Gulf War Illness, Qualitative Research Award | W81XWH 18 GWIRP QRA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 18 GWIRP QRA

The Gulf War Illness (GWI) Qualitative Research Award is a Department of Defense funding opportunity under the FY18 Gulf War Illness Research Program (GWIRP) designed to support qualitative research focused on the lived experiences of Veterans affected by GWI and the people involved in their care. Instead of emphasizing lab-based mechanisms or purely quantitative outcomes, this award centers on understanding how Veterans, caregivers, and clinicians interpret symptoms, navigate healthcare systems, make treatment decisions, and cope with the day-to-day realities of GWI. The program is interested in research ideas that come from many real-world sources, including clinical observations, population studies, basic discovery that raises new questions, or even credible anecdotal patterns that point to meaningful gaps in care and understanding.

The scope of work encouraged by the award includes exploratory, descriptive, predictive, and explanatory qualitative studies. Examples of appropriate topics include generating patient- and provider-informed data that could shape new GWI-specific clinical practice guidelines and practical strategies for implementing those guidelines in real settings. The announcement also highlights interest in identifying real or perceived barriers that prevent Veterans from accessing treatment, healthcare services, or even trustworthy information about care. Other priority areas include studying how personal circumstances and co-occurring medical conditions affect health outcomes and quality of life, how cultural values and beliefs influence treatment success or healthcare behaviors, and how choices about where to seek care (for example, civilian facilities versus Department of Veterans Affairs facilities) affect quality-of-life outcomes. The opportunity explicitly recognizes that GWI affects more than the individual Veteran, encouraging research on impacts to spouses, partners, and families, including employment and career consequences, emotional strain, physical burden or injury related to caregiving, and relationship or intimacy challenges. It also supports work on strategies to strengthen psychosocial adjustment and adaptation to disability for both patients and their support networks, along with examining barriers that slow or distort the translation of research findings into clinical practice. Another clearly stated topic area is clinician-patient communication, with an emphasis on capturing how communication succeeds or fails and what could improve shared understanding and decision-making.

A defining expectation of this award is that the qualitative findings should not stop at publication alone. Applicants are expected to translate results into practical educational materials or tools that directly improve how GWI is understood and managed by the intended audience. The funding opportunity outlines two main product pathways: tools aimed at Veterans with GWI and their caregivers, and tools aimed at healthcare providers who treat Veterans with GWI. For Veterans and caregivers, examples include printed materials, websites, mobile apps, massive open online courses, and even wearable technology-enabled resources. For providers, examples include printed guides, interactive workshops, outreach visits, and tools like open registries or treatment summary resources that help clinicians apply consistent, informed approaches to care. In other words, the award is structured to move from listening and learning (through qualitative methods like interviews, focus groups, or other interpretive approaches) to producing usable, audience-specific resources that can change understanding, behavior, and care delivery.

Administratively, this opportunity is listed as Funding Opportunity Number W81XWH-18-GWIRP-QRA and is offered by the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, through USAMRAA. It falls under the science and technology research and development assistance listing (CFDA 12.420) and supports funding through either a grant or a cooperative agreement mechanism. Eligibility is described as unrestricted, meaning applications may be submitted by a wide range of entity types as allowed by any additional eligibility language in the full announcement. The posting indicates an expected number of awards of one. The opportunity was created on May 1, 2018, with an original closing date of November 8, 2018. The listed award ceiling is shown as 0, which typically signals that applicants should rely on the full announcement for budget expectations or that the ceiling is not specified in the summary record.

• The Department of Defense, Dept. of the Army -- USAMRAA in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Gulf War Illness, Qualitative Research Award" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.420.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 01, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Nov 08, 2018. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for W81XWH 18 GWIRP QRA

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: