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DEPARTMENT OF WAR - CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED MEDICAL RESEARCH PROGRAMS
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Rare Cancers

NEWS RELEASE

Released: April 8, 2026

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

The FY26 Defense Appropriations Act provides funding for the RCRP to support innovative, high-impact research with clinical relevance that will improve outcomes for people with rare cancers. As part of the DHA R&D-MRDC, the CDMRP is the program office managing these anticipated FY26 funding opportunities.

The RCRP 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 RCRP 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 RCRP Concept Award and Idea Development Award must address one or more of the following focus areas:

  • Biology: Identify disease-defining molecular pathways, cell context and microenvironment
  • Preclinical Research Model: Develop and validate rare tumor-specific models that can support clinical trial readiness
  • Therapy: Identify novel therapeutic strategies, including drug repurposing
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) Model: Establish use of AI and/or ML tools in discovery, preclinical studies, and clinical trial readiness

Applications submitted to the FY26 Resource and Community Development Award must address one or more of the following focus areas:

  • Platform Development: Develop platforms, such as tumor tissue repositories with clinical annotation, centralized databanks, patient registries with common data structure, research models, “omics” databases, and longitudinal studies of natural history and treatment response, for types or subtypes of rare cancers to allow sharing of data, biospecimens and resources
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) Model: Establish use of AI and/or ML tools in discovery, preclinical studies, and clinical trial readiness

Award Mechanism Eligibility Key Mechanism Elements Funding
Concept Award Investigators at or above the level of postdoctoral fellow, or equivalent.

Investigators do not have to be located at an academic organization.
  • Supports the initial exploration of highly innovative, untested, potentially groundbreaking novel concepts in rare cancers.
  • Potential impact may be near-term or long-term but must move beyond a minor advancement and demonstrate the potential to lead to a fundamentally new strategy or approach for rare cancers.
  • The RCRP will blind reviewers to the identity of the principal investigator, collaborator(s) and their organization(s).
  • Applications must address at least one of the FY26 RCRP focus areas of Biology, Preclinical Research Model, Therapy and AI/ML Model.
  • Applications allow, but do not require, preliminary data.
  • Applications cannot support clinical trials.
  • The RCRP requires submission of a letter of intent prior to full application submission.
  • Maximum allowable funding is $140,000 for total costs*
  • Maximum period of performance is 2 years
Idea Development Award Independent investigators at all career levels.
  • Supports rare cancer research that is ready for further development and has the potential to yield high-impact findings.
  • Applications must address at least one of the FY26 RCRP focus areas of Biology, Preclinical Research Model, Therapy and AI/ML Model.
  • Applications require preliminary data with disease-specific rationale, including correlative studies to ongoing clinical research; however, supporting data does not have to be in the proposed rare cancer type(s)/subtype(s) under study.
  • Applications cannot support clinical trials.
  • The RCRP requires submission of a preproposal; application submission by invitation only.
  • Maximum allowable funding is $490,000 for total costs*
  • Maximum period of performance is 3 years
Resource and Community Development Award Independent investigators at all career levels.
  • Supports the development of clinical or preclinical data sets and research resources that will advance the field of rare cancers research and ultimately improve outcomes for individuals with rare cancers.
  • Applications should develop research platforms that can share resources and knowledge pertaining to available preclinical or clinical research models, molecular pathways and therapeutic approaches.
  • Applications must address at least one of the FY26 RCRP focus areas of Platform Development and AI/ML Model.
  • Applications allow, but do not require, preliminary data.
  • The RCRP requires submission of a preproposal; application submission by invitation only.
  • Maximum allowable funding is $1,120,000 for total costs*
  • Maximum period of performance is 4 years
*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 RCRP 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 Wednesday, April 8, 2026