Current Funding Announcements

See below

Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) 2023-2024 Emerging Research Grants (ERG)

DESCRIPTION: Through the Emerging Research Grants (ERG) program, Hearing Health Foundation (HHF)
provides seed money to researchers with innovative approaches to hearing and balance science.
Investigators early in their career (no more than 10 years from most recent terminal degree or
medical residency) are especially encouraged to apply.

Senior and early-stage investigators may apply for topic-specific opportunities:
• Age-related hearing loss
• Central Auditory Processing Disorder
• Hyperacusis
• Ménière’s Disease
• Otosclerosis

Early career researchers are encouraged to apply to the “General Hearing Health” opportunity, which
supports a broad spectrum of proposal topics include but are not limited to:
• Age-related hearing loss
• Auditory and vestibular implants; hearing aids
• Central Auditory Processing Disorder
• Diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of hearing loss and balance disturbance
• Epidemiology of auditory and vestibular disorders
• Hyperacusis
• Tinnitus
• Vestibular disorders

The Neil Segil Memorial Award invites early-stage investigators to propose research in the field of
hair cell regeneration.

APPLICATIONS OPEN
October 17, 2022

APPLICATION DEADLINE
February 28, 2023

FUNDING
Up to $50,000 per year for each ERG research project for an initial period of one (1) year,
renewable for one (1) additional year.

Information: https://hearinghealthfoundation.org/how-to-apply

Department of Defense Congressionally DirectedMedical Research Programs (CDMRP) FY22 Toxic Exposures Research Program(TERP)

Description: The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 provides $30 million in funding for the TERP to support innovative, high-impact toxic exposures research. The mission of the TERP is to support innovative and impactful research aimed at identifying and understanding the pathological mechanisms, outcomes and comorbidities associated with toxic exposures in order to facilitate the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the invisible and visible diseases and symptoms that are associated with toxic effects impacting Service Members, Veterans and the American public. About TERP: https://cdmrp.army.mil/terp/default

Applications must address one or more of the Program Goals:
• Elucidate mechanisms of how toxic exposures result in adverse effects
• Diagnose the effects of toxic exposures
• Predict and prevent toxic exposures
• Develop therapeutics, treatments, and strategies

Applications must address one or more Topic Areas, which include Neurotoxin Exposure (e.g., long-term disorders, basic mechanisms, prediction/prevention/assessment, innovative treatments, clinical signs and symptoms or biomarkers, comorbidities). Any proposed exposure must be relevant to Service Members, Veterans and/or the American public. Areas of encouragement include exposures to fuels and other petroleum products.

Pre-application deadline: November 3, 2022

Application deadline: December 1, 2022

Anticipated maximum funding/periods of performance
• Investigator Initiated Research Award (IIRA): $500,000/3 years
• Translational Research Award (TRA)
o $800,000/3 years
o Partnership option: $1.6M/3 years
• Clinical Trial Award (CTA)
o $1.5M/4 years
o Partnership option: $2.5M/4 years

Information: https://cdmrp.health.mil/funding/terp

(R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed): Bioengineering Research Grants (BRG)

Description: The goal of the bioengineering research grant (BRG) program is to foster development of innovative technologies, methods, tools, models or designs that have the potential for significant impact on biomedical research by infusing principles and concepts from quantitative sciences. This opportunity encourages applications that: 1) apply a multidisciplinary approach to solve biomedical problems; and 2) develop, integrate, optimize, validate, translate or accelerate adoption of promising tools, methods, and techniques for a specific research or clinical problem in basic, translational, and/or clinical science and practice.

Significant projects may include, but are not limited to: development, validation, and translation of promising modalities for the disease continuum, including tools for risk prediction, screening, prevention, detection, diagnosis, disease progression, intervention, monitoring treatment response, prognosis, or survival; development of quantitative, predictive models of complex biological systems; integration and optimization of technologies that significantly increase sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, efficiency, or throughput of analysis to address unsolved biological or medical questions; in vitro and in vivo models, cell/tissue culture systems and organoids that closely mimic physiological conditions and allow mechanistic studies or engineering and testing of delivery systems, molecules/cells/tissues for therapeutic purposes, therapeutics, implants, and prosthetics that may improve treatment and healthcare.

Overall impact of these advances may include improving our understanding of molecular mechanisms, reducing disparities in access to care, promoting wellness and independent living, increasing access to and utility of technologies to improve quality of life, reducing the cost and complexity of procedures, and/or increasing throughput, sensitivity, and specificity of diagnostic tests.

