The FY20 Defense Appropriations Act provides funding to the Department of Defense Lung Cancer Research Program (LCRP) to support innovative, high-impact lung cancer research.  As directed by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, the Defense Health Agency J9, Research and Development Directorate manages the Defense Health Program (DHP) Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) appropriation.  The managing agent for the anticipated Program Announcements/Funding Opportunities is the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC).

The FY20 LCRP Program Announcements and General Application Instructions for the following award mechanisms are posted on the Grants.gov website.

Applications submitted to the FY20 LCRP must address one or more of the following Areas of Emphasis:

*Identify innovative strategies for the screening and early detection of lung cancer.

*Understand the molecular mechanisms of initiation and progression to lung cancer.

*Identify innovative strategies for prevention of the occurrence of lung cancer.

*Identify innovative strategies for the treatment of lung cancer.

*Identify innovative strategies for the prevention of recurrence of or metastases from lung cancer.

*Develop or optimize prognostic or predictive markers to assist with therapeutic decision-making.

*Understand mechanisms of resistance to treatment (primary and secondary).

*Understand contributors to lung cancer development other than tobacco.

*Identify innovative strategies for lung cancer care delivery (disparities/clinical management/ surveillance/symptom management).

Relevance to Military Health: The LCRP seeks to support research that is relevant to the healthcare needs of military Service members, Veterans, and their families. Relevance to military health will be considered in determining relevance to the mission of the DHP and FY20 LCRP during programmatic review.   Investigators are strongly encouraged to consider the following characteristics as examples of how a project may demonstrate relevance to military health:

*Use of military or Veteran populations, biospecimens, data/databases, or programs in the proposed research

*Collaboration with Department of Defense or Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) investigators

*Description of how the knowledge, information, products, or technologies gained from the proposed research could be implemented in a dual-use capacity to address a military need that also benefits the civilian population

*Explanation of how the project addresses an aspect of lung cancer that has direct relevance to military Service members, Veterans, or other military health system beneficiaries, including environmental exposures other than tobacco

https://cdmrp.army.mil/funding/lcrp

Concept Award – Letter of Intent due May 27, 2020

Investigators at all academic levels

• Supports highly innovative, untested, potentially groundbreaking concepts in lung cancer.
• Emphasis on innovation.
• Clinical trials not allowed.
• Preliminary data discouraged.
• Relevance to military health strongly encouraged.
• Maximum funding of $100,000 in direct costs (plus indirect costs).
• Period of performance should not exceed 1 year.

Idea Development Award – Preproposal due May 6, 2020

Established Investigators:  Independent investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent); or

New Investigators:  Investigators that meet the following criteria by the application submission deadline date:

• Have not previously received a LCRP Idea Development Award or Early Investigator Synergistic Idea Award
• Are within 10 years of first faculty appointment (or equivalent)
• Supports new ideas in the early stages of development representing innovative, high-risk/high-gain research.
• Emphasis on innovation and impact.
• New Investigator category supports applicants early in their faculty appointments or in the process of developing independent research careers.
• Clinical trials not allowed.
• Preliminary data required.
• Relevance to military health strongly encouraged.
• Maximum funding of $350,000 in direct costs (plus indirect costs).
• Period of performance should not exceed 2 years.

Investigator-Initiated Translational Research Award - Preproposal due May 6, 2020

Independent investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent)

*Supports translational research that will develop promising ideas in lung cancer into clinical applications.  Translational research may be defined as an integration of basic science and clinical observations.

• This mechanism is intended to fund a broad range of translational studies including, but not limited to, the following:
• Studies advancing/translating in vitro and/or animal studies to applications with human samples/cohorts
• Late-stage preclinical work leading to/preparing for a clinical trial, e.g., Investigational New Drug submission
• Correlative studies that are associated with an ongoing or completed clinical trial and projects that develop endpoints for clinical trials
• Preliminary data required.
• Relevance to military health strongly encouraged.
• Maximum funding of $400,000 in direct costs (plus indirect costs).
• Period of performance should not exceed 2 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 Program Announcements and General Application Instructions available for electronic 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 CFDA Number 12.420. 

For email notification when Program 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 LCRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website.

Point of Contact:

CDMRP Help Desk

301-682-5507

help@eBrap.org