CDMRP PRMRP Technology/Therapeutic Development Award | W81XWH 21 PRMRP TTDA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 21 PRMRP TTDA

The CDMRP Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program (PRMRP) Technology/Therapeutic Development Award (TTDA) is a product-focused funding opportunity from the Department of Defense (USAMRAA) designed to push promising preclinical research toward a real-world clinical product. The central idea is translation: taking something that already has credible early evidence behind it and advancing it along a development path that could realistically lead to use in prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment, or quality-of-life improvement. To be competitive, the proposed work needs to fit within at least one of the Congressionally directed FY21 PRMRP Topic Areas and, importantly, should address healthcare needs that matter to military Service Members, Veterans, and/or their beneficiaries.

The award supports development of a wide range of product types. This can include tangible medical products such as drugs, biologics, or medical devices, but it can also support a "knowledge product." In this program, a knowledge product is not just general education or a report; it is a non-materiel deliverable built on current evidence and research that targets a specific need within a topic area and is intended to transition into real practice. Examples of the kinds of outcomes implied by the description include clinical training approaches, decision-support tools, implementation resources, or other structured, evidence-based solutions that can change practice, improve care delivery, support or enable materiel solutions, and influence behavior across the continuum of care, including primary prevention of negative outcomes.

A key expectation is that applicants are not starting from scratch. The TTDA is meant for projects that already have proof of concept showing the proposed product could work or, alternatively, a prototype or preliminary version of the product. Applications must include data that justify the approach and demonstrate feasibility; those data can be unpublished results generated by the team and/or evidence drawn from the published literature. If an investigator is still at an earlier stage (for example, still trying to identify a viable product direction or establish initial proof of concept), the opportunity text points them instead toward other PRMRP mechanisms such as the Investigator-Initiated Research Award (IIRA) or the Discovery Award, which are more suitable for earlier discovery and concept validation.

Another defining feature is the required transition plan. The Principal Investigator must lay out a clear, practical roadmap describing how the product will move to the next development milestone after the PRMRP period ends, such as entering clinical trials or progressing toward delivery into a military or civilian market. This plan is expected to discuss prospective funding sources and resources that could support the next phase. The program explicitly encourages investigators to build relationships with industry partners and/or other funding organizations early, so that the path from preclinical development to real deployment is credible rather than aspirational.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary Department of Defense opportunity (CFDA 12.420) offered as either a cooperative agreement or a grant, depending on the specific award arrangement. Eligibility is described as unrestricted, meaning it is broadly open to different kinds of applicant entities unless further limited by clarifications in the full announcement. The opportunity (W81XWH-21-PRMRP-TTDA) was posted in March 2021 with an original closing date of September 2, 2021, and it anticipated making around 19 awards. The announcement also notes that research can be proposed at different stages of development and offers two funding levels that applicants must choose between based on the scope and maturity of the proposed work, reinforcing that this mechanism is intended to cover a range of late-preclinical to translation-ready development efforts as long as they remain tightly product-driven.

• 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 "CDMRP PRMRP Technology/Therapeutic 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 15, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 02, 2021. (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 19 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 21 PRMRP TTDA

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