DoD Prostate Cancer, Physician Research Award | HT942524PCRPPRA

Opportunity Information: Apply for HT942524PCRPPRA

The FY24 DoD Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) Physician Research Award is a mentored grant designed to help early-career physicians build a long-term, productive career in prostate cancer research while they still have significant clinical duties. The applicant physician is the Principal Investigator (PI) and is expected to write the application, working with guidance from one or more mentors. The program is set up to value two things equally: the strength and rigor of the proposed prostate cancer research project, and the quality of the PI's career development plan that shows a clear path toward becoming an independent physician-scientist in this field. Projects can fall across basic science, population science, translational research, or clinical research, as long as they fit the program's goals and limits.

Eligibility is aimed at physicians who are still close to their formal training period or early in their faculty trajectory. At the application deadline, the PI must be either in the final year of an accredited residency or fellowship, or within five years of starting a faculty appointment (including Instructor roles). Prior prostate cancer research experience is not required, but the PI must convincingly demonstrate commitment to developing into a physician-scientist and future leader in prostate cancer research and clinical care. A major purpose of the award is to protect the physician's time for research; the announcement strongly encourages applicants to show that at least 20 percent of the PI's time will be protected for prostate cancer research. This protected time does not have to be supported solely by this award and can include effort supported by other prostate cancer-related research activities, but the application should make the protected-time plan clear and credible.

Mentorship is not optional. The mechanism requires at least one designated mentor who already has a well-established prostate cancer research program, supported by recent peer-reviewed publications, active research funding, and a track record of successful mentoring. The mentor (or mentoring team) also needs to show real commitment to advancing the PI's career, not just supervising the science. If the PI will depend on resources, facilities, or expertise at another institution to complete the work, the program encourages naming a co-mentor at that collaborating institution to strengthen both the science and the training environment.

On the research side, proposed projects must address at least one of the FY24 PCRP Overarching Challenges. The application is expected to present a strong scientific rationale, thoughtful experimental or analytic methods, and a realistic, well-defined plan that shows feasibility and a clear route to achieving the project's goals. Preliminary data are encouraged but not required, and if included they must come from the PI, the mentor(s), or collaborators on the team. Applicants are also expected to identify critical resources needed for the work and back up access to those resources with documentation, such as letters of support, especially when relying on datasets, specialized cores, unique patient populations, or other nonstandard infrastructure.

Human subjects research is allowed, but clinical trials are explicitly not permitted under this opportunity. The program distinguishes clinical research (generally observational studies, studies using human data or specimens, diagnostic/detection studies like biomarkers or imaging, health disparities research, epidemiology, outcomes and health services research, and technology development that does not test an intervention's efficacy) from clinical trials, which involve prospectively assigning human subjects to an intervention to evaluate outcomes. While clinical trials are prohibited, correlative studies tied to an existing clinical trial are specifically encouraged when they are minimal risk and receive the required oversight approvals, including review by the appropriate Institutional Review Board and the USAMRDC human research oversight offices.

A required component of the application is an individualized Researcher Development Plan, built with mentor input, that lays out how the PI will gain the skills, competencies, and expertise needed both to complete the proposed project and to progress toward independence as a prostate cancer investigator. The plan should describe the mentoring structure, training activities, and research environment in a practical way. If the home institution has gaps in mentorship or resources, the announcement makes clear that these gaps can be addressed through collaborations, as long as the plan and access are well described.

Impact is central: the research must be positioned to address one or more FY24 PCRP Overarching Challenges and support the program mission of reducing death and suffering from prostate cancer, with explicit relevance to Service Members, their Families, and Veterans, while also benefiting the broader patient and caregiver community. Applicants are encouraged to incorporate study design practices that improve reproducibility and translational value, such as authenticating cell lines, using strong statistical rigor in animal studies, and including experiments that connect findings to clinical relevance and translatability. The program also highlights interest in leveraging large, well-annotated patient datasets (including long-term health records and biospecimen repositories) paired with modern genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, or mathematical modeling. There is also explicit encouragement for ideas aligned with recommendations from the congressionally mandated Metastatic Cancer Task Force, as long as the proposal stays within the award's rules. In addition, innovative nuclear medicine and related imaging or targeted-therapy approaches that could improve early diagnosis and treatment are encouraged, particularly when they may benefit military-connected populations.

Collaboration is viewed as a strength. Applications from military investigators and those that build multidisciplinary partnerships among academia, industry, military health systems, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and other federal agencies are strongly encouraged because they can bring unique expertise, infrastructure, and access to specific clinical populations. When a proposal depends on unique resources or databases, the application must explain current access at submission and provide a plan to maintain that access throughout the project.

From a funding and administrative standpoint, awards are issued as grants, with anticipated direct costs for the full project period not to exceed $750,000. The Army (USAMRAA) is the awarding agency under CFDA 12.420, and eligibility is listed as unrestricted. The opportunity planned to commit about $4.80 million total to fund roughly four awards, with selections dependent on federal funding availability, application volume, and peer/programmatic review outcomes. The original closing date listed is August 30, 2024, and awards supported with FY24 funds are expected to be made no later than September 30, 2025, with FY24 funds anticipated to remain available for use through September 30, 2030.

• The Dept. of the Army -- USAMRAA in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "DoD Prostate Cancer, Physician 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 2024-05-01.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-08-30. (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 4 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted.

Apply for HT942524PCRPPRA

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