DoD Peer Reviewed Cancer, Idea Award with Special Focus | W81XWH 19 PRCRP IASF

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 19 PRCRP IASF

The DoD Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program (PRCRP) Idea Award with Special Focus (FY19) is a Department of Defense funding opportunity designed to push forward bold, early-stage cancer research ideas that have not yet been tested and that could carry high risk but also high payoff. The intent is to back genuinely innovative concepts, including new theories, paradigms, or research methods, rather than proposals that simply extend an existing line of work. Projects supported under this mechanism are expected to produce strong, usable preliminary data that can serve as the launching point for later, more fully developed studies on topics such as how cancers start or progress, how to improve quality of life during and after treatment, and how care and treatment options can be strengthened within the Military Health System.

What makes this particular Idea Award different is the "Special Focus" requirement. Applications need to center on exposures, conditions, or circumstances tied to military life, meaning factors that are unique to the military, occur more often in military beneficiary populations, or have implications for force readiness. The program also emphasizes total mission readiness, which includes concern for cancers or cancer-related risks that could affect the support system around Service members, such as military families. In other words, the research should connect clearly to military-relevant realities, not only in terms of who is affected (active duty personnel, Veterans, and other beneficiaries), but also in terms of operational impact and the needs and mission of the Military Health System and related DoD health priorities.

Innovation is treated as the core review expectation. Competitive proposals are those that challenge existing assumptions, re-frame established problems in a new way, or introduce creative approaches that could reshape how a cancer question is investigated. The announcement is explicit that incremental work is not the goal: a straightforward next step from an established project, small extensions of prior findings, or simply applying an existing model system to a different cancer type are not considered sufficiently innovative for this award. Even though the research is exploratory, it still needs to be scientifically solid, built around a well-formulated and testable hypothesis, backed by a strong rationale and a rigorous study design.

A notable feature of this mechanism is that preliminary data are not required, and in fact the award is not meant to fund ongoing work already underway in the applicant's laboratory. Outside of unexpected or serendipitous observations, heavy reliance on existing preliminary datasets can be seen as inconsistent with the exploratory purpose. For investigators who already have substantial preliminary evidence and are ready for a more direct, next-step study, the solicitation points them toward a different mechanism within the PRCRP portfolio, the FY19 PRCRP Impact Award.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary federal opportunity offered by the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, administered through USAMRAA. It allows funding through either grants or cooperative agreements. Eligibility is listed as unrestricted (open to any type of entity, subject to any additional eligibility details in the full announcement). The CFDA number is 12.420, and the government anticipated making around 40 awards under this call. The opportunity was posted in March 2019 and closed in September 2019. The listing shows an award ceiling of 0, which typically signals that applicants must consult the full solicitation for the actual budget limits and constraints rather than relying on a single universal cap presented in the summary record.

Overall, the FY19 PRCRP Idea Award with Special Focus is best understood as seed funding for creative, military-relevant cancer research that aims to open up new directions rather than confirm or extend what is already well established. The expected end product is not a finished clinical solution, but credible preliminary results and a defensible proof-of-concept that can justify and power larger follow-on efforts aligned with DoD and Military Health System needs.

• 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 "DoD Peer Reviewed Cancer, Idea Award with Special Focus" 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 Mar 21, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 11, 2019. (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 40 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 19 PRCRP IASF

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