DoW Spinal Cord Injury, Investigator-Initiated Research Award

The Spinal Cord Injury Research Program Investigator-Initiated Research Award is offered through the Defense Health Agency Contracting Activity and managed by the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs under the U.S. Department of Defense research enterprise. The program supports traumatic spinal cord injury research that has the potential to improve patient care, treatment strategies, quality of life, and long-term outcomes for military Service Members, Veterans, and civilians living with spinal cord injury. Congress initiated the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program in 2009, and the program has received more than $477 million in appropriations through fiscal year 2025. For fiscal year 2026, approximately $33 million has been appropriated for the broader program, with approximately $4.96 million expected to support around six Investigator-Initiated Research Award projects. The purpose of the award is to support impactful spinal cord injury research spanning basic, translational, and clinically relevant research activities. The funding opportunity encourages innovative approaches that align with at least one designated fiscal year 2026 priority area and corresponding near-term programmatic goal. The four priority areas are Acute Injury Intervention, Secondary Health Effects, Psychosocial Well-Being, and Rehabilitation and Regeneration. Applicants must demonstrate how the proposed work advances a near-term programmatic goal and explain how the project outcomes could ultimately contribute to long-term adoption into the standard of care. The program strongly encourages community-informed research and expects applicants to consider the lived experiences of spinal cord injury patients, families, and care partners when developing the research question and study design. Eligible research may include preclinical animal studies, translational studies, human subjects research, and ancillary studies connected to existing clinical trials; however, new clinical trials are specifically prohibited under this mechanism. Mechanism-focused studies must demonstrate clear relevance to spinal cord injury and a realistic path toward advancing treatments or clinical practice. The funding opportunity discourages projects focused exclusively on identifying intervention targets without a translational pathway. Applications proposing interventions are expected to demonstrate clinical feasibility and provide more than incremental improvements over current therapies. Applicants are encouraged to incorporate rigorous study design principles and reproducibility standards, including ARRIVE 2.0 and STROBE guidelines where applicable, and the use of National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke spinal cord injury common data elements is strongly encouraged for human subjects research. The award includes two submission pathways. Under the Single PI Option, independent investigators at any career stage may apply as Principal Investigator. The Early-Career Partnership Option allows two Principal Investigators to collaborate on a unified project, provided at least one investigator qualifies as an early-career investigator with no more than seven years in a first faculty or equivalent independent research appointment beyond a terminal degree. If funded, each Principal Investigator receives a separate award to their institution and must submit separate application materials and budgets. Organizations eligible to apply include domestic and international entities, nonprofit and for-profit organizations, public and private institutions, intramural Department of Defense organizations, and other federal entities. Awards are issued to organizations rather than individuals, and cost sharing is not required. The funding opportunity provides a maximum period of performance of three years. Applications submitted under the Single PI Option may request up to $800,000 in total costs over the full project period. Applications using the Early-Career Partnership Option may request up to $960,000 in combined total costs across both investigators. Indirect costs may be requested according to negotiated rates, and subaward costs must be included within the direct cost structure of the primary award. Allowable expenses include research resource sharing activities, collaborative travel, and travel for one investigator per year to present project findings at a scientific or technical meeting. Clinical trial costs and travel beyond the stated limits are unallowable. The program also requires applicants to develop plans for data and resource sharing and to articulate a long-term implementation strategy describing how project outcomes may ultimately become integrated into standard clinical care. Applications are submitted through a two-step process. First, the Principal Investigator or Initiating Principal Investigator must submit a pre-application through the Electronic Biomedical Research Application Portal. The pre-application requires a one-page narrative describing the scientific rationale, specific aims, study design, impact, and relevance to military health, along with references and abbreviations. Applicants invited to advance must then submit a full application through Grants.gov for extramural organizations or through eBRAP for intramural Department of Defense organizations. Required full application components include a detailed project narrative, supporting documentation, technical and lay abstracts, a statement of work, an impact statement, a long-term implementation strategy, and additional specialized attachments such as animal research plans or partnership statements when applicable. Review criteria include study design and feasibility, scientific impact, patient impact, long-term translation strategy, personnel qualifications, and relevance to military health priorities. The fiscal year 2026 pre-application deadline is August 3, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Invitations to submit full applications are expected by September 18, 2026. Full applications are due November 12, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, and the application verification period closes November 16, 2026. Peer review is anticipated in January 2027, followed by programmatic review in March 2027. Awards are expected to be issued no later than September 30, 2027. Applicants are encouraged to begin registration with SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and eBRAP well in advance because registration can require several weeks. Technical support is available through the eBRAP Help Desk at help@eBRAP.org or 301-682-5507 and through Grants.gov Support at support@grants.gov or 800-518-4726.

Align the proposal clearly to at least one FY26 SCIRP priority area and associated near-term goal. Demonstrate strong translational potential and explain how the project could advance toward standard of care adoption. Incorporate lived-experience or patient-perspective input into the study design. Emphasize rigorous reproducible methods and military relevance.