The FY22 TBDRP Idea Development Award is intended to support research that could lead to impactful discoveries or significant advancements that will accelerate progress toward reducing the burden of Lyme disease and/or other tick-borne diseases and conditions and improve patient care, and/or the quality of life for military Service Members, Veterans, and their beneficiaries, as well as the American public.
This research should be conceptually innovative, introduce a new concept or question, challenge existing paradigms, approach issues from a new perspective, or exhibit other uniquely creative qualities and should not merely be an incremental advance upon published data. Applications must describe the short- and long-term impact of the proposed research, as well as the evidencebased burden of disease on public health. This award mechanism promotes basic through translational research, including preclinical and clinical research, as well as correlative studies associated with an existing clinical trial to establish proof-of-principle for further development in future studies.
Deadlines:
• Pre-Application Submission Deadline: May 26, 2022
• Invitation to Submit an Application: July 2022
• Application Submission Deadline: August 25, 2022
Applications submitted to the FY22 TBDRP should be focused on Lyme disease and/or other tick-borne diseases/conditions with emphasis on reducing public health burden. Idea Development Award applications must respond to at least one of the following specific FY22 TBDRP Focus Areas:
• Prevention ○ Drugs, antibodies, vaccines, or other novel approaches that can be administered and/or utilized prophylactically to prevent human tick-borne diseases and conditions prevalent in the U.S. or that address multiple pathogens ○ Identification, validation, and/or improvement of tick- or reservoir-targeted prevention and control interventions that are safe and non-toxic to non-target species
• Pathogenesis ○ Pathogenesis of persistent clinical manifestations associated with Lyme disease ○ Immune evasion and/or tolerance of tick-borne pathogens (Lyme and/or other tick-borne diseases) ○ Tick-borne infections and co-infections (simultaneous or sequential) and their effects on human disease severity, the local and systemic immune response, or pathogen synergy and competition ○ Pathogenesis of mammalian meat allergy (allergic response to galactose-alpha-1,3- galactose [alpha gal]) ○ Understanding the role of tick-borne diseases on maternal health and adverse birth outcomes, including maternal-fetal transmission
For the Idea Development Award: Independent investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent) may be named by the organization as the PI on the application.
For the Idea Development Award – Career Development Option:
• PI ○ The PI must be an early-career research scientist, physician scientist, or other qualified clinical scientist, within 10 years of completion of their terminal degree at the time of application submission deadline (excluding time spent in residency or on family medical leave) and exhibit a strong desire to pursue a career in tick-borne diseases research. Time spent as a postdoctoral fellow is not excluded. ○ Institutional commitment to the PI’s independent career should be demonstrated, including a minimum of 75% protected research time for all tick-borne disease research projects by the PI and a confirmation of the laboratory space
• Mentor ○ The mentor must hold a position at or above the level of Associate Professor (or equivalent). ○ The mentor must be an experienced researcher as demonstrated by a recent (last 5 years) history of funding and publications in tick-borne disease research and should ideally have experience mentoring other independent scientists. Collectively, the PI/mentorship team should have demonstrated experience in the field (pathogen/disease and associated methods) of the proposed studies. The mentor must demonstrate a commitment to developing the PI’s career in tick-borne disease research.
The PI and the mentor do not need to be located within the same organization.
The anticipated direct costs budgeted for the entire period of performance for an FY22 TBDRP Idea Development Award will not exceed $500,000.
The anticipated direct costs budgeted for the entire period of performance for an FY22 TBDRP Idea Development Award – Career Development Option will not exceed $300,000.
