DoD Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Therapeutic Idea Award | W81XWH 18 ALSRP TIA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 18 ALSRP TIA

The DoD Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Research Program (ALSRP) Therapeutic Idea Award (Funding Opportunity Number W81XWH-18-ALSRP-TIA) is a FY2018 funding opportunity from the Department of Defense, Department of the Army (USAMRAA) meant to spark early-stage, high-potential ideas that could lead to new drugs or treatment approaches for ALS. It is positioned as an early discovery mechanism: the program is looking for concepts that are still emerging but are grounded in a clear, testable hypothesis and a strong scientific rationale with believable translational potential. In other words, the emphasis is on ideas that can realistically point toward a therapy or a novel treatment modality, rather than basic science that only explains disease mechanisms.

A core boundary of this award is scope. Proposals that mainly investigate ALS pathophysiology, without a clear through-line to therapeutic discovery, are not considered a fit. Instead, the award is oriented toward the kinds of activities that help create or refine therapeutic candidates and the tools to evaluate them. The announcement specifically highlights interest in developing and/or modifying preclinical model systems that can be used for ALS treatment discovery, as well as applying high-throughput screening approaches to identify, define, or assess lead compounds. Alongside screening and models, the program encourages methods that strengthen confidence in a potential therapeutic target or compound, such as approaches to measure target engagement (demonstrating that a drug actually binds its intended target and produces immediate downstream effects) and approaches to assess selectivity (understanding whether a candidate has problematic activity against related or unintended targets).

The program’s review priorities strongly favor innovation and impact. Innovation is framed broadly: proposing a new paradigm, challenging an existing one, or bringing in genuinely novel concepts, technologies, or creative approaches that could open a viable therapeutic path for ALS. Impact can be near-term or long-term, but it needs to be meaningful rather than incremental, with a credible rationale for how the work could move the field toward therapeutics. Importantly, while preliminary data are allowed, the application is not expected to stand or fall on preliminary data; the strength should come from the quality and originality of the idea, the logic of the hypothesis, and the feasibility of the plan to advance therapeutic discovery.

The announcement also signals strong interest in leveraging human data and existing biospecimens when they are tied to robust clinical context. It encourages identifying treatment approaches using biological correlates of disease activity and progression in pre-existing human specimens drawn from well-characterized, adequately controlled, and sufficiently powered patient cohorts. Examples named include samples and data from controlled clinical trials, observational studies, and registries such as the CDC National ALS Registry and/or Biorepository. The DoD perspective is explicit here: applicants are encouraged to consider active duty military and Veteran patient populations or resources. A key restriction is that all specimens must already exist at the time the application is submitted; this mechanism will not support collecting new specimens.

Collaboration is another recurring theme. The Therapeutic Idea Award encourages meaningful and productive partnerships between investigators, and applicants are urged to collaborate with established ALS researchers when appropriate. The intent is to improve scientific rigor and practical relevance, especially for projects that combine specialized platforms (like screening or model development) with disease-specific expertise needed to interpret results and chart a path toward therapy.

This award is also clearly positioned within a broader ALSRP funding ecosystem. If an applicant’s work is beyond early discovery and is aimed at more advanced preclinical development of a product, the opportunity points them instead to the ALSRP Therapeutic Development Award (W81XWH-18-ALSRP-TDA), which supports later-stage preclinical development activities. That distinction helps applicants self-select: the Therapeutic Idea Award is for early therapeutic discovery concepts and enabling approaches, not for mature programs already deep into product development.

Administratively, the opportunity is listed as a discretionary federal program under CFDA 12.420, and it supports funding through grants and/or cooperative agreements. Eligibility is described as unrestricted (open to any type of entity, subject to any additional eligibility clarifications in the full notice). The opportunity was created April 10, 2018, with an original closing date of October 11, 2018, and it anticipated making about five awards. The award ceiling is listed as 0 in the provided record, which typically indicates that a specific cap may be defined elsewhere in the full program announcement or budget guidance rather than in this summary field. Across all projects, a baseline requirement is relevance: the proposed research must be relevant to active duty Service Members, Veterans, military beneficiaries, and/or the American public.

• 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 Apr 10, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Oct 11, 2018. (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 5 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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