DoD Defense Medical, Battlefield Resuscitation for Immediate Stabilization of Combat Casualties Award | W81XWH 21 DMRDP BRISCC

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 21 DMRDP BRISCC

The DoD Defense Medical Research and Development Program (DMRDP) Battlefield Resuscitation for Immediate Stabilization of Combat Casualties (BRISCC) Award is a funding opportunity run through the Department of Defense (U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, USAMRAA; CFDA 12.420) that targets new solutions for trauma care in future multi-domain operations where evacuation may be delayed for long periods or not possible at all. The core goal is to push forward early development of high-impact medical materiel products (devices, diagnostics, supplies, or related hardware) and knowledge products (new ways of doing trauma care, modifications to existing practices, and decision support approaches) that help stabilize wounded Service members immediately after injury and sustain them during prolonged field care in austere environments. Projects are expected to be directly relevant to Service members and to produce outcomes that also benefit Veterans, military beneficiaries, and, more broadly, civilian trauma care.

A defining feature of the BRISCC award is its emphasis on practicality in combat conditions, not just scientific novelty. Proposed solutions should be designed for the point of greatest need, meaning right after injury and throughout extended in-theater care when resources, personnel, and time are limited. Applicants are encouraged to design for a wide range of provider skill levels (from highly trained medics to less specialized personnel) and for harsh, variable environments. The announcement highlights military-relevant product characteristics that reviewers want to see considered, such as low weight and low volume for portability, low power requirements and longer shelf life to reduce logistical burden, modularity and interoperability so new tools can plug into existing military platforms and workflows, ruggedization to survive temperature swings, vibration, altitude, and rough handling, and low-complexity operation supported by decision aids or closed-loop/semi-closed-loop automation so the system remains usable with minimal training. Affordability is also treated as a real requirement: the DoD is looking for solutions that make sense to buy, maintain, and sustain at scale compared with what is currently available.

Funding is provided through assistance agreements, meaning awards will be structured as either grants or cooperative agreements rather than procurement contracts. The difference matters because it determines how involved the DoD will be during the project. If the government does not anticipate substantial involvement, the award is typically a grant; if the DoD expects active collaboration, participation, or intervention during the work, it will use a cooperative agreement and specify the nature of that involvement. The final choice of mechanism and start date is determined during negotiations.

The BRISCC program is organized into three funding levels so applicants can match scope and maturity to an appropriate budget category, with the government reserving the option to fund at a lower level than requested. Funding Level 1 supports innovative, high-risk/high-reward concepts that are still early or based on an untested theory; preliminary data are not required, which makes this track appropriate for new ideas that could be transformative but are not yet extensively validated. Funding Level 2 supports preclinical and clinical research backed by substantial preliminary or published data, but clinical trials are not permitted. Funding Level 3 supports more advanced preclinical and clinical research that is similarly supported by substantial data and needs a larger budget due to the maturity and resource demands of the work; clinical trials are also not allowed in this level. The stated budget limits for total costs across the entire period of performance are up to $800,000 for Level 1, up to $1.25 million for Level 2, and up to $2.0 million for Level 3 (with additional details and restrictions referenced in the announcement’s funding restrictions section).

On program scale and timing, the DoD projected funding across multiple fiscal years to support a portfolio of awards, with an estimate of funding roughly in the range of $4.7 million (FY21), $5.5 million (FY22), and $6.5 million (FY23) to make approximately 8 to 21 awards under this announcement, depending on appropriations, application volume, and review outcomes. Awards were expected to be made no later than September 30, 2022. The announcement also notes typical federal budget realities: availability of funds depends on congressional appropriations and may be subject to realignment, and obligated funds have expiration dates tied to the fiscal year of the appropriation.

From a research rules standpoint, the program may support basic, applied, preclinical, and certain clinical research, including studies involving human subjects, human anatomical substances, or human cadavers, but it explicitly does not allow clinical trials. The announcement uses the standard federal definition of a clinical trial as a study in which human subjects are prospectively assigned to an intervention (including placebo or control) to evaluate effects on health-related outcomes. For any work involving human subjects or related materials, investigators must plan for layered oversight: local IRB or ethics review plus an additional Department of Defense administrative review and approval by the USAMRDC Office of Research Protections, Human Research Protection Office (HRPO), prior to starting the research. Local IRB approval is not required at the time of application submission, but applicants are warned to plan for HRPO timelines, commonly 2 to 3 months. If multiple institutions are involved, the proposal must address single-IRB planning, identify the lead institution responsible for master protocol and consent documents, and establish a clear regulatory point of contact.

The opportunity also calls out several operational expectations that affect how proposals should be written and managed. If a project needs access to active duty military populations, DoD or VA resources, or databases, the application must describe that access up front and provide a plan for maintaining it throughout the project. For studies enrolling human subjects, applicants must include quarterly enrollment targets across sites in the statement of work, and awardees should expect recruitment milestones to be negotiated with USAMRAA and used as a basis for continued support. For animal studies, proposals must meet rigorous design expectations and reporting standards (randomization, blinding, sample size estimation, data handling) and align with recognized guidance such as ARRIVE; animal work requires both local IACUC oversight and additional DoD review by ACURO, with a typical planning window of 3 to 4 months and no requirement for IACUC approval at submission.

In practical terms, this BRISCC award is best understood as DoD’s push to create the next generation of field-ready trauma stabilization tools and protocols for scenarios where casualty evacuation is delayed, resources are limited, and conditions are unpredictable. Competitive applications are those that connect a clearly defined battlefield care gap to a realistic, rugged, low-burden solution, show a credible pathway through preclinical or non-trial clinical validation (depending on maturity), and demonstrate that the technology or practice change can be used by real-world military providers under real operational constraints.

• 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 Defense Medical, Battlefield Resuscitation for Immediate Stabilization of Combat Casualties 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 Dec 21, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 07, 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 21 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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