DOD Tick-Borne Disease, Career Development Award | W81XWH 19 TBDRP CDA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 19 TBDRP CDA

The FY19 DoD Tick-Borne Disease Research Program (TBDRP) Career Development Award is designed to help early-career scientists build an independent research career in tick-borne diseases by pairing them with an established mentor and providing dedicated research support. The program is geared toward impactful, discovery-focused research that can be translational (meaning it may inform future clinical applications), but it does not support clinical trials under this mechanism. A central expectation is that the early-career investigator is the Principal Investigator (PI) and that the application clearly centers on the PI's own research vision and professional growth, rather than being driven by the mentor's existing program. Preliminary data are not required, but the proposal must still be convincing on scientific logic and rationale, with a well-argued plan that demonstrates the project is feasible and meaningful.

Eligibility and role expectations are structured to emphasize genuine career development. The PI must be an early-career research scientist or physician-scientist within 10 years of completing a terminal degree, with certain time excluded (notably residency and family medical leave). Reviewers are expected to look closely at the PI's accomplishments and trajectory, weighing whether the candidate is likely to make strong contributions to tick-borne disease research. Because the award is explicitly meant to accelerate an independent career, the PI's institution has to show real commitment by guaranteeing at least 75 percent protected time for tick-borne disease research during the award period, with the announcement noting that more protected time is preferable. In practice, this requirement signals that the PI should have substantial freedom from competing duties so they can publish, build collaborations, and develop an independent niche.

Mentorship is required and is treated as a major pillar of the mechanism, but the structure is meant to avoid the PI being overshadowed. The mentor must be a proven tick-borne disease researcher with an established funding and publication record and must hold at least an Associate Professor-level position (or equivalent). The mentor must also demonstrate an active commitment to developing the PI's career, not just lending their name. The PI and mentor are allowed to be at different organizations, which opens the door for cross-institutional mentorship arrangements when the best expertise is not available locally. Even with strong mentorship, the application should make it obvious that the intellectual leadership and research design originate with the PI.

A formal career development plan is mandatory and should be written by the PI with guidance from the mentor. This plan is expected to be more than a generic training statement; it should lay out a concrete strategy for acquiring skills, competencies, and experiences that will help the PI establish themselves at the forefront of tick-borne disease research. That can include technical training, methodological development, exposure to specialized resources, and milestones tied to publications, grant submissions, and progression toward independence. The announcement also points applicants toward specific best practices that strengthen rigor and impact, such as using established Lyme and other tick-borne disease biorepositories and databases when retrospectively collected human specimens or linked data are central to the study. Applicants are encouraged to build designs that maximize statistical power and reproducibility, including authenticating proposed cell lines, applying strong statistical rigor for in vitro and preclinical animal work, and validating findings in well-characterized patient cohorts with consistent documentation. The program further encourages projects that leverage large patient datasets with long-term health records and biospecimen repositories, as well as proposals that use modern genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, or mathematical modeling to extract new insights from existing resources.

Program relevance is tied to public and military health impact. The proposed research must be relevant to active duty Service members, Veterans, military beneficiaries, and/or the broader American public. Financially, the anticipated direct costs for the entire period of performance cannot exceed $250,000. The program planned to allocate roughly $0.8 million total to fund about two awards, making the competition likely to be selective and heavily influenced by scientific merit, program relevance, and available federal funds. Awards were expected to be made no later than September 30, 2020, and the funding was anticipated to come from FY19 appropriations that would remain available for use only through September 30, 2025, reflecting standard time limits on federal funds.

Administratively, awards under this announcement are issued as assistance agreements, meaning either a grant or a cooperative agreement. The deciding factor is how much involvement the DoD expects to have during the project. If no substantial federal involvement is anticipated, the award is typically a grant; if substantial involvement is anticipated, the award becomes a cooperative agreement, which can include active collaboration or participation by the funding agency during performance. The final award type and start date are determined during negotiations. Key listing details from the notice include the funding opportunity number W81XWH-19-TBDRP-CDA, agency oversight by the Department of Defense (Department of the Army, USAMRAA), CFDA 12.420, an unrestricted eligible applicant pool (subject to any additional eligibility clarifications in the full announcement), a posting date of March 29, 2019, and an original closing date of August 22, 2019.

• 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 "DOD Tick-Borne Disease, Career 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 29, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 22, 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 2 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 TBDRP CDA

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