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Rare Cancers

NEWS RELEASE

Released: March 27, 2024

Department of Defense
Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP)
Rare Cancers Research Program
Anticipated Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2024

The FY24 Defense Appropriations Act provides funding for the Rare Cancers Research Program (RCRP) to support research of exceptional scientific merit in the area of rare cancers research. The managing agent for the anticipated program announcements/funding opportunities is the CDMRP at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC).

The RCRP is providing the information in this pre-announcement to allow investigators time to plan and develop ideas for submission to the anticipated FY24 funding opportunities. This pre-announcement should not be construed as an obligation by the government. The FY24 RCRP funding opportunity announcements for the following award mechanisms will be posted on the Grants.gov website. Pre-application and application deadlines will be available when the announcements are released.

Vision Statement:
To greatly improve outcomes for people with rare cancers through research discovery and community building, and expansion of knowledge across the cancer landscape.

Mission Statement:
Elevate rare cancers research to catalyze knowledge-building and enable clinically impactful discoveries for the benefit of Service Members, their Families, Veterans, and/or the American public.

Applications submitted to the FY24 RCRP Concept Award and Idea Development Award must address one or more of the following Focus Areas:

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

Applications submitted to the FY24 RCRP Resource and Community Development Award must address the focus areas below:

  • Platform Development:  Development of platforms (such as tumor tissue repository with clinical annotation, centralized databanks, patient registry with common data structure, research model and "Omics" database, and longitudinal studies of natural history and treatment response) for multiple types or sub-types of rare cancers to allow sharing of data, bio-specimens and resources.

Award Mechanism Eligibility Key Mechanism Elements Funding
Concept Award Investigators at or above the level of postdoctoral fellow
  • Supports high-risk/high-reward research that is in the earliest stages of idea development or an untested theory that addresses an important problem related to rare cancers. Proof-of-concept is the anticipated outcome.
  • Reviewers will be blinded to the identity of the Principal Investigator, collaborators and their organization(s).
  • Submission must address at least one of the FY24 focus areas of Biology and Etiology, Research Model, and/or Therapy.
  • Preliminary data are not required.
  • Clinical trials are not allowed.
  • Maximum funding of $100,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 2 years
Idea Development Award Investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor
  • Preproposal submission is required; application submission is by invitation only.
  • Supports high-risk/high-reward research with the potential to yield impactful data in the rare cancer field.
  • 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 may be derived from studies of the proposed rare cancer type(s)/subtype(s) under study.
  • Submission must address at least one of the FY24 Focus Areas of Biology and Etiology, Research Model, and/or Therapy.
  • Clinical trials are not allowed.
  • Maximum funding of $350,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years
Resource and Community Development Award Investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor
  • Preproposal submission is required; application submission is by invitation only.
  • Emphasis on research resources development to facilitate collaboration and information sharing among stakeholders such as researchers, patients, family members, caregivers, clinicians and other members of the rare cancers community.
  • Supports platform development or infrastructure that can be applied to multiple rare cancers.
  • Preliminary data are not required but may be included (translational research and clinical studies may be included).
  • Submission must address the FY24 focus area of Platform Development focus area.
  • Clinical trials are not allowed.
  • Maximum funding of $800,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 4 years

A pre-application is required and must be submitted through the electronic Biomedical Research Application Portal (eBRAP) at https://ebrap.org/ prior to the pre-application deadline. All applications must conform to the final funding opportunity announcements that will be available for downloading from the Grants.gov website. The application package containing the required forms for each award mechanism will also be found on Grants.gov. A listing of all CDMRP and other USAMRDC extramural funding opportunities can be obtained on the Grants.gov website by performing a basic search using Assistance Listing Number (ALN, formerly CFDA) 12.420.

Submission deadlines are not available until the funding opportunity announcements are released. For email notification when announcements are released, subscribe to program-specific news and updates under "Email Subscriptions" on the eBRAP homepage at https://ebrap.org/. For more information about the RCRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (https://cdmrp.health.mil).


Point of Contact:

CDMRP Public Affairs
301-619-9783
usarmy.detrick.medcom-cdmrp.mbx.cdmrp-public-affairs@health.mil


Last updated Wednesday, March 27, 2024