The FY20 Defense Appropriations Act provides funding to the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) to support innovative, high-impact prostate 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 PCRP Program Announcements and General Application Instructions for the following award mechanisms are posted on the Grants.gov website.
The mission of the FY20 PCRP is to fund research that will lead to the elimination of death from prostate cancer and enhance the well-being of Service members, Veterans, and all the men and their families who are experiencing the impact of the disease. Within this context, the PCRP is interested in supporting research that addresses specific gaps in prostate cancer research and clinical care, with an emphasis on investing in research that will benefit patients diagnosed with lethal prostate cancer or improve quality of life for men diagnosed with this disease. All applications are required to address one or more of the following FY20 PCRP Overarching Challenges:
· Improve the quality of life for survivors of prostate cancer
· Develop treatments that improve outcomes for men with lethal prostate cancer
Applications must be directly relevant to lethal prostate cancer, which includes patients with metastatic disease; treatment-resistant disease; oligo-metastases; neuroendocrine disease; high-risk localized or locoregional disease, etc.
· Reduce lethal prostate cancer in people of African descent, Veterans, and high-risk or underserved populations
High-risk populations include, but are not limited to, people of African descent (including Caribbean Americans), genetically predisposed populations, Service members, and Veterans. Underserved populations include, but are not limited to, men with limited access to clinical care and resources (in both rural and urban settings), and sexual and/or gender minorities with, or at risk for, prostate cancer.
· Define the biology of lethal prostate cancer to reduce death
Applications must be directly relevant to lethal prostate cancer, which includes patients with metastatic disease; treatment-resistant disease; oligo-metastases; neuroendocrine disease; high-risk localized or locoregional disease; etc. Applications should not focus on topics such as differentiation between low risk and intermediate risk prostate cancer.
https://cdmrp.army.mil/funding/pcrp
Idea Development Award – Letter of Intent due August 27, 2020
Established Investigators: Independent investigators at all levels
or
New Investigators: Investigators that meet the following criteria at the application submission deadline date:
- Have the freedom to pursue individual aims without formal mentorship
- Have not previously received a PCRP Idea Development Award and/or Health Disparity Research Award
- Have either completed at least 3 years of postdoctoral training or fellowship or are within 10 years after completion of terminal degree (excluding residency or family leave)
- Supports new ideas that represent innovative, high-risk/high-gain approaches to prostate cancer research and have the potential to make an important contribution to one or more of the FY20 PCRP Overarching Challenges.
· Emphasis is equally placed on Innovation and Impact.
· Preliminary data are encouraged, but not required.
· Clinical trials are not allowed.
· Each PI may submit only one application.
New Investigator Option supports applicants early in their faculty appointments or in the process of developing independent research careers.
Established Investigators:
· Maximum funding of $750,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs).
New Investigators:
· Maximum funding of $600,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs).
· Maximum period of performance is 3 years.
Health Disparity Research Award – Letter of Intent due June 25, 220
Established Investigators: Independent investigators at all levels
or
New Investigators: Investigators that meet the following criteria at the application submission deadline date:
· Have the freedom to pursue individual aims without formal mentorship
· Have not previously received a PCRP Health Disparity Research Award and/or Idea Development Award
· Have either completed at least 3 years of postdoctoral training or fellowship or are within 10 years after completion of terminal degree (excluding residency or family leave)
- Supports research ideas that have the potential to make an important contribution to reducing and ultimately eliminating disparities in prostate cancer incidence, morbidity, and mortality.
- Proposed projects must address one of the following health disparity focus areas: (1) access to healthcare, (2) social and cultural factors, (3) environmental factors, or (4) biological and genetic contributors.
- Proposed projects may include basic, translational, population science, or clinical research, including clinical trials.
- Primary emphasis will be placed on the potential impact of the proposed work.
- Preliminary data are encouraged, but not required.
New Investigator Option supports applicants early in their faculty appointments or in the process of developing independent research careers.
Established Investigators:
- Maximum funding of $750,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs).
New Investigators:
- Maximum funding of $600,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs).
- Maximum period of performance is 3 years
Translational Science Award – Letter of Intent due June 25, 2020
Modified for FY20
Independent investigators at all levels
· Supports advanced translational research that will foster transformation of promising ideas in prostate cancer into clinical applications.
· Supports a broad range of translational studies such as:
o Translation of results from animal studies to applications with human samples/cohorts
o Late-stage preclinical work leading to/preparing for a clinical trial, e.g., Investigational New Drug (IND) application submission
o Correlative studies that are associated with an open/ongoing or completed clinical trial
o Projects that develop endpoints for clinical trials
· Preliminary data to support the feasibility of the research hypotheses and research approaches are required. The inclusion of additional preliminary data to support the clinical relevance of the idea is strongly encouraged.
· Clinical trials are not allowed.
NEW Partnering PI Option: Allows two PIs, termed Initiating and Partnering PIs, to collaborate on a single application. Collaborations between basic science and clinical researchers are highly encouraged.
- Maximum funding of $1,000,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs).
- Maximum period of performance is 3 years.
Clinical Trial Award – Letter of Intent due to June 25, 2020
Independent investigators at all levels
· Supports hypothesis-based, early-phase clinical trials (e.g., Phase 0, Phase I, pilot Phase II) to test interventions that will have a major impact on one or more of the FY20 PCRP Overarching Challenges.
· Interventions may include drugs, devices, biologics, targeted radionuclides, surgical procedures, behavior modifications, or other types.
· Investigational New Drug (IND) or Investigational Device Exemption approvals, if applicable, must be in place by the time of application submission.
· Letter of support to demonstrate proof of possession of sufficient drug supply to conduct study must be provided (if appropriate).
· Clinical trials are expected to be initiated within 12 months of the award date.
· Maximum funding of $2,000,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs).
· Maximum period of performance is 4 years.
Population Science and Outcomes Research Award – Letter of Intent due June 25, 2020
NEW for FY20
Independent investigators at all levels
· Supports population-focused studies that will, if successful, identify and understand predictors of lethal prostate cancer or survivorship within the context of the FY20 PCRP Overarching Challenges.
· Examples of appropriate research approaches include:
o Retrospective data analysis of patient databases or biospecimens
o Prospective observations, analyses, or sample collection from a patient population
o Case-control, cohort, or other population science study designs
· Clinical trials are not allowed.
· Research ideas may include, but are not limited to, biomarkers for lethal disease; genetics/genomics; therapy and predictors of response or resistance; survivorship; and health disparity.
· Requires demonstration of sufficient sample size to address the study objectives, a robust statistical plan, and strong biostatistical expertise in the study team.
· Presentation of preliminary data to support the study of rationale and/or feasibility is strongly encouraged, but not required.
- Maximum funding of $1,000,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs).
- Maximum period of performance is 3 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 PCRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (https://cdmrp.army.mil).
Point of Contact:
CDMRP Help Desk
301-682-5507
help@eBrap.org
