DOD, Peer Reviewed Alzheimer’s, Transforming Research Award | HT9425 23 PRARP TRA

Opportunity Information: Apply for HT9425 23 PRARP TRA

The DOD Peer Reviewed Alzheimer s Transforming Research Award (FY23 PRARP TRA; opportunity number HT9425 23 PRARP TRA) is a Department of Defense funding opportunity managed through the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA) that supports research designed to meaningfully reduce the risk of Alzheimer s disease and Alzheimer s disease related dementias (AD/ADRD), or prevent their development. A central theme of the program is pushing the field toward practical, near term impact rather than funding early exploratory ideas. The opportunity is especially interested in risk reduction research that considers traumatic brain injury (TBI) and or military service related factors, reflecting the DOD mission focus and the needs of service members, Veterans, and their families.

This award mechanism is aimed at transformative, advanced contributions that can significantly accelerate progress in AD/ADRD. Applications are expected to propose strong, well designed studies that are positioned to deliver clear benefits for people living with dementia and for the broader network around them, including families, care partners, caregivers, and communities. The program emphasizes real world relevance and applicability, which is why community engaged approaches are strongly encouraged across projects and become mandatory when the work involves clinical research. In practice, that means applicants should show how they will work with community partners (for example, patient groups, caregiver organizations, clinics, local health systems, or other community based stakeholders) to shape the research, improve feasibility, and help ensure that outcomes matter to the people most affected.

A major requirement is that the work must go beyond incremental progress. Proposals should build on existing knowledge and use it to move faster toward meaningful conclusions, stronger evidence, and actionable next steps. Projects that simply extend prior findings in small ways, or that do not clearly change the trajectory of the field, are not considered a good fit for this specific mechanism. The expectation is that funded studies will provide a noticeable leap forward, whether by demonstrating a prevention or risk reduction strategy, clarifying military or TBI related risk pathways in a way that enables intervention, or delivering other advances that can be translated into improved care or quality of life in the nearer term.

Another defining feature is the requirement to feed results back to the community. The program is not only funding knowledge generation; it is also funding knowledge sharing. Awardees are expected to communicate results and outcomes in ways that allow communities and stakeholders to benefit from the findings and continue building on them. This reinforces the emphasis on community collaboration and on producing research outputs that can be understood and used beyond academic circles.

From an application standpoint, preliminary data is required, so applicants need to demonstrate a foundation of evidence that supports feasibility and strengthens confidence that the project can deliver impactful results. If animal models are used, the applicant must fully justify why those models are relevant to human health, reflecting the program s priority on translation and practical benefit. For clinical research applications specifically, a community collaboration research element is required rather than optional, meaning the partnership component must be built into the scientific plan instead of being treated as an outreach add on.

Administratively, this is a discretionary funding opportunity and may be awarded as either a grant or a cooperative agreement, under the Science and Technology and other Research and Development category (CFDA 12.420). Eligibility is listed as unrestricted, meaning a wide range of entity types may apply as allowed by any additional eligibility language in the full announcement. The posting indicates an expected four awards. The original opportunity dates show it was created March 27, 2023, with an original closing date of July 10, 2023; the public listing shows an award ceiling of 0, which typically indicates that the specific maximum funding level is not provided in that summary field and would need to be confirmed in the full announcement materials.

• 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, Peer Reviewed Alzheimer’s, Transforming 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 27, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 10, 2023. (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 4 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.

Apply for HT9425 23 PRARP TRA

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