NIH component participants include the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). Investigators are encouraged to contact the designated Scientific/Research contacts for individual institute focus areas that will be supported. For NIDCD, this is Nancy Freeman, Ph.D., (301) 402-3458, freemann@mail.nih.gov

Open Date (Earliest Submission Date): October 01, 2022

Expiration Date: September 08, 2025

Maximum Project Period: 5 years

Maximum Amount: Application budgets are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.

Additional Information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-22-242.html

Companion Funding Opportunity: PAR-22-243 (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-22-243.html

Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) Hearing restoration research program (HRRP) - FY 22 focused research award

W81XWH-22-HRRP-FRA: Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) Hearing Restoration

Research Program (HRRP) – FY22 Focused Research Award

Description: The FY22 Defense Appropriations Act provides funding for the Hearing Restoration

Research Program (HRRP) to support innovative and impactful research that pursues the treatment of

auditory system injuries and the restoration of hearing. About HRRP:

https://cdmrp.army.mil/hrrp/default To meet the intent of the award mechanism, all applications to

the FY22 HRRP Focused Research Award (FRA) must address research in one or more of the following

Focus Areas:

• Accelerate translation of biological regeneration/repair mechanisms into therapies that treat

auditory system injury and restore auditory function, for example:

o Hair cell regeneration/repair/recovery

o Neural regeneration/repair/recovery

o Treatment for synaptopathy and hidden hearing loss

• Diagnostic tests that help differentiate sensory, neural, synaptic, and central processing

disorders, that may inform applicability and outcomes for current or future hearing restoration

therapeutics.

• Develop reliable in-vitro human models to facilitate the understanding, derivation, and

characterization of human auditory cells, and/or to facilitate the evaluation of hearing

restoration therapies.

• Develop and/or validate techniques/methods beyond the audiogram to diagnose acute auditory

system injury in austere or remote environments. For example, but not limited to, simple and rapid

assessments that are compatible with portable platforms.

Tinnitus or vestibular-related research is excluded.

A pre-application is required and must be submitted through the electronic Biomedical Research

Application Portal (eBRAP) at https://eBRAP.org prior to the pre-application deadline. All

applications must conform to the final funding opportunity announcements that will be available for

downloading from the Grants.gov website.

Full award announcement: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view- opportunity.html?oppId=340447

Pre-Application Submission Deadline: July 22, 2022 (5:00 p.m. Eastern)

Application Submission Deadline: November 30, 2022 (11:59 p.m. Eastern)

Maximum funding/periods of performance:
Funding level 1: $250,000/2 years
Funding level 2: $1M/3 years

Funding level 3: $1.25M/3 years

BRAIN Initiative: Targeted BRAIN Circuits Projects – Targeted BCP (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

RFA-NS-22-026: BRAIN Initiative: Targeted BRAIN Circuits Projects – Targeted BCP (R01

Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Description: This FOA solicits applications for research projects that seek to understand how

circuit activity gives rise to mental experience and behavior using innovative, methodologically-

integrated approaches. The goal is to support adventurous projects that can realize a potentially

transformative outcome within 5 years. Applications are expected to address circuit function in the

context of specific behaviors or neural systems, such as sensation, perception, attention,

reasoning, intention, decision-making, emotion, navigation, communication, or homeostasis. Projects

should link theory, data analysis, and/or computational approaches to experimental design and

should produce predictive models (conceptual or quantitative).

Projects should aim to improve the understanding of circuits of the central nervous system by

systematically controlling stimuli and/or behavior while actively recording and/or manipulating

dynamic patterns of neural activity. Diverse species or experimental systems and a cross-

species/comparative approach are welcome and should be chosen based on their power to address the

specific question at hand and to reveal generalizable and fundamental neuroscience principles.

Targeted BRAIN Circuit Project R01 awards will support an individual laboratory or a small

multi-PD/PI team. Projects should reflect the NIH BRAIN Initiative interests of the application of

cutting-edge methodologies to understand central nervous system circuit function and

dynamics at cellular and sub-second levels of resolution in ethologically relevant behaviors of an

organism or a well-defined neural system. Applications should offer specific, feasible, and

potentially transformative research goals as endpoints within a 5-year term

Representative topics include: Innovative approaches to understand network coding of sensory

information and/or multi-sensory integration, at multiple stages of processing, in response to

naturalistic inputs and perceptual contexts.

