DOD Tick-Borne Disease, Idea Award | W81XWH 19 TBDRP IA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 19 TBDRP IA

The DOD Tick-Borne Disease Research Program (TBDRP) FY19 Idea Award is designed to back early-stage research ideas that are genuinely new and potentially game-changing for Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. The program is looking for conceptually innovative, high-risk but potentially high-reward projects that could open up critical discoveries or lead to major advances that improve health outcomes. Proposals are expected to be driven by a clear, testable hypothesis and grounded in a strong scientific rationale, typically supported by careful reasoning and a critical reading of existing research rather than simply extending prior work in a predictable way.

A central requirement is innovation. The award is aimed at projects that introduce a new paradigm, challenge prevailing assumptions, or approach persistent problems from an unexpected angle. The announcement makes it clear that incremental science, meaning work that is simply the next logical step in an established line of research, is not the goal here. Instead, applicants should show what is truly different about their concept and why, if it works, it could move the field forward in a meaningful way.

Relevance is equally important. Applications must connect their proposed work to at least one of the FY19 TBDRP Focus Areas and clearly explain why the research matters right now in terms of real-world disease burden. While the program serves the broader American public, it also emphasizes the needs of military communities. Competitive applications should show awareness of the healthcare realities facing active duty Service members, Veterans, and military families, and should make a convincing case that the outcomes of the research would be useful for those populations and/or for public health more broadly.

Because the award emphasizes novel ideas, preliminary data are encouraged but not mandatory. Applicants can strengthen their case with unpublished findings from the principal investigator or named collaborators, or with well-chosen published evidence that supports feasibility and rationale, but the program does not require a mature dataset. At the same time, the announcement encourages applicants to design studies that are as rigorous and well-supported as possible. It highlights the value of leveraging existing Lyme and tick-borne disease biorepositories and databases, especially when retrospective human samples or linked clinical data are essential. It also explicitly encourages strong research practices such as authenticating cell lines, applying statistical rigor in lab and preclinical work, and validating findings in well-characterized patient cohorts with consistent documentation. Projects that analyze large-scale patient datasets with long-term health records and biospecimen repositories, or that use state-of-the-art genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, or mathematical modeling approaches, are specifically called out as welcomed directions.

In terms of funding, the direct costs for the entire project period are capped at $300,000. Program leadership anticipated setting aside roughly $0.48 million total to support about one Idea Award in this cycle, meaning the competition was expected to be very selective. Funding decisions depend on the availability of federal funds, the number of submissions, and how applications score in both scientific merit review and programmatic review (fit with mission and priorities).

Administratively, awards under this announcement are issued as assistance agreements, either grants or cooperative agreements. Which one an applicant receives depends on how involved the Department of Defense expects to be during the project. If no substantial federal involvement is anticipated, the mechanism is a grant; if substantial involvement is expected, such as active collaboration or participation by the funding agency, the mechanism becomes a cooperative agreement and the nature of that involvement is spelled out in the award. The award type and start date are set during negotiations. For timing context, this FY19 opportunity was posted March 29, 2019, with an original closing date of August 22, 2019, and awards were expected no later than September 30, 2020. The funds were FY19 dollars projected to remain available for use only for a limited period, with an expiration noted as September 30, 2025.

Eligibility was broadly open (unrestricted by entity type, subject to any specific clarifications in the full announcement). The sponsoring agency is the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, administered through USAMRAA, and the opportunity falls under the science and technology/research and development category (CFDA 12.420). Overall, the program is essentially inviting applicants to take a smart, well-argued scientific leap: propose a bold idea for Lyme or other tick-borne diseases that is plausible, testable, and mission-relevant, then back it with rigorous design choices that make the most of existing data resources and best practices in reproducibility.

• 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 Tick-Borne Disease, Idea 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 29, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 22, 2019. (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 1 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.

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