Scientific Peer Review of Congressionally Directed Research Programs

The United States Congress directed the Department of Defense (DOD) to manage appropriations totaling over $5.4 Billion (B), since fiscal year 1992 (FY92), for intramural and extramural programs directed toward targeted medical research initiatives. The US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) is responsible for administering these targeted research program appropriations, and manages them through its office of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP). The CDMRPs vision is to find and fund the best research to eradicate diseases and support the war fighter for the benefit of the American public.

The DOD Breast Cancer Research Program was established in FY92 by Appropriations Conference Committee Report No 102-328, which provided $25 Million (M) for research on breast cancer screening and diagnosis for military women and their family members. In 1993, grassroots efforts by the breast cancer survivors and advocacy communities, led to a FY93 congressional appropriation of $210M for peer reviewed breast cancer research.

The CDMRP sought the advice of the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine (IOM) on how to best invest the $210M congressional appropriation. While the IOM made several important recommendations, a pivotal one outlining a two-tier review process for evaluating and selecting research proposals has become a cornerstone within CDMRP. This novel two-tiered process involves reviewing every research proposal for scientific merit as well as programmatic relevance.

The first tier of the two-tier review process is peer review. Peer review is a criteria-based process where proposals are evaluated based on their scientific and technical merit. Proposals are evaluated by scientific discipline, specialty area, or award mechanism by scientific, technical and consumer peer reviewers.

This support is currently performed by an external scientific peer review contractor because the CDMRP office does not have the capability or the expertise to perform these duties in-house.

The CDMRP is the USAMRMC subordinate organization responsible for planning, coordinating, integrating, programming, budgeting, and executing these programs. For a better understanding of the CDMRP, a web site is available to provide a wealth of information about each of the programs: http://cdmrp.army.mil. The Government intends to award a Time and Materials Task Order Requirements Contract to provide scientific peer review for all Congressionally Direct Research Programs identified herein and any subsequent programs as directed by Congress. It is anticipated that the award will be for a two-year base period and include three single year options. Separate task orders shall be awarded under this contract for each research program peer review by FY. The Contractor shall provide all necessary qualified personnel to provide scientific peer review for each of the selected scientific programs. All interested parties should email their interest to Jason Kuhns at jason.kuhns@amedd.army.mil.