Administrative office was checking them, and today (Tuesday) we were fixing things. Now I am finally getting optimistic about making the deadline on 10/11 (Thu).
There are a few major federal funding sources for scientific research. For biomedical research, the most major one is NIH. But DOD also has a number of medical research programs concerning issues pertinent to the military and veterans.
NIH programs are reviewed by experts panel members. The programs and announcements change focus over time, but slowly.
Apparently, DOD programs are more driven by needs. They can be created quickly. For example, some programs on psychiatric issues did not exist until PTSD was recognized and became an issue. On the other hand, some programs were discontinued or took hiatus.
DOD research grants follow different mechanism from that of NIH. I think it is good.
One of such DOD programs is PRARP (Peer-reviewed Alzheimer's Research Program).
The mission statement says,
"Mission: The PRARP’s mission is devoted to (1) understanding the association between Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) and AD-related dementia (AD/ADRD), and (2) reducing the burden on affected individuals and caregivers, especially in the military and Veteran communities."
"Mission: The PRARP’s mission is devoted to (1) understanding the association between Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) and AD-related dementia (AD/ADRD), and (2) reducing the burden on affected individuals and caregivers, especially in the military and Veteran communities."
This is the grant we have been working on the proposal for. We think we have a proposal that will contribute to the DOD PRARP's mission. For that, we teamed up with TBI experts in Neuroscience department. Reading and learning their work was interesting.
Some aspects of their research were fascinating, although I do not fancy doing it myself (brain surgery and behavior analysis, anyone?). I'll leave these parts to them. Delegation is a great merit of teaming up, as long as the partner is reliable and does good work.
The story is the same from their standpoint. Teaming-up wouldn't work unless both parties bring something equal to the table.
Probably tomorrow we can finish finalizing the application with administrators and submit it.
Almost there.
