DoD Vision Investigator-Initiated Research Award

The FY23 VRP IIRA is intended to support studies that will yield highly impactful discoveries or major advancements in the research and/or patient care of eye injury and/or visual dysfunction as related to military exposure.

Applications involving multidisciplinary collaborations among academia, industry, the military services, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and other federal government agencies are highly encouraged.

To support research projects at different stages and the exploration/development of ideas of different maturity levels, two different funding levels are available under this program announcement. When submitting the pre-application, it is the responsibility of the applicant organization to select the funding level that is most appropriate for the research proposed. The funding level should be selected based on the stage and maturity level of the research project, rather than the amount of the budget.

. Funding Level 1 supports exploratory, innovative, high-risk/high-reward research that is in the earliest stages of idea development. Research must have the potential to yield new avenues of investigation, such as new approaches, new research tools, or new paradigms.

› Preliminary data are not required. However, applicants must provide solid rationale for the research idea, supported by literature.

› The investigating team must have sufficient expertise to test the research idea.

. Funding Level 2 supports the advancement of more mature research toward clinical translation. The research idea or solution should be innovative or novel, or offer significant refinements, improvements, or new applications of existing ideas or solutions, as applicable.

› Funding Level 2 applications may focus on any phase of research from basic through translational.

› Preliminary data supporting the readiness and feasibility of the proposed research are required.

Miscellaneous

• Unrestricted