Summary: The fiscal year 2026 (FY26) Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program (PRMRP) Impact Award supports applied research, defined as use-inspired and practice-oriented science that brings together outcomes from basic research, and insights from the real-world environment, to foster clinical applicability. The Impact Award intends to translate the fundamental understanding of underlying mechanisms toward solutions that have the potential for major near-term impact for patients and clear alignment to one of the congressionally directed FY26 PRMRP topic areas and one of the FY26 PRMRP portfolio-specific strategic goals.

Distinctive Features: This funding mechanism allows for multiple Principal Investigators (PIs). Only the initiating PI’s organization will submit a pre-application, but all PIs’ organizations will need to submit full applications. The partnering PI’s application is an abbreviated package specific to their distinct portion of the research project. Be advised, all associated applications for a research project may be withdrawn if the initiating or partnering application is rejected or administratively withdrawn.

Funding Details: The Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) expects to allot roughly $32.0M to fund approximately 10 Impact Award applications with total cost caps of $2.8M for the Single PI Option, or $3.6M for the Partnering PI Option. The maximum period of performance is 4 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.