Dedicated Peer Reviewed Vision Research Program

The Department of Defense’s (DOD) Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) has released links to Grants.gov for $8.7 M in Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 funding through its Vision Research Program (VRP), which is available to all research, including international investigators. In the FY2011 cycle, in which pre-proposal submissions are due on September 15, 2011, TATRC is funding two programs:

• Investigator-Initiated Research Awards, with estimated total program funding of $7 M and awards capped at $1 M. The awards must address DOD-identified gaps in defense-related vision research as listed in the Program Announcement. The IIRA awards will fund research that focuses on making an important contribution toward understanding mechanisms of initiation or progression of and/or improving patient care for a condition related to at least one of the DOD-identified research gaps. This can range from basic research to translational research, including pre-clinical trials. The award may not be used to fund clinical trials, although it can be a correlative study associated with an existing clinical trial. Click here for more information.


• Hypothesis Development Awards, with estimated total program funding of $1.7 M and awards capped at $250,000. The awards must address DOD-identified gaps in defense-related vision research as listed in the Program Announcement. The HDA awards support the exploration of highly innovative, untested, high-risk/high-gain concepts, theories, paradigms, and/or methods that address an important problem in traumatic vision injuries, and may lead to proof-of-principle to address a further hypothesis. Click here for more information.

TATRC has posted all Program Announcement details, including research gaps and a timeline, on its Web site at the following link: http://www.tatrc.org/ports/vision/vision_FY11_RFP.html

To get a sense of the VRP, you can read a summary of comments that TATRC Vision Portfolio Manager Robert Read made at a May 2 NAEVR session at the 2011 ARVO Annual Meeting.

As background, you can also read abstracts of the 12 grants that were funded in the FY2009/2010 VRP awards cycle that are posted here.

The program is managed by the Department of Defense's Telemedicine and Advanced Techology Research Center (TATRC).

If you have any questions, you can contact NAEVR Director of Government Relations David Epstein at 240-221-2902 or depstein@eyeresearch.org.

Please be aware, however, that NAEVR's James Jorkasky and David Epstein serve on the programmatic review panel that manages the program, and may not be able to answer all questions.