DoD Neurofibromatosis Investigator- Initiated Research Award | W81XWH 18 NFRP IIRA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 18 NFRP IIRA

The DoD Neurofibromatosis Investigator-Initiated Research Award is a discretionary federal funding opportunity run through the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, specifically administered by USAMRAA (U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity). It is part of the Neurofibromatosis Research Program (NFRP) and is designed to fund investigator-driven projects that are both highly rigorous and positioned to make a meaningful, high-impact contribution to neurofibromatosis (NF) research and/or patient care. The central emphasis is on research quality and potential impact, meaning proposed work should be well-justified, methodologically strong, and clearly tied to advancing understanding, diagnosis, management, or treatment-related knowledge for NF, even if it is not itself a clinical trial.

The award is intended to support research across essentially any phase of the research pipeline, with one key exclusion: clinical trials are not allowed under this mechanism. Within that boundary, the program is broad and flexible. Projects may stem from basic laboratory discoveries, translational work, or population-based studies, and the opportunity explicitly recognizes that strong research questions can also come from real-world clinical insight, such as a clinician's firsthand observations of patients, or even from anecdotal patterns that merit systematic investigation. This framing signals that the program values innovative ideas that are grounded in real NF-related evidence and that have a clear path to generating impactful results, whether the work is mechanistic, observational, preclinical, or otherwise non-trial research.

A notable requirement is that applications must include preliminary and/or published data that directly relate to neurofibromatosis and to the proposed project. In practical terms, the program is not aimed at purely speculative concepts; it expects applicants to demonstrate a foundation of feasibility and relevance, such as pilot results, prior publications, or other supporting evidence that the team can execute the work and that the hypothesis is anchored in NF-focused findings. This requirement also reinforces the award's focus on rigor and likelihood of producing actionable outcomes.

From an administrative standpoint, the funding instrument types listed are both grants and cooperative agreements, which means awards may be structured either as more traditional assistance (grant) or with more substantial federal involvement (cooperative agreement), depending on the specific project and DoD program needs. The activity category is science and technology and other research and development, and the CFDA number associated with the program is 12.420. Eligibility is described as unrestricted, meaning it is open to a wide range of applicant entity types, subject to any additional eligibility clarifications provided in the full announcement text.

For the specific posting details provided, the opportunity number is W81XWH 18 NFRP IIRA, the posting was created on May 14, 2018, and the original closing date was August 9, 2018. The expected number of awards was seven. The listed award ceiling is shown as 0, which typically indicates that the maximum amount was not specified in that summary field or was defined elsewhere in the full funding announcement rather than as a fixed ceiling in the overview.

• 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 Neurofibromatosis 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 May 14, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 09, 2018. (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 7 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 18 NFRP IIRA

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