Summary: The fiscal year 2026 (FY26) Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program (PRMRP) Discovery Award supports novel, untested, high-risk, high-reward research projects with the potential to provide new insights, paradigms, technologies, or applications and with a potential to generate preliminary data that will lay the foundation for future projects. The application must address a critical problem or question in the field of research and/or patient care in a congressionally directed FY26 PRMRP topic area and one of the FY26 PRMRP portfolio-specific strategic goals.

Distinctive Features: Applications must not include preliminary data. The focus of this award mechanism is innovation. Research proposed to this mechanism should be pioneering and revolutionary, and the outcomes generated by the award are expected to generate robust preliminary data that will lay the groundwork for future avenues of scientific investigation or product development.

Funding Details: The Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) expects to allot roughly $11.165M to fund approximately 29 Discovery Award applications with total cost caps of $385,000 per award. The maximum period of performance is 2 years. It is anticipated that awards made from this FY26 funding opportunity will be funded with FY26 funds, which will expire for use on September 30, 2032. Awards supported with FY26 funds will be made no later than September 30, 2027.