MILLION OFFERED FOR GULF WAR ILLNESSES
RESEARCH, INCLUDING $3 MILLION FOR STUDY OF FMS, CFS & MCS TOGETHER
By Albert Donnay
Executive Director of MCS Referral and Resources
Baltimore, USA
The following is modified from a notice distributed
by Albert Donnay
Some of you have asked me for more information about
the 5 solicitations issued on Feb 12 by the Dept of Defense (DOD) for $67 million over 4
years to study Gulf War veterans' illnesses, including the first federal funding ever --
$3 million -- for the study of CFS, FMS and MCS together (i.e. their overlap among Gulf
War veterans). This single solicitation is equivalent to the entire annual federal
research budget for FMS, 1/4 the CFS research budget, and maybe 1/6 the MCS research
budget (over $20 million per year among 9 agencies).
The $3 million for CFS, FMS and MCS was not the DOD's
idea, of course, but the result of a congressional appropriation introduced in 1998 by
Senator Tom Harkin. There is no cap per investigator on this, so you can bid for the whole
$3M but you will have much better odds if you also submit proposals for $200,000 -
$400,000 as DoD might decide to split up the money if the reviewers recommend this (and
especially if the upcoming CDC Gulf War Research Planning Conference recommends this... I
think DOD could learn a lot more from 10-15 small studies than one huge 3 million-dollar
study, but big studies look more impressive)
Unfortunately, the deadline for the CFS, FMS, MCS
solicitation is very soon, March 24--just six weeks after the notice came out and a month
before any of the others issued the same day are due. The deadline may be extended into
April if enough researchers ask (Director Craig Lego, Contracting Officer, c/o dolores.king@amedd.army.mil )
The other 4 of 5 solicitations are each offering $16M
over 4 years, with a requested max avg. of $200,000 per year but a max total allowed of $1
million (pentagon math, no wonder they have so many cost overruns!). The deadlines for
applying for these range from mid April to mid May. The solicitations address the
following situations:
1. Force Health Protection
2. Stress & Somatic Consequences
3. Assessing Mixed Chemical Exposures
4. Interactions of Drugs, Biologics and Chemicals in Deployment Environments
For more information, see the following links:
Gulf War Illnesses Research:
Integrated Psychosocial & Neuroscience Research
on Stress & Somatic Consequences
http://www-usamraa.army.mil/gwstress.htm
Multidisciplinary Studies of Fibromyalgia, Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome and Chemical Sensitivities
http://www-usamraa.army.mil/gwfatigue.htm
Force Health Protection - Deployment Health
http://www-usamraa.army.mil/gwforce.htm
Innovative Biologically-based Toxicology Methods
& Models for Assessing Mixed Chemical Exposures with Potential Neuro-Toxicological
& Other Health Effects
http://www-usamraa.army.mil/gwtoxicology.htm
Interactions of Drugs Biologics and Chemicals in
Service Members in Deployment Environments http://www-usamraa.army.mil/gwenvironments.htm
Also note that the email address for the contact
person in all these solicitations is incorrect. It should be Delores King at dolores.king@amedd.army.mil
(but she just processes requests and paperwork and
can't answer detailed questions). The man who wrote the solicitations is not mentioned in
them and does not normally answer email or take calls etc. The solicitations are supposed
to speak for themselves.
Good luck!
