DoD Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Therapeutic Idea Award | W81XWH 21 ALSRP TIA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 21 ALSRP TIA

The DoD Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Research Program (ALSRP) Therapeutic Idea Award (FY21) is a research funding opportunity aimed at moving new therapeutic concepts for ALS toward actual drug or treatment discovery, specifically at an early stage where ideas are still being formed and tested. The program is built around hypothesis-driven therapeutic development, meaning the proposed work needs to be anchored by a clear, testable hypothesis supported by a strong scientific rationale. The central expectation is translational potential: the work should reasonably point toward improving ALS treatment or enabling a novel treatment modality, rather than simply adding general knowledge about the disease.

A key feature of this award is that it is intended to reward innovation and impact more than the amount of existing supportive data. Preliminary data are not required, and while applicants may include preliminary results, applications are not supposed to depend on them for credibility. Instead, the evaluation emphasis is on the creativity and promise of the approach. The opportunity also explicitly allows projects that build or refine preclinical model systems and projects that use high-throughput screening approaches to identify, define, or evaluate potential lead compounds for ALS treatment. In other words, the award is open to work that helps establish the tools and discovery pipelines needed to find and advance therapeutic candidates, as long as the work remains clearly tied to therapeutic development.

The scope is intentionally limited in one important way: studies that primarily focus on ALS pathophysiology without a meaningful therapeutic development component are considered out of scope. That means descriptive or mechanistic studies are not the target unless they are directly integrated into a plan that advances a treatment concept (for example, by identifying and validating a druggable target and then moving toward a candidate therapeutic strategy). Reviewers are looking for ideas that introduce a new paradigm, challenge existing assumptions, or apply novel concepts or technologies in a way that could plausibly lead to ALS therapeutics.

The program also places value on people and teams, not just the science. Early-career investigators are encouraged to apply, and collaborative applications are welcomed, especially when the partnership is clearly productive and complementary. Researchers coming from outside the ALS field are encouraged as well, but they are expected to bring in collaborators with ALS-relevant expertise when needed, such as familiarity with ALS model systems, appropriate endpoints, and established pathogenic findings. This reflects an emphasis on making sure bold new ideas are still grounded in the practical realities of ALS therapeutic translation.

In addition to the main award, there is a Biomarker Option that provides an incentive to co-develop biomarkers alongside the therapeutic concept. The intent is to strengthen the drug development pathway by pairing a therapeutic approach with biomarker tools that can demonstrate whether the therapy is doing what it is supposed to do. Supported biomarker efforts include target engagement biomarkers (evidence the therapy is hitting its intended target), pharmacodynamic biomarkers (objective measures of a biological effect caused by the therapy), and predictive or cohort-selective biomarkers (markers that help identify which patients or subgroups are most likely to benefit). Importantly, biomarker work that is aimed only at diagnosis, prognosis, or tracking disease progression is not supported unless it is directly tied to improving the therapeutic development process. Applicants pursuing this option need to clearly explain what the biomarker is and how it will make the therapeutic program more effective or decision-ready.

Administratively, this opportunity was offered by the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, USAMRAA under funding opportunity number W81XWH 21 ALSRP TIA. It is listed under CFDA 12.420 and supports science and technology and other R and D activities. The funding instruments include grants and cooperative agreements, eligibility is described as unrestricted (open to any entity type, subject to any additional eligibility clarifications in the full announcement), and the anticipated number of awards was 17. The posting date was February 16, 2021, with an original closing date of July 15, 2021. The award ceiling is shown as 0 in the listing, which typically indicates that the cap is defined elsewhere in the full announcement or varies by project scope and mechanism rather than being expressed as a single fixed maximum in the summary record.

• 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 Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Therapeutic Idea 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 Feb 16, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 15, 2021. (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 17 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 21 ALSRP TIA

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: