DoD Scleroderma, Translational Research Partnership Award | W81XWH 20 SRP TRPA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 20 SRP TRPA

The DoD Scleroderma Translational Research Partnership Award (FY20 SRP TRPA) is a Department of Defense funding opportunity designed to push promising scleroderma findings closer to real-world clinical use. The core idea is that meaningful progress in scleroderma often requires a true collaboration between the clinic and the lab, where clinicians and research scientists jointly tackle a central problem that neither group could solve as effectively on their own. The program emphasizes translational research that is directly relevant to active duty Service members, Veterans, other military health beneficiaries, and also the broader American public.

A defining feature of this award is that it requires a multi-PI team: at least two and up to three Principal Investigators must work under one integrated research plan. The partnership must include at least one clinician and at least one research scientist, and at least one of the PIs must be a New Investigator (an early-career, independent investigator who meets the program's eligibility definition). The structure is set up to strengthen both the science and the people doing it: the team is expected to combine complementary expertise, while also helping develop the next generation of independent leaders in scleroderma research. One PI is designated the Initiating PI and handles most submission and administrative responsibilities; importantly, the Initiating PI cannot be the New Investigator. The remaining PI(s) serve as Partnering PI(s). If funded, each PI is typically named on an individual award within their organization, reflecting the shared leadership model.

The award is explicitly not meant for superficial collaborations. A project will not meet the intent of the mechanism if the clinician's role is limited to providing samples or access to patients. Instead, the DoD is looking for an intellectually integrated partnership with a two-way exchange of ideas between basic and clinical science. Translational work is framed as reciprocal rather than linear: clinical observations should shape lab experiments, and lab discoveries should feed back into patient-focused studies. Applications are expected to spell out how this back-and-forth will happen in practice, including clear plans for communication, coordination, sharing results, and transferring data across investigators and institutions. For multi-institution projects, applicants must also provide plans addressing intellectual property and material transfer issues up front, so administrative barriers do not undermine cooperation later.

In terms of scientific scope, the TRPA supports a broad range of translational studies, as long as there is a credible path toward clinical application in scleroderma. Examples include moving in vitro or animal findings toward validation in human samples or cohorts, performing late-stage preclinical work that prepares for a clinical trial (including steps such as preparing for an Investigational New Drug submission), and conducting correlative studies tied to ongoing or completed clinical trials, including work to develop or refine clinical trial endpoints. Animal studies are allowed, but they must be convincingly positioned for translation to patients rather than being purely mechanistic without a practical bridge to human impact.

Several required and heavily weighted elements show up throughout the announcement. Preliminary data are required, although they do not have to originate specifically from prior scleroderma projects; they can come from related areas as long as they support feasibility and rationale. The partnership itself is treated as a scientific requirement, not a formality: the proposal should make it obvious that success depends on the distinct contributions of each partner. The application also has to argue that the work is more than incremental, laying out how the project could meaningfully advance understanding of scleroderma causes and progression and/or lead to improvements in patient care and quality of life. Military health relevance is a program priority and is considered during programmatic review; applicants are encouraged to demonstrate relevance through approaches like using military or Veteran cohorts, biospecimens, or databases, partnering with DoD or VA investigators, engaging military clinical leaders as consultants, addressing exposures of particular concern in military populations, or explaining how the resulting knowledge or technology could be implemented in a dual-use way that benefits both military and civilian settings.

From an administrative and funding standpoint, awards are issued as assistance agreements, meaning either grants or cooperative agreements. Which one applies depends on how much involvement the DoD anticipates during performance; minimal involvement generally results in a grant, while substantial involvement (such as active collaboration or intervention) results in a cooperative agreement. The budget guidance states that anticipated direct costs for the entire period of performance may not exceed $750,000. The program planned to make a small number of awards, with an estimated total allocation of about $2.4 million to fund roughly two TRPA applications, contingent on federal funding availability and the outcome of scientific and programmatic review. The original FY20 timeline indicated an application closing date of December 4, 2020, with awards expected no later than September 30, 2021, and FY20 funds available for use only for a limited period, expiring for use on September 30, 2026.

In short, this opportunity is aimed at well-structured, genuinely collaborative translational scleroderma projects that pair clinical insight with rigorous scientific development, include early-career leadership, and make a clear case for downstream clinical relevance and military health impact, supported by preliminary evidence and practical plans for coordination, data sharing, and cross-institution execution.

• 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 Scleroderma, Translational Research Partnership 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 Jul 17, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Dec 04, 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 2 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 SRP TRPA

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