US. Department of Defense announces the FY25 Deployed Warfighter Protection Program Award

The DWFP Program’s mission is to protect deployed military personnel from arthropod vectors of medically relevant disease pathogens, including (but not limited to) arthropod disease vectors of mosquito-borne arboviruses and tick-borne pathogens, and nuisance biting arthropods. The DWFP Program seeks to fund original and innovative research that supports the Advanced Technology Development of new insecticides, or improved formulations of existing insecticides for vector control, new technology or enhanced modalities of personal protection from biting arthropods, or improved efficacy and sustainability of equipment for application of pesticides.

FY25 DWFP Research Areas:

• Bite Prevention: Research will address knowledge gaps in new personal protection tools that prevent contact with medically relevant arthropods.
• Vector Control: Research will address new insecticide application techniques, new toxicants or the adaptation of existing toxicants to medically relevant arthropods.
• Decision Support Tools or Software Applications: Research will address new tools or software applications that support data-driven decisions (e.g. predictive modeling) for improved arthropod vector surveillance and control strategies, including outbreak responses.
• Vector surveillance and identification: Research will address new arthropod vector surveillance tools and technologies that focus on improved vector control outcomes.
• Vector pathogen diagnostics: Research will address new vector pathogen diagnostic tools and technologies that focus on rapid detection of multiple arthropod-borne pathogens in a single assay.

Eligibility: 

• Organization: All organizations, including foreign organizations, foreign public entities, and international organizations, are eligible to apply.
• Organizations must be able to access .gov and .mil websites in order to fulfill the financial and technical deliverable requirements of the award and submit invoices for payment.
• Investigators are cautioned that awards are made to organizations, not individuals. A Project Investigator (PI) must submit a proposal through, and be employed by, an organization in order to receive support.
• Government Agencies Within the United States: Local, state, and federal government agencies are eligible to the extent that applications do not overlap with their fully funded internal programs. Such agencies are required to explain how their applications do not overlap with their internal programs. As applications for this program announcement may be submitted by extramural and intramural organizations, these terms are defined below.
• Extramural Organization: An eligible non-DOD organization. Examples of extramural organizations include academic institutions, biotechnology companies, foundations, federal government organizations other than the DOD, and research institutes.
• Intramural DOD Organization: A DOD laboratory, DOD military treatment facility, and/or DOD activity embedded within a civilian medical center. Intramural Submission: An application submitted by a DOD organization for an intramural investigator working within a DOD laboratory or other DOD activity.

The proposal should include: