Description
The Department of Defense (DOD) is seeking applications for the Autism Research Program (ARP) Idea Development Award. The award supports the development of innovative, high-risk/high-reward research that could lead to critical discoveries or major advancements that will accelerate progress in improving outcomes for Autistic individuals. The proposed research must be relevant to active-duty Service Members, Veterans, military beneficiaries, and/or the American public. The award mechanism is designed to support innovative ideas with the potential to yield impactful data and new avenues of investigation.
Key areas of research include:
• Assessment of novel therapeutics using valid preclinical models
• Create tools and strategies to increase the speed with which evidence-based practices are deployed in community-based settings
• Cultural, socioeconomic, and gender factors in diagnosis, treatment efficacy, delivery, and access to services
• Development of health care provider-focused training or tools to improve health care delivery for Autistic individuals across the life span and the continuum of care
• Environmental risk factors
• Factors impacting quality of life for current and former military families
• Factors promoting success in key transitions to independence for individuals living with ASD
• Improve diagnosis across the life span
• Long-term treatment outcomes from previous clinical trials for ASD core symptoms or to alleviate co-occurring conditions
• Mechanisms of heterogeneous clinical expression of ASD
• Mechanisms underlying conditions co-occurring with ASD
• Mechanisms underlying sex differences in ASD
• Tests of implementation strategies to increase use of evidence-based practices