DOD, Spinal Cord Injury, Clinical Trial Award | HT9425 23 SCIRP CTA

Opportunity Information: Apply for HT9425 23 SCIRP CTA

The Department of Defense Spinal Cord Injury Research Program (SCIRP) Clinical Trial Award (CTA), Funding Opportunity Number HT9425 23 SCIRP CTA, is a competitive research funding opportunity run through the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA). It is designed to push spinal cord injury (SCI) research quickly into real-world testing by funding clinical trials that can meaningfully improve how SCI is treated or managed. The central expectation is impact: applications need to make a clear case for both near-term benefits (what could change for patients and care partners during or soon after the trial) and longer-term outcomes (how results could shape future care, broader clinical practice, or follow-on trials). The work must align with at least one of the FY23 SCIRP Focus Areas, meaning the intervention being tested should fit within the program priorities for that funding year.

This award is specifically meant for clinical trials, and it is broad in what it will consider as long as the trial is well-justified and designed appropriately. Projects may evaluate new or improved products, drugs or biologics, medical devices, clinical guidance and care approaches, or emerging technologies aimed at SCI treatment or management. The scope can range from early, smaller trials such as pilot studies, proof-of-concept efforts, first-in-human work, or phase 0 style studies that establish feasibility and help shape later-stage trials, all the way through larger trials intended to determine efficacy in relevant participant populations. While traditional randomized controlled trials are not required, any alternative design needs to be a good fit for the study goals and must still provide credible evidence. The announcement also signals strong interest in decentralized clinical trial methods, such as virtual or hybrid approaches that use remote tools for recruitment, consent processes, study communications, and data collection, which can help reduce barriers to participation for people living with SCI.

A key feature of this funding mechanism is that proposed research must be relevant to military and public needs. The DoD emphasizes applicability to active-duty Service Members, Veterans, military beneficiaries, and/or the broader American public. To ground proposals in the realities of SCI care within military settings, applicants are encouraged to review an official resource document on SCI management within the Military Health System, including considerations that may arise during deployment contexts. This is meant to help researchers design trials that are not only scientifically sound, but also realistic and translatable into the systems where military-connected patients may actually receive care.

Another major requirement is meaningful community collaboration, not as an add-on but as a core part of how the research is planned and carried out. The program requires teams to build effective and equitable partnerships with members of the SCI community so that studies reflect real needs and produce results that are more likely to be adopted and useful. Applications are expected to name at least two community partners, such as individuals with lived SCI experience serving as consultants, and/or representatives from community-based organizations. These partners should be involved throughout planning and implementation, and applicants must document this engagement through a Collaborative Research Plan (referenced in the opportunity as Attachment 4). The intent is to avoid token participation and instead create shared ownership, where community input actively shapes the intervention, trial procedures, outcomes selected, participant experience, and dissemination plans.

The opportunity highlights collaborative research models like community-based participatory research, participatory action research, and integrated knowledge translation, all of which center on co-producing knowledge with the people most affected by SCI. In practical terms, that can mean including lived-experience advisors as ongoing consultants, partnering with advocacy or service organizations that understand day-to-day challenges, or forming a community advisory board that provides continuous feedback and accountability. The DoD framing stresses that these collaborations should influence the full research lifecycle, from early needs assessment and intervention design through implementation, evaluation, interpretation of findings, and sharing results back to the community in accessible and actionable ways. This emphasis reflects the program goal of generating evidence that can move quickly into practice, technology development, or policy, and ultimately improve outcomes for people living with SCI and those who support them.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is listed under CFDA 12.420 and is categorized as discretionary funding. It allows funding through grants and/or cooperative agreements, signaling that some projects may involve more active federal involvement typical of cooperative agreements. Eligibility is described as unrestricted (open to any entity type unless otherwise limited by additional eligibility language in the full announcement). The posting indicates an anticipated three awards. The original posting date was March 30, 2023, with an original closing date of September 7, 2023. The listed award ceiling is shown as 0, which usually means applicants should rely on the official funding announcement for the actual budget limits or that ceilings may vary by project scope and are specified elsewhere in the program materials.

Overall, this SCIRP Clinical Trial Award is geared toward teams that are ready to run a well-planned clinical trial now, not just propose preliminary lab work, and that can demonstrate a credible path to improving SCI care. Strong proposals under this mechanism typically combine a compelling intervention with a practical clinical trial design, clear milestones and outcome measures, thoughtful inclusion of military relevance, and deep, continuous partnership with the SCI community to ensure the trial is feasible, ethical, responsive, and positioned to translate into real impact.

• 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, Spinal Cord Injury, Clinical Trial 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 30, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 07, 2023. (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 3 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.

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