DoD Vision Research, Mentored Clinical Research Award | HT942524VRPMCRA

Opportunity Information: Apply for HT942524VRPMCRA

The DoD Vision Research, Mentored Clinical Research Award (MCRA) is a FY24 funding opportunity from the Department of the Army (USAMRAA) under the Vision Research Program. Its main purpose is to back patient-oriented research related to vision injury while also building the clinical research skills of clinicians who are still in training. Projects funded through this mechanism can either be a focused, standalone clinical study with clear potential to improve vision injury care, or a smaller clinical research effort designed to generate preliminary data that positions the team for a larger, follow-on study later.

A central feature of the award is the required mentorship structure. The application must be led by an established clinician or a Ph.D. clinical scientist who serves as the Principal Investigator (PI). In addition, the project team must include a single designated clinician in training as the mentee. Examples of eligible mentees include fellows, residents, junior clinicians, or clinicians enrolled in a Ph.D. program. The mentee is expected to carry out the research under the guidance of the PI, and they must have enough time left in their training program to complete the proposed work during the award period. Other junior scientists or clinicians can be involved, but the program only allows one official mentee per application. To document the mentorship and training commitment, the application requires supporting letters: a Letter of Organizational Support and Mentee Eligibility signed by the department chair or an appropriate organizational official, and a Letter of Commitment signed by the mentee, both submitted within the specified supporting documentation attachment.

The program is specifically limited to clinical research as defined for this award: work conducted with human subjects or research using material of human origin, including human tissues, specimens, or data obtained from human participants. A critical compliance requirement is that applicants must have documentation of Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Committee approval or an official exemption no later than December 1, 2024; without this documentation by the deadline, an application will not be considered for funding. This puts emphasis on applicants planning early for human subjects protections, protocol review timelines, and documentation.

At the same time, the MCRA sets clear boundaries on what it will not support. Funds may not be used for preclinical research, including animal studies, and may not be used to conduct clinical trials. The opportunity uses the federal definition of a clinical trial from 45 CFR 46.102, meaning studies where human subjects are prospectively assigned to an intervention (including placebo or control conditions) to evaluate effects on biomedical or behavioral health-related outcomes. However, the notice clarifies that studies are not considered clinical trials if they do not aim to measure safety, effectiveness, and/or efficacy outcomes of an intervention, and that retrospective analyses of data produced by previously conducted clinical trials are also not considered clinical trials under this mechanism. In practical terms, the award is geared toward patient-oriented observational, outcomes, translational clinical research using human-derived data or samples, and similar designs that advance vision injury care without prospectively assigning interventions to participants.

Administratively, this is a discretionary grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number HT942524VRPMCRA; CFDA 12.420) with an unrestricted eligible applicant pool. The original application closing date is August 23, 2024. The opportunity anticipates making around three awards, and it lists an award ceiling but does not specify an amount in the provided text. Overall, the MCRA is designed for teams that can pair a seasoned clinical researcher with a clinician in training to produce meaningful, human-centered vision injury research results while developing the mentee into a stronger, more independent clinical investigator.

• The Dept. of the Army -- USAMRAA in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "DoD Vision Research, Mentored Clinical 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 2024-03-26.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-08-23. (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.

Apply for HT942524VRPMCRA

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