DoD Lupus, Transformative Vision Development Award

The Lupus Research Program Transformative Vision Development Award is a federal funding opportunity administered by the Defense Health Agency Contracting Activity through the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs as part of the Lupus Research Program. The program announcement identifies the funding opportunity number HT942526LRPTVDA and supports planning, development activities, and pilot studies that will generate preliminary data and demonstrate feasibility for future interventional studies focused on lupus. The Lupus Research Program was initiated by Congress in 2017 and has received appropriations totaling approximately $65 million from fiscal years 2017 through 2024, with an additional $10 million appropriated for fiscal year 2026. The program vision is to cure lupus through partnerships among scientists, clinicians, and individuals affected by lupus, while the mission is to fund research that improves understanding, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and quality of life for lupus patients, including military service members, veterans, their families, and the general public. The Transformative Vision Development Award specifically supports early-stage development work intended to prepare investigators for future interventional studies that could later be submitted to the related Transformative Vision Award mechanism. The opportunity emphasizes projects that can dramatically improve quality of life for individuals living with lupus using interventions at either the individual level or health care system level. The funding mechanism allows planning activities such as intervention optimization, protocol development, trial design refinement, data mining, epidemiological studies, feasibility studies, implementation planning, and phase 0 or phase 1 clinical trials. The announcement explicitly prohibits animal studies and phase 2 or phase 3 clinical trials. Applicants are encouraged to propose innovative and impactful approaches, including the use of computational methodologies, data science, health care delivery innovations, and multidisciplinary collaborations involving academia, industry, the Department of War, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and other government agencies. Applicants must address at least one of the fiscal year 2026 focus areas. These focus areas include improving outcomes for lupus through innovative health care delivery models and designing or implementing interventions that improve quality of life and mental health for individuals living with lupus. The opportunity encourages research involving outcomes research, symptom management, disease control, comparative effectiveness research, access to care, and interventions that improve day-to-day living for lupus patients. The funding opportunity places significant emphasis on impact and requires applicants to clearly explain how the proposed work and future interventional study could substantially improve quality of life for lupus patients in the near term. Applications must also demonstrate strong scientific rationale, feasibility, rigorous methodology, appropriate research team expertise, and meaningful engagement of lupus consumer advocates throughout the project lifecycle. The program is open to a broad range of applicants. Eligible organizations include domestic and foreign organizations, nonprofit and for-profit organizations, public and private entities, and both extramural and intramural Department of War organizations. Independent investigators affiliated with eligible organizations may serve as principal investigators regardless of nationality or citizenship status, although individuals in mentored positions such as postdoctoral fellows or clinical fellows are not eligible. Each investigator may only serve as principal investigator on one application for this award mechanism. Applications are required to include at least one lupus consumer advocate who is either a person diagnosed with lupus or a caregiver active in a lupus advocacy organization. Consumer advocates must play an integral and ongoing role in project planning, design, oversight, recruitment, implementation, and evaluation, and they cannot be employees of participating organizations. The funding opportunity anticipates allocating approximately $500,000 total to support around two awards, with a maximum total cost cap of $250,000 per award and a maximum period of performance of two years. Indirect costs may be included according to negotiated institutional rates. Allowable costs include phase 0 or phase 1 clinical trial expenses, travel supporting multi-institutional collaborations, and travel for one investigator to attend one scientific or technical meeting annually to disseminate project findings. The program does not require cost sharing or matching funds. Awards are expected to be made no later than September 30, 2027, using fiscal year 2026 funds that remain available through September 30, 2032. The application process requires both a pre-application and a full application. The pre-application consists of a one-page letter of intent submitted through the Electronic Biomedical Research Application Portal. Full applications must be submitted either through Grants.gov for extramural organizations or through eBRAP for intramural Department of War organizations. Full application components include a project narrative, supporting documentation, technical abstract, lay abstract, statement of work, impact statement, personnel statement, and additional materials depending on the project type. Clinical trial proposals must also include a clinical strategy statement. Applicants must maintain active registrations in SAM.gov, eBRAP, and Grants.gov prior to submission. The funding opportunity announcement states that the pre-application deadline is July 29, 2026, and the full application deadline is August 24, 2026. Peer review is anticipated in October 2026, followed by programmatic review in February 2027. Applications will undergo a two-tier review process involving peer review and programmatic review. Peer review criteria include impact, research strategy and feasibility, clinical strategy for applicable trials, personnel qualifications, and budget appropriateness. Additional unscored criteria include the research sharing plan, institutional environment, and application presentation quality. Programmatic review considers peer review evaluations, relevance to fiscal year 2026 Lupus Research Program priorities, adherence to the funding opportunity intent, overall program portfolio composition, and relative impact. Successful applicants will receive notification through eBRAP, and funded projects will be subject to federal award terms, reporting requirements, and compliance with human subjects protections, clinical trial registration obligations, and Department of Defense grant regulations. Contact information for applicant assistance is provided through the eBRAP Help Desk at help@eBRAP.org and Grants.gov support services for technical submission assistance.

Clearly articulate how the proposed work will have a major near-term impact on quality of life for individuals living with lupus. Strong applications should demonstrate rigorous methodology, feasibility for a future interventional study, and meaningful integration of lupus consumer advocates throughout planning and implementation. Applications should directly address at least one FY26 focus area and provide strong scientific rationale and access to required patient populations or resources.