DoD Prostate Cancer, Health Disparity Research Award | W81XWH 19 PCRP HDRA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 19 PCRP HDRA

The DoD Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) Health Disparity Research Award (HDRA) is a FY19 funding opportunity run by the Department of Defense through the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA). Its central goal is to support promising, high-impact research aimed at reducing and ultimately eliminating disparities in prostate cancer across the full continuum of disease, including differences in incidence, morbidity, mortality, and survivorship. Applicants are expected to frame their work around a clear disparity problem and show how the proposed research could meaningfully change outcomes for populations that experience worse prostate cancer burdens.

A key expectation of this award is that applicants explicitly define the specific health disparity their proposal addresses. The PCRP uses a broad, multi-factor view of disparity, and it is receptive to projects that examine different drivers of unequal outcomes. This includes disparities caused by access-to-care barriers (for example, geography, insurance status, financial constraints, or other structural issues that limit screening, diagnosis, or treatment). It also includes social and cultural influences on health behaviors and medical decision-making, such as trust in the health system, community norms, support networks, psychological health, cultural or religious practices, and other factors that shape whether and how patients pursue screening and treatment. In addition, the program is interested in environmental contributors, such as exposures or dietary patterns that may influence cancer risk or progression in particular groups, as well as biological contributors, including genetic or molecular differences that may be associated with disparate outcomes. Because the program covers these varied domains, proposals need to be very clear about which disparity pathway(s) they are targeting and why that approach is likely to matter.

Community engagement is strongly encouraged, especially when it can improve relevance, feasibility, recruitment, and real-world uptake of findings. Investigators are urged to involve members of the population or community being studied in the design and execution of the project when appropriate. When community-based or advocacy organizations will play a role, applications should document that involvement through letters of support that spell out what the organizations will do and how they will contribute. The emphasis is not only on outreach, but on meaningful participation that strengthens the research and increases the likelihood that the work will translate into practice.

The award places heavy weight on impact and innovation. The intent is not simply to generate descriptive data, but to produce findings that can drive real progress in closing gaps in prostate cancer outcomes. To reinforce that focus, applicants must include a detailed transition plan describing what happens after the award ends. This plan should lay out a realistic pathway to the next stage of development, such as follow-on studies, scaling an intervention, advancing a diagnostic or prognostic tool, moving toward broader validation, or progressing toward clinical or implementation impact even if the funded work itself is not the final step to a clinical endpoint.

In terms of research scope, the HDRA supports basic, translational, and clinical research, including clinical trials, as long as the work remains tightly aligned with prostate cancer health disparities. The program encourages applications from a wide range of disciplines, such as laboratory science, engineering, bioinformatics, population science, psycho-oncology, health services research, translational research, and clinical research. Clinical trials are permitted only if they are small-scale and early stage (up to and including Phase II or an equivalent stage). Investigators planning a trial are encouraged to consider using the PCRP Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium (PCCTC) to help start and complete trials efficiently. Preliminary data can strengthen an application but are not required; however, any unpublished preliminary results included should come from the PI or members of the research team.

The opportunity also clarifies what counts as a clinical trial under the FY19 definition: any research study in which one or more human subjects are prospectively assigned to one or more interventions (including placebo or control) to evaluate effects on biomedical or behavioral health-related outcomes. Beyond that, the program encourages strong study design practices that improve credibility and translational value, including authentication of proposed cell lines, statistical rigor in animal studies, and deliberate experiments that test clinical relevance and translatability. Applicants are pointed toward established PCRP-supported resources when human specimens or linked data are important, including the Prostate Cancer Biorepository Network (PCBN) and the North Carolina to Louisiana Prostate Cancer Project (PCaP). The announcement also encourages the use of large, well-annotated patient datasets with long-term records and biospecimen repositories, especially when paired with modern genomic/proteomic approaches, bioinformatics, and mathematical modeling.

This funding opportunity is structured with two applicant tracks: a New Investigator category and an Established Investigator category. The New Investigator track is meant to help early-career faculty or investigators building independence compete within a separate pool rather than directly against more senior applicants. New Investigator applications are expected to include one or more collaborators with demonstrated experience in prostate cancer health disparity research, backed by a record of funding and publications. The application should explain why the collaboration is likely to work and how it strengthens the PI’s ability to answer the disparity-focused research question. New Investigator eligibility is governed by specific criteria described in the full program materials.

The program notes that CDMRP also encourages applicants to consider recommendations from the Congressionally mandated Metastatic Cancer Task Force, particularly ideas that accelerate clinical and translational research for advanced and recurrent cancers, as long as proposals remain within the limits of this award and align with FY19 PCRP priorities. Across all proposals, the research must be relevant to active duty Service members, Veterans, military beneficiaries, and/or the American public, reflecting the DoD’s mission-driven perspective on research benefit.

Funding is provided through assistance agreements, meaning awards will be made either as grants or cooperative agreements. The deciding factor is how much substantial involvement the DoD expects to have during project performance. If little to no substantial involvement is expected, the mechanism is typically a grant; if the agency anticipates meaningful collaboration, participation, or intervention in the work, it may issue a cooperative agreement and specify the nature of that involvement. Budget caps are given as anticipated direct costs over the full period of performance: up to $600,000 for the New Investigator category and up to $750,000 for the Established Investigator category. The program planned to allocate about $9.84 million total to fund roughly four New Investigator awards and five Established Investigator awards, although final funding depends on federal availability and the quality and fit of submitted applications.

The timeline details reflect the FY19 cycle: the opportunity was posted May 3, 2019, with an original closing date of July 18, 2019, and awards expected no later than September 30, 2020. The announcement also notes that FY19 funds were expected to expire for use on September 30, 2025, which matters for the government’s obligation and spending window. Eligible applicants are broadly described as unrestricted by entity type, subject to any additional eligibility clarifications in the full announcement.

Human subjects and human materials oversight is a major compliance component. Any DoD-funded research involving human anatomical substances, human subjects, or human cadavers must undergo review and approval by the USAMRMC Office of Research Protections, Human Research Protection Office (HRPO), before research can begin. This HRPO review is in addition to local IRB or ethics committee review, and local IRB approval is not required at the time of application submission. The process can take a minimum of 2 to 3 months, potentially longer for international clinical studies. The DoD also encourages applicants to write protocols that match the DoD-funded scope as stand-alone studies when possible, because submitting broader protocols that combine DoD and non-DoD work can trigger HRPO review requirements for the entire protocol and can cause DoD protection requirements to spill over into non-DoD components. For studies recruiting human subjects, the application must include quarterly enrollment targets across sites in the Statement of Work, and funded teams will establish recruitment milestones with USAMRAA; continued support can depend on meeting those milestones. Clinical trial teams must also post the informed consent form used for enrollment on a publicly available federal website as required by federal rules.

Finally, the announcement provides specific expectations for proposals using Department of Defense or Department of Veterans Affairs resources. If a project requires access to active duty populations or DoD databases/resources, the application must describe how access will be obtained and maintained, and it should include a confirming letter of support signed by the appropriate approving authority. Similar requirements apply for VA populations and resources, including letters from VA facility leadership (or designees such as the ACOS for Research and Development). The announcement also flags practical constraints: certain DoD or VA populations and databases may only be accessible through collaboration with DoD or VA investigators who can legitimately access those resources, and if access is not confirmed, the government can withdraw or revoke funding until access is demonstrated.

• The Department of Defense, Dept. of the Army -- USAMRAA in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "DoD Prostate Cancer, Health Disparity Research Award" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.420.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 03, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 18, 2019. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 4 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for W81XWH 19 PCRP HDRA

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