DoD Prostate Cancer, Physician Research Award | W81XWH 20 PCRP PRA 2

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 20 PCRP PRA 2

The Department of Defense (DoD), through the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP), offered the FY20 Physician Research Award (PRA) to help physicians with real clinical workloads build lasting careers in prostate cancer research. The core idea is a mentored, career-building research experience where the physician is not just a trainee but serves as the Principal Investigator (PI) and is responsible for writing the application, with guidance from one or more experienced mentors. The program weighs two things equally: the strength and rigor of the proposed research project and the quality of the PI's career development plan, with the long-term goal of preparing physician-scientists to lead impactful work in basic science, population science, translational research, or clinical research related to prostate cancer.

Eligibility is tailored to physicians early in their academic trajectory who are balancing patient care with research ambitions. Applicants must have clinical duties and, by the submission deadline, be either in the final year of an accredited residency or fellowship program or within five years of starting a faculty appointment (including Instructor roles). Importantly, the program does not require prior prostate cancer research experience, but it does require the PI to show a clear commitment to becoming an investigator who will contribute at the leading edge of prostate cancer research and clinical practice. A major intent of the award is to protect the PI's time for research; applications are strongly encouraged to show that at least 40 percent of the physician's time will be protected for prostate cancer research. That protected effort does not need to be funded entirely by this award and can be spread across multiple prostate cancer projects, but the application should make it credible that the PI will truly have the time to execute the work and develop as a researcher.

Mentorship is not optional and is a defining feature of the mechanism. Each application must include at least one designated mentor with an established and active prostate cancer research program, supported by recent publications, current funding, and a track record of successful mentoring. Beyond credentials, the mentors must demonstrate a real commitment to advancing the PI's career. The award also recognizes that not every institution has every resource or mentoring strength in-house, so collaborations are explicitly allowed to fill gaps. If the project depends on resources at another institution, the program strongly encourages naming a co-mentor at that collaborating site to ensure day-to-day scientific support and access are reliable.

On the science side, the research approach must directly address one or more of the FY20 PCRP Overarching Challenges (the program's priority problem areas). Reviewers are looking for a well-reasoned scientific rationale, a thoughtful and detailed experimental or analytical plan, and a design that is clearly feasible within the proposed period of performance. Preliminary data can strengthen an application but is not required; if included, it should come from the PI, the mentor(s), or other members of the collaborating team and should tie directly to the proposed work. Applicants are also expected to identify key resources needed for success and back up access to those resources with documentation, such as letters of support.

A required component is an individualized researcher development plan that is built with mentor input and is specific to the PI's background and career goals. This plan should explain how the PI will gain the skills, expertise, and professional development needed to complete the project and move toward independence as a prostate cancer investigator. The application should also describe the research and mentoring environment in practical terms, including how the institution and collaborators will support training, methodology development, and career progression. If deficiencies exist locally, the program allows applicants to mitigate them through collaborations, which helps physician investigators assemble the right environment even if it is distributed across institutions.

Impact expectations are framed around the PCRP mission: eliminating death from prostate cancer and improving the well-being of Service members, Veterans, and all men and families affected by the disease. The proposed work must not only match an Overarching Challenge but also plausibly move the field toward meaningful solutions. To strengthen impact and credibility, the program encourages strong research hygiene and translational thinking, such as authenticating cell lines, using statistically rigorous designs for animal studies, and including experiments that test clinical relevance and potential for translation. Applicants are also pointed toward major program-aligned resources like the PCRP-funded Prostate Cancer Biorepository Network (PCBN) and the North Carolina to Louisiana Prostate Cancer Project (PCaP), especially when retrospectively collected biospecimens and linked data are important. If applicants plan to use these or similar resources, they are encouraged to include letters confirming access and availability. The opportunity also encourages studies that leverage large patient datasets, long-term health records, biospecimen repositories, and modern analytic approaches like genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, and mathematical modeling.

Human subjects research is allowed, but clinical trials are explicitly not allowed under this award. The opportunity draws a clear boundary: studies may include human subjects or specimens, and correlative studies connected to an existing clinical trial are particularly encouraged, but only if they are no greater than minimal risk and are strictly correlative rather than interventional. In other words, the mechanism supports clinical and translational research that learns from patients and existing trials, but it does not fund prospective assignment to interventions to measure outcomes. The program also notes the work of the Congressionally mandated Metastatic Cancer Task Force and encourages applicants to review and address those recommendations when appropriate and consistent with PCRP priorities and the no-clinical-trials limitation.

Funding and award structure are fairly specific. The anticipated maximum direct costs for the entire performance period are up to $750,000 per award. The program expected to allocate about $3.6 million total to fund roughly three awards, with final funding dependent on federal funds availability and the competitiveness of submitted applications based on scientific and programmatic review. Awards were expected to be made no later than September 30, 2021, and the funding was anticipated to come from FY20 appropriations, which were available for use for a limited period, with funds expiring for use on September 30, 2026. Awards are issued as assistance agreements, meaning they may be either a grant or a cooperative agreement. The deciding factor is whether the DoD anticipates substantial involvement during the project; if substantial involvement is expected (such as collaboration or participation in the research), a cooperative agreement is used, whereas projects with no substantial federal involvement are typically funded as grants.

The opportunity also emphasizes regulatory and compliance expectations that can affect timelines. DoD-funded work involving human subjects, human anatomical substances, or human cadavers requires review and approval by the USAMRDC Office of Research Protections, Human Research Protection Office (HRPO), in addition to local IRB or ethics committee review, and applicants are told to plan for an additional 2 to 3 months for HRPO review. Local IRB approval is not required at the time of application submission. For multi-institution human subjects studies, a plan for a single IRB arrangement must be provided during application submission or award negotiation, including identification of the lead institution responsible for the master protocol and consent. Similarly, animal research requires review by the Animal Care and Use Review Office (ACURO) in addition to the local IACUC, with an advised 3 to 4 month review window, and local IACUC approval is not required at submission. Across study types, the announcement underscores rigorous and reproducible study design and reporting, pointing applicants to widely accepted standards such as principles described by Landis et al. and the ARRIVE guidelines for in vivo animal research, with attention to practices like randomization, blinding, sample size estimation, and transparent data handling.

• 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, Physician 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 Oct 21, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jan 07, 2021. (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 3 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 20 PCRP PRA 2

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