DoD Tick-Borne Disease, Career Development Award | W81XWH 20 TBDRP CDA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 20 TBDRP CDA

The DoD Tick-Borne Disease, Career Development Award (FY20 TBDRP CDA; Funding Opportunity Number W81XWH-20-TBDRP-CDA) is a research and career-building grant designed to help early-career investigators become independent leaders in tick-borne disease research. The program is run through the Department of Defense (Department of the Army, USAMRAA) under the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP). The central idea is to fund a strong, hypothesis-driven research project while simultaneously supporting the applicant's transition into an independent research career through structured mentorship and a clear professional development plan.

This award is specifically aimed at discovery-oriented research that can be translational in impact, meaning it can move the field toward better understanding, prevention, diagnosis, or treatment, but it cannot be a clinical trial. Human subjects research and work with human anatomical substances are allowed, but the project must not prospectively assign human participants to interventions to evaluate health outcomes, which is the program's definition of a clinical trial. Applicants do not need preliminary data, but they are expected to propose a rigorous, well-justified study with a strong scientific rationale. The proposal must also be demonstrably novel, with the applicant and mentor showing through literature review that the work is not duplicative of existing studies.

A key feature is that the early-career investigator is the Principal Investigator (PI), and the application should center on the PI's ideas, research direction, and long-term career development rather than being primarily driven by the mentor. Eligibility for the PI is limited to early-career research scientists, physician scientists, or other qualified clinical scientists who are within 10 years of completing their terminal degree, excluding time spent in residency or on family medical leave. Because the award is meant to foster independence, the applicant's institution must commit to at least 75 percent protected time for the PI to conduct tick-borne disease research during the award period, with the announcement emphasizing that more protected time is strongly preferred.

Mentorship is required and is tightly defined. The mentor must be an established tick-borne disease researcher with a track record over the past five years of funding and publications in tick-borne disease work. The mentor must hold a rank of Associate Professor or higher (or an equivalent position) and must show a meaningful commitment to developing the PI's career. The PI and mentor may be at different institutions, but together they should have appropriate experience with the pathogen area and methods relevant to the proposed project so the mentorship and technical environment match the science.

The application must include a detailed career development plan written by the PI with input from the mentor. This plan should lay out how the PI will build the skills, expertise, and professional network needed to become a leader in tick-borne disease research, including engagement with the scientific community and, where relevant, advocacy communities. The announcement also encourages applicants to make smart use of existing resources to improve rigor and impact, such as using validated specimens from Lyme disease and other tick-borne disease biorepositories and databases to increase statistical power. Applicants are urged, where applicable, to authenticate cell lines, apply strong statistical rigor in in vitro and animal studies, and validate findings in well-characterized patient cohorts. The program is also receptive to projects that analyze large-scale patient datasets with long-term health records and associated biospecimen repositories, as well as studies using state-of-the-art genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, or mathematical modeling. If curated biospecimens or database resources are used, the proposal needs to clearly describe inclusion and exclusion criteria to support the validity and interpretability of the work.

Awards under this opportunity are issued as assistance agreements, meaning the government is supporting a public-purpose research project rather than purchasing a service for direct government use. The assistance agreement may be either a grant or a cooperative agreement, depending on how much involvement the DoD anticipates having during the project. If no substantial government involvement is expected, it will be a grant; if substantial involvement is expected (for example, collaboration or participation in aspects of the research), it will be a cooperative agreement, and the nature of that involvement will be spelled out in the award documents.

From a funding perspective, the anticipated direct costs for the full period of performance are capped at $300,000. The program expected to allocate about $1.44 million total to fund roughly three awards, though final funding depends on federal appropriations, the number of applications received, and how applications score in scientific and programmatic review. The original application closing date listed was August 27, 2020, and awards were expected to be made no later than September 30, 2021. The announcement also notes that awards were expected to use FY20 funds, with availability expiring for use on September 30, 2026, which matters for how long the government can obligate and expend those specific appropriated funds.

At a practical level, the program is best understood as a structured launchpad: the PI proposes an intellectually independent, discovery-focused research plan in tick-borne diseases, pairs it with an experienced mentor and a credible training and networking strategy, and demonstrates that their institution is giving them the time and support to build a real independent research program. The combination of protected time, mentorship requirements, and emphasis on rigor and validation signals that reviewers will be weighing not only the scientific merit of the project, but also whether the applicant is positioned to emerge from the award with a stronger track record and a clearer path to sustained funding and leadership in the tick-borne disease 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 Tick-Borne Disease, Career Development 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 17, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 27, 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 3 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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