DOD Peer Reviewed Alzheimer’s, Leveraging Approaches for Innovation in Care and Support Award | W81XWH 21 PRARP LEAP INCASA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 21 PRARP LEAP INCASA

The Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Alzheimer’s Research Program (PRARP) Leveraging Approaches for Innovation in Care and Support Award (LEAP-InCASA) is a FY21 funding opportunity designed to push forward creative, high-impact research that improves day-to-day life for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD), as well as their families and care providers. The emphasis is on patient-centered work that meaningfully improves care and support, not incremental tweaks to existing approaches. Projects are expected to challenge current research or care paradigms and bring genuinely innovative ideas to real-world problems, including symptom reduction across cognition, behavior, function, and mood; strengthening resiliency and coping; maintaining or increasing independence; and improving supports for caregivers and families.

A defining feature of this award is that it is built around coordinated, multi-institutional teamwork rather than a single-lab or single-site study. Applicants must propose a harmonized research initiative that includes one Coordinating Center and at least two Partnering Sites, for a minimum of three separate institutions total. The Coordinating Center serves as the hub for leadership, project management, and shared infrastructure, while each Partnering Site contributes its own distinct research initiative that fits into the larger, unified program. In other words, the overall application is one integrated effort, but it is made up of multiple study components that are intentionally aligned through shared protocols, common measures where appropriate, and coordinated recruitment and analysis strategies.

The Coordinating Center has substantial responsibilities beyond administration. It is expected to function as an active research performance site for each Partnering Site’s study arm, including recruiting and enrolling participants and carrying out study procedures at the Coordinating Center’s location. This requirement signals that the hub cannot be a purely administrative entity; it must be able to support participant-facing research activities and have the staffing, systems, and experience to do so across all linked initiatives. The Coordinating Center and Partnering Sites are also expected to work together to harmonize research protocols, develop coordinated participant accrual plans, and collaborate on data analysis. Applications need to lay out clear, practical plans for how the partnership will operate, including communication routines, decision-making structures, how resources will be allocated, and how progress and results will be coordinated across institutions. The Coordinating Center must also describe prior experience managing multi-institutional research, reflecting the program’s focus on large, integrated collaborative efforts.

The Partnering Sites are not simply recruitment outposts; each site must propose a unique research initiative that is meaningfully distinct from the others while still fitting the shared overarching program design. Each Partnering Site must demonstrate it has the experience, resources, and participant accrual capability to launch and execute its part of the study in coordination with the other sites. The program also tries to reduce common friction points in multi-institution collaborations by requiring each Partnering Site to provide an intellectual property plan addressing potential intellectual and material property issues and describing how barriers to cooperation will be handled. Importantly, the Coordinating Center must be at a different institution than each of the Partnering Sites, reinforcing that this is a true cross-institutional consortium rather than a single organization with satellites.

Scientifically, the award expects teams to show credible expertise that bridges two areas: AD/ADRD research and research related to military risk factors. This reflects PRARP’s broader mission, which often connects neurodegenerative outcomes with exposures, experiences, or risk profiles relevant to military service. Proposals should be aligned with that perspective in a way that fits the specific intervention, care approach, or support model being tested or developed. Also, because the award is explicitly patient-centered and focused on improving care and support in living individuals and caregiving systems, animal research is not allowed under this mechanism.

From an administrative standpoint, this opportunity was offered by the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA). It was posted on April 8, 2021, with an original closing date of July 21, 2021. The funding instrument types listed include both cooperative agreements and grants, and the activity category is Science and Technology and other Research and Development under CFDA 12.420. Eligibility is described as unrestricted (open to any entity type), subject to any additional eligibility clarifications in the full notice. The opportunity anticipated making a single award (ExpectedAwards: 1). The public listing shows an award ceiling of 0, which typically indicates that the ceiling was not specified in that field rather than implying no funding; applicants would normally confirm actual budget limits in the full program announcement and accompanying guidance.

In practical terms, this grant mechanism is aimed at building a tightly coordinated consortium that can run human-centered, multi-site research on innovative care and support solutions for AD/ADRD, with enough organizational structure to standardize methods across institutions while still allowing each site to contribute a distinct, creative research component. The strongest applications under this model would be expected to show: a clear and compelling patient-centered impact, real innovation, credible multi-site operational planning, strong recruitment feasibility, and a mature collaboration plan that anticipates data harmonization and cross-site governance from the start.

• 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 Peer Reviewed Alzheimer’s, Leveraging Approaches for Innovation in Care and Support 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 08, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 21, 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 1 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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