The Defense Sciences Office (DSO) at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting innovative research proposals in the area of neurobehavioral protective factors and wellbeing to prevent and mitigate the effects of traumatic stress leading to suicidality and behavioral health disorders in warfighters. Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices, or systems. Research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice is specifically excluded.
Developing effective approaches to prevent suicide is a top priority within the U.S. Department of Defense. STRENGTHEN aims to build on recent advances in neuroscience and clinical practice to increase wellbeing, and prevent and mitigate the effects of traumatic stress leading to behavioral health disorders and suicidality in warfighter and civilian populations. STRENGTHEN will accomplish this goal through enhancing the behavioral health protective factors of cognitive flexibility (CF) and emotion regulation (ER).
Proposers must assume human subject testing will be considered Human Subjects Research (HSR) and plan for the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and secondary Human Research Protection Office (HRPO) reviews that are necessary for Government-sponsored HSR in the proposed cost and schedule. No HSR data collection can begin prior to HRPO approval.
Current efforts to prevent and mitigate the impact of traumatic stress on warfighters rely on the nosological approach of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). While useful clinically, the DSM-5 focuses on classification of symptoms into categorical behavioral health diagnoses, which can be limiting because it focuses on symptomatic effects rather than causes of disease. The underlying biopsychosocial mechanisms associated with behavioral health disorders, however, are transdiagnostic,1 complex, interactive, and poorly understood.1 While suicidality is not a DSM-5 diagnosis, current efforts to treat and prevent it are similarly limited by a focus on subjective descriptions of risk rather than empirical causal mechanisms of suicidality.2 After 50-years of research into risk factors, accurate identification of suicidality is only slightly greater than chance.3 Additionally, although behavioral health disorders are associated with a higher incidence of suicide, the majority of service members who die by suicide do not have a history of a behavioral health disorder.
The STRENGTHEN program aims to overcome the limitations of focusing on descriptions of individual disease effects and suicide risk factors by adopting a transdiagnostic approach that addresses the mechanisms (i.e., predictors or causes) of mental health and wellbeing (see for example the dimensional frameworks proposed by the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology [HiTOP] and the Research Domain Construct [RDoC]).5 Specifically, STRENGTHEN will optimize the brain networks essential for CF and ER, establishing dose response, time-to-onset, and duration-of-effect curves to quantify the impact of change in CF and ER on validated measures of suicidality, behavioral health, and wellbeing.
Deadlines:
o Abstract Due Date: November 30, 2022, 4:00 p.m.
o Full Proposal Due Date: January 23, 2023, 4:00 p.m.
TA1: Neuro-Mechanistic Models: Performers will develop individualized brain network models of CF and ER.
TA2: Neuroplastic Interventions: Performers will design hybrid interventions to induce neuroplastic change in the functional connectivity and/or structure of CF and ER brain networks to optimize an individual’s CF and ER.
TA1 models are important for meeting TA2 intervention goals; therefore, proposers must propose to both TAs across all Phases. Proposals that address only one TA may be considered non-conforming and removed from consideration. Section I.E describes the TAs in more detail.
All responsible sources capable of satisfying the Government's needs may submit a proposal that shall be considered by DARPA. Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Small Businesses, Small Disadvantaged Businesses and Minority Institutions are encouraged to submit proposals and join others in submitting proposals; however, no portion of this announcement will be set aside for these organizations’ participation due to the impracticality of reserving