DoW Spinal Cord Injury, Translational Research Award

The Defense Health Agency Contracting Activity (DHACA) is soliciting applications to this funding opportunity using delegated authority provided by United States Code, Title 10, Section 4001 (10 USC 4001). The CDMRP is the program office managing this FY26 funding opportunity as part of the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program (SCIRP). The CDMRP is located within the Defense Health Agency Research and Development (DHA R&D), which is a part of the Department of Defense, DOD, herein referred to using the secondary title Department of War, DOW. Congress initiated the SCIRP in 2009 to provide support for traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI)-related research of exceptional scientific merit that has the potential to make a significant impact on improving the health and well-being of military Service Members, Veterans, and other individuals living with SCI. Appropriations for the SCIRP from FY09 through FY25 totaled $477.85 million (M). The FY26 appropriation is $33M.

Mission of the SCIRP: To fund research and encourage interdisciplinary collaborations for the development and translation of more effective strategies to improve the health and well-being of Service Members, Veterans, and other individuals with spinal cord injury

Vision of the SCIRP: Advance the treatment and management of spinal cord injury and ameliorate its consequences

The FY26 SCIRP challenges the scientific community to design research that will advance the development, translation and ultimate adoption of health care solutions for people living with SCI, their families and/or care partners. The SCIRP encourages impactful and well-reasoned research across the continuum of care, at time of injury and throughout the lifespan. Additionally, to ensure alignment with current program priorities, applicants to SCIRP funding opportunities should consider the following:

• Innovative research that investigates new directions or addresses neglected issues in the field of traumatic SCI is supported, although studies focused exclusively on identifying intervention targets are discouraged.
• Mechanism-focused studies must be specific to SCI and demonstrate a clear path from increased understanding to advancing treatments.
• Applications proposing interventions must demonstrate a clinically feasible window for treatment and more than incremental improvement over existing therapies.
• Studies addressing critical questions essential for advancing research toward clinical use, such as study population selection, dosing and safety are allowable.
• Applications from investigators within the DOW and applications involving multidisciplinary collaborations among academia, industry, the DOW, 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 significant to Service Members, Veterans, their Families and the American Public.