DoW Hearing Restoration Focused Research Award

About this funding opportunity

Summary: The fiscal year 2026 (FY26) Hearing Restoration Research Program (HRRP) Focused Research Award (FRA) supports promising research that accelerates drug discovery and therapeutic development for hearing restoration after military-relevant auditory system injury. The FRA may be used to support preclinical studies and/or clinical research. Research must align with at least one of the FY26 HRRP Focus Areas. The FRA cannot be used to support clinical trials, tinnitus research or vestibular research.

Distinctive Features:

• The FRA offers two Funding Levels to support research at different stages and the exploration/development of ideas of different maturity levels.

• Funding Level 2 includes a Partnering Principal Investigator (PI) Option (PPIO) for two PIs, an Initiating PI and a Partnering PI.

• Scored peer review criteria include Research Idea/Rationale, Research Strategy and Feasibility, Impact, and Personnel.

• Programmatic review criteria include adherence to the intent of the FRA, contribution to the HRRP portfolio, relative impact, and relevance to military health.

Topic areas: General and Cross-cutting R&D, Life Sciences and Health, Security and Defense.

Funding amount

This grant provides Varies in funding.

Deadline

Applications are due Sep 10, 2026. Confirm the exact closing time on the official program page before applying.

Who can apply

This opportunity is open to the following applicant types:

• Open to all applicant types

Eligibility

The program did not publish a separate eligibility statement. See the official opportunity page for the full eligibility criteria.

Agency

DoW Hearing Restoration Focused Research Award is administered by Defense Health Agency Contracting Activity - DHACA (AMRAA), listed via Grants.gov.