ARMED FORCES PEST MANAGEMENT BOARD (AFPMB) | AFPMB BAA 22 01

Opportunity Information: Apply for AFPMB BAA 22 01

The Armed Forces Pest Management Board (AFPMB), part of the Department of Defense, is seeking pre-proposals for research that leads to practical, field-ready tools to protect deployed military personnel from diseases spread by biting arthropods (like mosquitoes and ticks) and to strengthen control of bed bugs and filth flies. The diseases highlighted as major operational concerns include Lyme disease, malaria, dengue fever, and other arboviruses. The core emphasis is on solutions that reduce exposure to vectors and lower disease risk in real military environments where conditions can be harsh, logistics are constrained, and interventions need to be durable, easy to use, and effective over time.

The research areas AFPMB wants to fund are strongly product-oriented rather than purely exploratory. Priority topics include developing new toxicants or adapting existing toxicants for medically important pests, improving how insecticides are applied (for example, better delivery methods or equipment), creating new or improved personal protective measures that prevent human-vector contact, building decision-support tools that help commanders or preventive medicine teams choose the best control strategies, and designing novel surveillance tools that improve detection and control outcomes. The announcement signals a preference for work that fits the DoD concept of Advanced Technology Development (RDT and E Budget Activity 3), meaning projects should be moving beyond basic laboratory discovery and toward validated prototypes, improved formulations, or usable systems that can be demonstrated under semi-field or field conditions.

A key requirement is that projects should involve evaluation of experimental or prototype products in semi-field or field settings, reflecting the program's interest in interventions that can perform outside the lab. At the same time, the opportunity clearly discourages proposals that simply test or evaluate already-commercial products. If the work involves pesticide end-use products, the expectation is that these products are intended to pursue registration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which matters for eventual deployment and broader use. While the primary application must be military-focused, the AFPMB also wants outcomes that can transfer to civilian public health or pest management, so the program is looking for innovations with dual-use potential.

This is a competitive discretionary grant opportunity, released as a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), and it starts with a pre-proposal stage. It is open to a wide range of applicants, including academia, industry, and state or local government entities, and federal agencies (including DoD components) may apply as long as they follow the applicable rules. The BAA is specifically meant to fund development work that is not tied to a particular acquisition or hardware procurement program, and it follows the federal assistance framework under 2 CFR Part 200. There are no set-asides, which typically means proposals compete in a single pool based on merit and alignment to the stated areas of interest and evaluation criteria.

From the posted opportunity details, the funding instrument is primarily grants (though other mechanisms may be considered), the CFDA/Assistance listing is 12.355, and the administering agency is listed as Department of Defense, ACC-APG-Detrick. The opportunity number is AFPMB BAA 22 01. The posting indicates an award ceiling of $900,000, with an estimated 30 awards expected. The announcement was created on October 28, 2021, and the original closing date is October 31, 2024. Applicants who are invited to submit a full proposal after the pre-proposal stage are expected to follow the required forms and attachment instructions described in the Mandatory Proposal Forms section, and they should align closely with the "Areas of Interest" section since that is where the government defines the specific problems it wants solved.

• The Department of Defense, ACC-APG-Detrick in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "ARMED FORCES PEST MANAGEMENT BOARD (AFPMB)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.355.
• This funding opportunity was created on Oct 28, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Oct 31, 2024. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $900,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 30 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 AFPMB BAA 22 01

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