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DEPARTMENT OF WAR - CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED MEDICAL RESEARCH PROGRAMS
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  5. 2026 Prostate Cancer Research Program

Prostate Cancer

NEWS RELEASE

Released: April 24, 2026

Defense Health Agency Research and Development
Medical Research and Development Command
Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs
Prostate Cancer Research Program
Anticipated Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2026

The FY26 Defense Appropriations Act provides funding for the PCRP to support innovative, high-impact research with clinical relevance that will eliminate death and suffering from prostate cancer. As part of the DHA R&D-MRDC, the CDMRP is the program office managing these anticipated FY26 funding opportunities.

The PCRP provides the information in this pre-announcement to allow investigators time to plan and develop ideas for submission to the anticipated FY26 funding opportunities. Investigators should not construe this pre-announcement as an obligation or promise by the government. The CDMRP will post FY26 PCRP funding opportunity announcements on the Grants.gov website. Once released, the funding opportunity announcements will include pre-application and application deadlines.

Applications submitted to the FY26 PCRP must address one or more of the following overarching challenges:

  • Improve overall health, wellness and survivorship for those impacted by prostate cancer
  • Develop new treatments or improve existing therapies to improve outcomes for patients with lethal prostate cancer
  • Enhance clinical care for all patients with prostate cancer
  • Define the biology of prostate cancer progression to lethal prostate cancer to reduce death

Award Mechanism Eligibility Key Mechanism Elements Funding
Data Science Award Independent investigators at all levels.
  • Supports research that develops or uses quantitative and analytical approaches, processes, and/or systems to obtain knowledge and insight from large and/or complex sets of prostate cancer data in one or more of the following research areas:
    • Analysis of clinically annotated datasets
    • Analysis of “-omics” data
    • Artificial intelligence and machine learning
    • Bioinformatics
    • Computational biology
    • Digital pathology
    • Epidemiology
    • Medical imaging
  • Applications allow, but do not require, retrospective clinical research; applications cannot support prospective recruitment of human subjects or clinical trials.
  • Applications encourage, but do not require, preliminary data.
  • The PCRP requires submission of a letter of intent prior to full application submission.
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years
  • Maximum allowable funding is $1.4 million for total costs*
Early Investigator Research Award Early-career investigators possessing a doctoral degree, or equivalent, with fewer than 3 years of postdoctoral research experience at the application submission deadline, excluding clinical residency or clinical fellowship training.
  • Supports prostate cancer research conducted by investigators in the early stages of their careers with guidance from an experienced mentor.
  • Key personnel must include one early-career investigator as the principal investigator, and at least one experienced prostate cancer researcher as the mentor(s).
  • Applications must include a researcher development plan articulating an individualized strategy for acquiring necessary skills, competence, and expertise to complete the project and foster the PI's career development.
  • Applications allow, but do not require, clinical research; applications cannot support clinical trials.
  • The PCRP requires submission of a letter of intent prior to full application submission.
  • Maximum allowable funding is $630,000 for total costs*
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years
Idea Development Award Established Investigators: Independent investigators at all levels

New Investigators: Independent investigators that meet the following criteria at the application submission deadline:
  • Not previously received a PCRP Idea Development Award and/or Health Disparity Research Award.
  • Either completed at least 3 years of postdoctoral training or fellowship or within 10 years after completion of terminal degree, excluding residency or family medical leave.
  • Supports new ideas that represent innovative, high-risk and high-gain approaches to prostate cancer research.
  • Emphasizes innovation and impact equally.
  • Applications encourage, but do not require, preliminary data.
  • Applications encourage, but do not require, multidisciplinary projects; applications allow, but do not require, multi-institutional projects.
  • Applications allow, but do not require, correlative studies associated with an ongoing or completed clinical trial; applications cannot support clinical trials.
  • The PCRP requires submission of a letter of intent prior to full application submission.
 Established Investigator Option
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years
  • Maximum allowable funding is $1.7M for total costs*
New Investigator Option
  • Maximum period of performance is 4 years
  • Maximum allowable funding is $2.1M for total costs*
Physician Research Award Early-career clinician investigators that meet either of the following criteria at the application submission deadline:
  • In the last year of an accredited medical residency or medical fellowship program.
  • Within 5 years of initiating a faculty appointment, including instructor positions or equivalent.
  • Supports a mentored research experience to prepare physicians with clinical duties for careers in prostate cancer research.
  • PIs must demonstrate a commitment to a career at the forefront of prostate cancer research and clinical practice.
  • Key personnel must include one early-career clinician investigator as the principal investigator, and at least one experienced prostate cancer researcher as the mentor(s).
  • Applications strongly encourage demonstrating protection of at least 20% of the PI's time for prostate cancer research, which may include this project and other prostate cancer research projects.
  • Applications must include a researcher development plan articulating an individualized strategy for acquiring necessary skills, competence and expertise to complete the project and foster the PI's career development.
  • Applications cannot support clinical trials.
  • The PCRP requires submission of a letter of intent prior to full application submission.
  • Maximum period of performance is 4 years
  • Maximum allowable funding is $1.1M for total costs*
*Total costs include direct and indirect costs.

Before full application submission, the CDMRP requires submission of a pre-application through the electronic Biomedical Research Application Portal, eBRAP, prior to the pre-application deadline. All applications must conform to the final funding opportunity announcements available for downloading from Grants.gov. To obtain a listing of all CDMRP funding opportunities on the Grants.gov website, perform a basic search using CFDA number 12.420.

To receive email notifications upon release of funding opportunity announcements, subscribe to program-specific news and updates under "Email Subscriptions" on the eBRAP homepage. For more information about the PCRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website.

Point of Contact:
CDMRP Public Affairs
301-619-7071
dha.detrick.cdmrp.mbx.public-affairs@health.mil


Last updated Friday, April 24, 2026