DoD Peer Reviewed Orthopaedic, Applied Research Award | W81XWH 22 PRORP ARA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 22 PRORP ARA

The DoD Peer Reviewed Orthopaedic Research Program (PRORP) Applied Research Award (ARA) is a Fiscal Year 2022 funding opportunity aimed at improving care for people who suffer major musculoskeletal and orthopaedic injuries, with a clear emphasis on problems that affect military readiness and a Service Member's ability to return to duty. The Department of Defense highlights that extremity injuries make up a large share of battlefield trauma (roughly half of the cases reported in the Joint Theatre Trauma Registry) and that non-combat orthopaedic injuries and chronic conditions from training, recreation, or prior injuries are also a major readiness threat. The overarching intent is to support work that can lead to better stabilization, treatment, and rehabilitation as early as possible after injury, ideally closer to the point of injury, to reduce complications, morbidity, and limb loss. While the program is anchored in military needs, it expects that results will translate to benefits for civilian patients as well.

This award mechanism is specifically for applied, preclinical research rather than basic discovery science or human-subject clinical studies. In this context, "applied research" means work that takes existing concepts and refines them into practical solutions, then evaluates whether those solutions are technically feasible and mature enough to move toward real-world use. Examples include developing or improving knowledge products, pharmacologic agents, rehabilitation or behavioral interventions, diagnostic or therapeutic techniques, clinical guidance, and emerging technologies, with the expectation that successful projects will be positioned for clinical translation. A strong transition plan is an explicit expectation, meaning applicants should clearly describe how the outputs will be advanced beyond the research phase (for example, toward additional preclinical validation, manufacturing scale-up, regulatory planning, or eventual clinical testing under a different mechanism).

To fit the award, proposed work must directly address a designated FY22 PRORP ARA Focus Area (the announcement notes these are listed elsewhere in the full program description). Projects can be small to large in scope, but they must be grounded in evidence: applicants are required to include relevant preliminary and/or published data, demonstrate clear logical reasoning for why the approach should work, and present a solid scientific rationale with a well-formed, testable hypothesis supported by a critical review of the literature. Competitive applications, in other words, are not speculative; they should show that key risks are understood and that the research plan is designed to generate decision-quality results that move the concept closer to translation.

The solicitation lists several representative categories of allowable studies. These include refining concepts into potential solutions or research tools and then evaluating feasibility; evaluating, maturing, or down-selecting candidate products such as drugs, biologic constructs, or devices/systems using in vitro and/or in vivo work; and conducting preparatory activities that would support a future clinical trial or regulatory submission. At the same time, the program draws firm boundaries around what it will not fund. It cannot be used for fundamental basic research that is aimed primarily at understanding mechanisms without a clear application in mind, and it cannot support clinical research as defined by the CDMRP, including patient-oriented human subjects research, clinical trials, epidemiologic studies, outcomes research, or health services research. One nuance included in the announcement is that certain work involving existing, de-identified specimens or data that qualify under IRB Exemption 4 is not considered "clinical research" under CDMRP definitions, which can matter for teams working with previously collected datasets or biospecimens that cannot be linked to living individuals.

Awards under this opportunity are issued as assistance agreements, meaning they can be made as either a grant or a cooperative agreement depending on how much substantial involvement the DoD anticipates during performance. If the agency expects no substantial involvement, a grant is used; if collaboration, participation, or intervention by the DoD is expected, the award is structured as a cooperative agreement, with the nature of that involvement specified in the award. The awarding organization is the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA), and the opportunity is identified as W81XWH-22-PRORP-ARA under CFDA 12.420. Eligibility is described as unrestricted (open to any entity type) subject to any additional clarifications in the full eligibility text.

In terms of funding and timing, the anticipated maximum total cost for the entire period of performance is capped at $725,000 per award. The program expected to allocate about $3.62 million total to make roughly five awards, though final funding depends on federal availability as well as scientific and programmatic review outcomes. The opportunity was posted April 8, 2022, with an original closing date of September 13, 2022, and the program indicated awards would be made no later than September 30, 2023. The announcement also notes that awards are expected to use FY22 funds, which would remain available for obligation and use within the allowable window, with an expiration date for use noted as September 30, 2028.

• 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 Orthopaedic, Applied 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 Apr 08, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 13, 2022. (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 5 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 W81XWH 22 PRORP ARA

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