U.S. DOD CDMRP - Rare Cancers Research Program

Through the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP), the Department of Defense is announcing the Rare Cancers Research Program (RCRP) Awards. Three award programs are available:
 

• The FY22 Concept Award highly innovative, untested, potentially groundbreaking novel concepts in rare cancers. The Concept Award is not intended to support an incremental progression of an already established research project; instead, it allows Principal Investigators (PIs) the opportunity to pursue serendipitous observations. Preliminary data are not required. This award mechanism supports high-risk studies that have the potential to reveal entirely new avenues for investigation. Applications must describe how the new idea will enhance the existing knowledge of rare cancers or develop an innovative and novel course of investigation. Research completed through a Concept Award may generate sufficient preliminary data to enable the PI to prepare an application for future research.
• FY22 Resource and Community Development Award supports the development of resources that advance the field of rare cancers research and ultimately improve outcomes for individuals with rare cancers. Major gaps in-patient care of rare cancers include lack of communication and dissemination strategies for rare cancer research and clinical findings within communities; lack of therapeutics and mechanistic studies to inform treatment development; lack of research and clinical resources, including patient tissues, cell, and tumor models; and lack of infrastructure for sharing data and other resources. The intent of this funding opportunity is to develop platforms that can share resources and knowledge pertaining to available models, molecular pathways, and therapeutic approaches to facilitate collaboration and information sharing among stakeholders such as researchers, patients, caregivers, clinicians, and other members of the rare cancers community.
• FY22 Idea Development Award promotes new ideas that are still in the early stages of development and have the potential to yield impactful data and new avenues of investigation. This award supports conceptually innovative, high-risk/high-reward research that could lead to critical discoveries or major advancements that will accelerate progress toward eradicating deaths and suffering from rare cancers. Applications should include a well-formulated, testable hypothesis based on strong scientific rationale. Preliminary data with disease-specific rationale (may include correlatives studies to ongoing clinical research) to support the feasibility of the research hypotheses and research approaches are required; however, these data do not necessarily need to be derived from studies of the proposed rare cancer type(s)/subtype(s) under study.

• Biology and Etiology: Identify disease-defining molecular pathways, cell context, and microenvironment.
• Research Model: Develop and validation of rare tumor specific models that can support clinical trial readiness.
• Therapy: Identify novel therapeutic strategies, including drug repurposing.

• FY22 Concept Award - Pre-Application (1 page limit): July 18, 2022, submission on Aug. 29, 2022
• FY22 Resource and Community Development Award - Pre-Application (two-pages limit for the narrative part plus biosketch and reference): June 22, 2022, submission on Sept. 30, 2022
• FY22 Idea Development Award - Pre-Application (two-pages limit for the narrative part plus biosketch and reference): June 22, 2022, submission on Sept. 30, 2022
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• FY22 Concept Award - Anticipated direct costs will not exceed $100,000 for a maximum of 1 year period of performance
• FY22 Resource and Community Development Award - Anticipated direct costs will not exceed $600,000 for 3 years period of performance
• FY22 Idea Development Award - Anticipated direct costs will not exceed $350,000 for 3 years period of performance

• FY22 Concept Award - W81XWH-22-RCRP-CA
• FY22 Resource and Community Development Award - W81XWH-22-RCRP-RCDA
• FY22 Idea Development Award - W81XWH-22-RCRP-IDA