CDMRP PRMRP Discovery Award | W81XWH 19 PRMRP DA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 19 PRMRP DA

The CDMRP PRMRP Discovery Award (Funding Opportunity Number W81XWH 19 PRMRP DA) is a Department of Defense research funding opportunity administered by the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA) under CFDA 12.420. It sits within the Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) and is categorized as a discretionary science and technology research and development program. Awards may be issued as either grants or cooperative agreements, meaning some projects may involve closer coordination or oversight by the funding agency depending on the specific award instrument used.

This award is designed specifically to push bold, early-stage ideas rather than incremental extensions of existing work. The program’s intent is to fund innovative, non-incremental, high-risk/potentially high-reward research that can generate genuinely new insights, paradigms, technologies, or applications. In practical terms, it is meant for concepts that could shift how a problem is understood or approached, even if the outcome is uncertain, as long as the underlying scientific reasoning is solid. The expectation is that supported studies will not necessarily deliver a fully mature solution by the end of the project, but they should credibly lay the groundwork for new lines of scientific investigation and position the work for follow-on studies and larger-scale funding.

From an application content standpoint, the solicitation emphasizes that the proposed project must be anchored by a well-formulated and testable hypothesis. The hypothesis should be supported by a sound scientific rationale and a study design that can realistically test the stated idea. That emphasis signals that while the program welcomes risk and novelty, it is not looking for vague speculation; it is looking for carefully reasoned research plans where the key question is clear and the approach is structured enough to produce interpretable results.

Budget-wise, the funding level is relatively targeted. For the FY19 cycle described in the notice, the anticipated direct costs for the entire period of performance may not exceed $200,000, with additional details governed by the program’s Funding Restrictions section (referenced as Section II.D.5 in the full announcement). The listing shows an award ceiling value of $0, which typically indicates that a single fixed ceiling is not being represented in that field and that applicants should rely on the narrative budget limits stated in the description, especially the $200,000 direct cost cap.

Eligibility is listed as unrestricted, meaning it is open to any type of entity, as long as applicants meet any clarifications or conditions described in the full eligibility text of the opportunity. The program anticipated making around 60 awards. The opportunity was posted on January 15, 2019, and the original closing date for submissions was April 11, 2019. Overall, the PRMRP Discovery Award is best understood as a seed-stage mechanism for credible, hypothesis-driven research that is intentionally ambitious and exploratory, aimed at generating the kind of foundational evidence or technical proof-of-concept that can catalyze future breakthroughs.

• 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 Discovery 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 Jan 15, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 11, 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 60 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 19 PRMRP DA

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: