The NFRP Clinical Trial Award supports the rapid implementation of clinical trials with the potential to have a significant impact on the treatment or management of NF. Clinical trials may be designed to evaluate promising new products, pharmacologic agents (drugs or biologics), devices, clinical guidance, and/or emerging approaches and technologies. Proposed projects may range from small proof-of-concept trials (e.g., pilot, first-in-human, phase 0) to demonstrate the feasibility or inform the design of more advanced trials through large-scale trials to determine efficacy in relevant patient populations.
Applications from investigators within the military services and applications involving multidisciplinary collaborations among academia, industry, the military services, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and other federal government agencies are highly encouraged. These relationships can leverage knowledge, infrastructure, and access to unique clinical populations that the collaborators bring to the research effort, ultimately advancing research that is of significance to Service Members, Veterans, and/or their Families. If the proposed research relies on access to unique resources or databases, the application must describe the access at the time of submission and include a plan for maintaining access as needed throughout the proposed research.
Deadlines:
• Required Pre-Application Submission Deadline: Sep. 12, 2024
• Application Submission Deadline: Oct. 3, 2024
Areas of Emphasis:
• NF2 and schwannomatosis-related areas (e.g., hearing, balance, schwannoma, ependymoma, meningioma, LZTR1, SMARCB1)
• Endpoint validation, biomarker discovery, and technological innovation for assessments
• Application of data science
• Non-tumor manifestations not limited to:
○ Pain
○ Cognitive manifestations
○ Sleep
• Heterogeneity of NF-related phenotypes
• Genetics, genomics, epigenetics, systems biology, metabolomics, or similar approaches
• Preclinical efficacy studies
• Target identification and drug discovery
• Nutritional, environmental, and other modifiers of NF
• Health services research
PIs must be at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent).
There are no limitations on the number of applications for which an investigator may be named as a PI.
The anticipated direct costs budgeted for the entire period of performance for an FY24 NFRP Clinical Trial Award should not exceed $800,000 without an Optional Qualified Collaborator or $1.0M with an Optional Qualified Collaborator. Refer to Section II.D.5, Funding Restrictions, for detailed funding information.