DoD was expected, the mechanism would shift toward a cooperative agreement, with the nature of that involvement defined during award negotiation. The anticipated maximum direct costs for the entire period of performance were capped at $650,000 per award (with applicants directed to consult the formal funding restrictions for details). The DoD planned to allocate about $3.12 million total to fund approximately three awards, with final decisions dependent on federal fund availability, the number of applications received, and outcomes of both scientific peer review and programmatic review.

Key timing details included an opportunity posting date of March 29, 2019, with an original application closing date of August 22, 2019. The DoD anticipated making awards no later than September 30, 2020. The funding was expected to come from FY19 appropriations, with the notice specifying that these funds would expire for use on September 30, 2025, reflecting the limited period during which those fiscal-year dollars could be obligated and used. Eligibility was described as unrestricted (open to any entity type), subject to any additional eligibility clarifications in the full announcement. The sponsoring agency was the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, administered through USAMRAA, and the opportunity fell under CFDA 12.420 as a science and technology/research and development funding activity.

• The Department of Defense, Dept. of the Army -- USAMRAA in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "DOD Tick-Borne Disease, Investigator-Initiated Research Award" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.420.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 29, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 22, 2019. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 3 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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