BROAD AGENCY Announcement (BAA) FOR THE PROTECTION OF DEPLOYED MILITARY PERSONNEL FROM THREATS POSED BY ARTHROPOD DISEASE VECTORS | AFPMB BAA 24 01

Opportunity Information: Apply for AFPMB BAA 24 01

This funding opportunity is a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) issued under the Department of Defense, administered through the Armed Forces Pest Management Board (AFPMB) and supported by the U.S. Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground (Edgewood Contracting Division, Fort Detrick). For Fiscal Year 2024, it supports the Deployed War Fighter Protection (DWFP) Research Program, which can fund projects for up to three years (renewable annually within that period). At the time described, the program is only accepting white papers (pre-proposals), with a submission deadline of December 12, 2023 (11:59 pm EDT). While the overarching BAA remains active for five years, AFPMB anticipates issuing annual, directed announcements or notices of funding opportunities around late October each year.

The central purpose of the DWFP program is to generate practical, deployable solutions that reduce the risk of disease and other health impacts from medically important pests affecting deployed U.S. military personnel. The focus is specifically on arthropod disease vectors and other medically relevant pests, including mosquitoes that transmit arboviruses, ticks that transmit tick-borne pathogens, and flies associated with bacterial pathogen transmission. The program emphasizes interventions that can realistically be used in military operational settings, including austere environments where logistics, resupply, and infrastructure are limited, and it also values solutions that translate to civilian public health and vector control needs.

AFPMB is looking for original, innovative, product-oriented research that sits in the applied development space rather than basic science. Priority areas include developing new toxicants or adapting existing toxicants for medically relevant pests; improving insecticide formulations; inventing or refining insecticide application techniques and the equipment used to apply pesticides; creating new personal protective tools that reduce human-vector contact (for example, improved barriers, repellency, treated materials, or wearable/field-ready protective concepts); building decision-support tools that help planners and operators choose the most effective control approaches in specific conditions; and enhancing vector surveillance tools that lead directly to better control outcomes. The work is expected to align with an advanced technology development level (referenced as Budget Activity 3 in DoD financial guidance), meaning it should be beyond early discovery and oriented toward prototypes, performance improvement, and practical evaluation.

A consistent theme in the solicitation is that proposals should be aimed at real-world capability development. That includes semi-field or field evaluations of prototype products, as opposed to purely laboratory demonstration. Projects should generally be applicable across multiple target vectors (not just a single species or single niche use), and applicants are expected to outline a credible pathway to eventual U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registration for any product that contains pesticide active ingredients. In other words, the program is not just funding an experiment; it is funding work that could plausibly mature into something the military can procure and use, and that regulators could ultimately approve for legal deployment.

The program also draws clear boundaries around what it will not fund. It does not support basic research, pathogen biology research focused on the microbes themselves, or human clinical research such as diagnostic, therapeutic, or vaccine studies. It excludes studies designed solely to measure acute oral, dermal, or inhalation toxicity, and it will not pay EPA registration fees or registration costs. It generally will not fund testing of products that are already EPA-registered unless the work is aimed at a genuinely new use case. It also does not support evaluation of commercial off-the-shelf products unless they are being compared against prototype products as part of a development effort. Finally, it does not cover manufacturing, packaging, or production costs, reinforcing that the scope is R&D and field evaluation rather than procurement or scale-up.

From a funding standpoint, AFPMB indicates up to $4.5 million may be awarded in FY24 overall, with future-year funding dependent on appropriations and availability. Individual awards are capped at a total proposed cost of $975,000 for up to three years, which effectively sets a maximum of $325,000 per year. That cap is inclusive of all direct and indirect costs. The opportunity lists an expectation of around 10 awards. Funding for selected projects is anticipated in the August to October 2024 timeframe (often stated as August/September 2024 in the timeline), and projects are chosen based on peer-reviewed scientific merit as well as programmatic relevance, meaning alignment with DWFP mission needs is as important as technical quality.

Eligibility is broad and essentially unrestricted across organization types, as long as applicants fit the solicitation requirements. Eligible applicants can include for-profit companies, non-profits, public or private organizations, universities, hospitals, laboratories, and local or state government agencies. Federal agencies may apply as well, but their submissions are handled under applicable federal regulations and typically require an interagency agreement for funding.

The submission process starts with a pre-proposal (white paper) stage. Applicants must use the official pre-proposal form and also prepare a separate one-slide project summary in a quad chart format. The instructions require submitting the pre-proposal form and the quad chart as two separate PDF files, and also as a single combined PDF, for a total of three PDF files. These must be submitted to the AFPMB Webmaster by the stated deadline; late submissions are not considered. After the white paper review, AFPMB plans to invite selected teams to submit full proposals in mid-January 2024, with full proposals due mid-March 2024. Selections are expected in late April or early May 2024, followed by awards funded in late summer/early fall 2024.

Key identifiers for the opportunity include the funding opportunity number AFPMB BAA 24 01, a grant funding instrument type, a science and technology/R&D activity category, and CFDA number 12.355. The full requirements and official language are contained in the downloadable BAA document referenced as "BAA Version 1 dated 19 Oct 2023," along with the required pre-proposal materials available via the AFPMB link provided in the notice.

• The Department of Defense in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BROAD AGENCY Announcement (BAA) FOR THE PROTECTION OF DEPLOYED MILITARY PERSONNEL FROM THREATS POSED BY ARTHROPOD DISEASE VECTORS" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.355.
• This funding opportunity was created on Oct 19, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by This BAA shall be active for a period of 5 years with directed announcements or notices of funding opportunities posted to SAM.gov annually near the end of October.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $975,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 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 AFPMB BAA 24 01

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