DoD Spinal Cord Injury, Investigator- Initiated Research Award | W81XWH 20 SCIRP IIRA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 20 SCIRP IIRA

The Department of Defense Spinal Cord Injury Research Program (SCIRP) Investigator-Initiated Research Award (IIRA) is a competitive funding opportunity designed to back research projects that could meaningfully advance spinal cord injury (SCI) science and translate into better patient care and improved quality of life. It is structured to support investigator-driven ideas, meaning applicants propose their own research questions and approaches, as long as the work fits within the program's priorities and is positioned to make a clear contribution to the SCI field.

A central requirement of the IIRA is impact. Applications are expected to explain, in a concrete way, what difference the work could make both in the near term and over the long term. This includes describing how the study might shift understanding, influence clinical practice, enable new therapies or diagnostics, improve rehabilitation outcomes, or otherwise lead to real-world benefits for people living with SCI. Proposed projects must also align with at least one of the FY20 SCIRP IIRA Focus Areas, which function as the program's topical priorities for that funding year and help ensure funded work targets specific gaps and needs in SCI research.

The award also emphasizes relevance to military health. Proposed research should be directly applicable to spinal cord-injured Service members and Veterans, and it may also address impacts on family members and care partners who often play key roles in long-term recovery and daily support. The program encourages collaboration with military and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) researchers and clinicians, reflecting an interest in projects that are informed by the realities of military and Veteran care settings and that can more readily move findings into those systems.

Another key feature is the expectation of preliminary support for the idea. Applicants must include preliminary and/or published data that connect to the SCIRP mission and justify the proposed project. The program recognizes that early insights can come from many sources, including laboratory findings, population-based or epidemiologic observations, clinician experience with patients, or even credible anecdotal patterns that point to an important unmet need. Even so, the application must provide evidence that the research question is grounded and that the approach is feasible, rather than purely speculative.

Administratively, this opportunity was issued by the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, through the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA). The funding opportunity number is W81XWH-20-SCIRP-IIRA, categorized as discretionary research and development support under CFDA 12.420. The funding instrument types include both grants and cooperative agreements, indicating that depending on the award structure, there may be varying levels of involvement or coordination with the government during project execution. Eligibility is listed as unrestricted, meaning it is broadly open to applicant organizations and entities, subject to any additional eligibility clarifications that may appear in the full announcement. The announcement was created on March 19, 2020, with an original closing date of August 25, 2020, and it anticipated making around six awards. The listed award ceiling is shown as 0 in the provided record, which typically indicates that applicants needed to consult the full solicitation for the actual maximum funding level or that the ceiling was not specified in that summary field.

• 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 Spinal Cord Injury, 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 19, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 25, 2020. (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 6 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 20 SCIRP IIRA

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