Letter of Intent due date(s) 30 days prior to the application due date

Application due dates: June 1, 2022; July 1, 2022; October 6, 2022; June 30, 2023; October 4,

2023; June 28, 2024; October 2, 2024

Maximum project period: 5 years

Funding amount: the BRAIN Initiative intends to commit up to an estimated total of $15 M per year

to fund 20 awards.

Information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-NS-22-026.html

NIDCD Research Grants for Translating Basic Research into Clinical Tools (R01 Clinical Trials Optional)

RFA-DC-22-001: NIDCD Research Grants for Translating Basic Research into Clinical Tools (R01 Clinical Trials Optional)

NIH - National Institute on Aging (NIA) and National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication

Disorders (NIDCD)

Description: This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is intended to provide an avenue for basic

scientists, clinicians and clinical scientists to jointly initiate and conduct translational

research projects which translate basic research findings into clinical tools for better human

health. The scope of this FOA includes a range of activities to encourage translation of basic

research findings which will impact the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of communication

disorders. Connection to the clinical condition must be clearly established and the outcomes of

the grant must have practical clinical impact.

Possible goals include, but are not limited to:

• Biochemical, electrophysiological and behavioral assays to enhance diagnostic capabilities.

• Pharmacology, toxicity, and pharmacokinetic for candidate therapeutics that have demonstrated

potential for the treatment of communication disorders.

• Preclinical animal research for dosage studies and toxicity when a subsequent Phase I/II

clinical trial is planned.

• Translation of new tools and techniques for better diagnostics or therapeutics, including but

not limited to, neuroprosthetic devices, drug delivery devices, neuro-electrical stimulators and

recording devices.

• Translation of laboratory-based screening tests, including biomarkers into improved ways to

identify individuals at risk for a communication disorder to allow for early intervention.

• Translation of published basic research findings into new clinical tools to better target the

treatment to the individual patient and to better predict patient response or prognosis.

• Translation of discoveries from biological, psychological, social sciences and other related

areas into innovative prevention and treatment paradigms and processes.

• Modification of laboratory measures of function or laboratory treatment protocols for use in

clinical settings.

Open Date (Earliest Submission Date): September 17, 2021

Letter of Intent Due Date(s): 30 days prior to the application due date

Application Due Date(s): October 20, 2021; June 20, 2022; February 22, 2023; October 18,

2023; June 20, 2024

Maximum Project Period: 5 years

Maximum Amount: NIDCD anticipates funding an estimated 2-3 awards in fiscal year 2022 for a total

of $1,500,000.

additional Information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-DC-22-001.html

Open/Active DoD Broad Agency Announcements

U.S. Military Academy Broad Agency Announcement - W911NF-20-S-0008: This BAA was released April 1, 2020, and is open until March 31, 2025. It seeks proposals for cutting- edge innovative research that could produce discoveries with significant impact to enable new and improved Army technologies and related operational capabilities in the areas of socio-cultural; information technology; ballistics, weapons and protections; energy and sustainability; materials, measurements, and facilities; unmanned systems and space; human support systems; and artificial intelligence, machine learning, and quantum technologies. The human support systems focus includes biomechanical engineering to enhance soldier readiness (human performance optimization, injury prediction/prevention, physical and cognitive augmentation, Return-to-Duty metrics, functional influence of prosthetics/exoskeletal devices) and wearable technologies and sensors to inform performance decisions (e.g., monitoring/assessment, injury prevention, recovery times).

See: Military Academy BAA

Research Interests of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research

Announcement: BAA-AFRL-AFOSR-2016-0007
Award Organization: Air Force Office of Scientific Research
Type/Mechanism: Grant
Activity Code:
Web Site: DoD: http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=285269
Award Amount: $200,000 - $400,000 encouraged; $7.5M max

PoP: 5 years
Restrictions: None
Rolling Annual Programs: Open until Superseded
Pre-Application Due: Open until superseded
Full App Due: Open until superseded
Notes: For the sensory systems portion of the portfolio a goal is to pursue new capabilities in acoustic analysis, to enhance the intelligibility and usefulness of acoustic information. The primary approach is to discover, develop, and test principles derived from an advanced understanding of cortical and sub-cortical processes in the auditory brain. Included are efforts to model and control effects of noise interference and reverberation, understand the psychoacoustic basis of informational masking, develop new methods for automatic speech detection, classification, and identification, and enable efficient 3D spatial segregation of multiple overlapping acoustic sources.

Research

Quick Fact

#30

Hearing loss affects people of all ages and is often preventable.