DoD Kidney Cancer, Idea Development Award | W81XWH 19 KCRP IDA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 19 KCRP IDA

The DoD Kidney Cancer Research Program (KCRP) FY19 Idea Development Award is a competitive research grant mechanism meant to push forward bold, scientifically grounded ideas that could meaningfully change the kidney cancer landscape. The program is explicitly geared toward projects that move the KCRP toward its long-term vision of eliminating kidney cancer, with a clear preference for work that tackles important bottlenecks in kidney cancer research or clinical care rather than producing small, incremental advances. While the award welcomes creativity and risk, it expects applicants to pair innovation with a strong scientific rationale, a testable hypothesis, and a realistic plan for how the work will be carried out and evaluated.

From a funding standpoint, the award supports projects with total direct costs up to $400,000 for the full period of performance. Across the entire FY19 Idea Development Award portfolio, the program anticipated allocating about $5.76 million to fund roughly nine awards, depending on federal funding availability and the strength of the applications received. Awards were planned to be made no later than September 30, 2020, and the funds associated with FY19 appropriations were expected to remain available for use until September 30, 2025. The Department of Defense can issue either a grant or a cooperative agreement under this announcement, and which instrument is used depends on how much substantial involvement the DoD anticipates having during the project (for example, collaboration or active participation would push it toward a cooperative agreement).

The opportunity is open to both Established Investigators (EIs) and Early Career Investigators (ECIs) serving as the Principal Investigator (PI), with the program signaling interest in funding at least one meritorious application led by an ECI. The ECI category is defined as an independent investigator who is less than 10 years from completion of a terminal degree (doctoral or medical), excluding time spent in medical residency or family medical leave; time spent in a postdoctoral fellowship does count toward the 10-year window, and postdoctoral fellows themselves are not eligible for ECI status. EIs, in contrast, are generally independent investigators at or above the assistant professor level (or equivalent) who are 10 years or more beyond their terminal degree and who can demonstrate kidney cancer expertise through publications and funding. For ECIs, the application must include a Career Guide and an ECI-specific Career Development Plan. The Career Guide must be at least an associate professor (or equivalent), must have a strong record of kidney cancer-related publications, patents, and/or funding, and must provide a formal letter of support describing their commitment to mentoring and guidance.

Scientifically, the award places heavy emphasis on the quality and credibility of the research approach. Applicants are expected to show deep understanding of kidney cancer biology and/or clinical challenges and to propose experimental strategies that are either genuinely novel or strongly justified by prior work. Reviewers will look for clear feasibility: well-defined methods, documented access to key resources, and a practical roadmap for achieving the project aims. Strong applications also anticipate what could go wrong by identifying potential pitfalls and offering alternative strategies. When appropriate, proposals must include a statistical analysis plan and a power analysis to justify the study design and sample sizes, which signals that even high-risk ideas must be framed with rigorous, defensible methodology.

Unlike some early-stage concept mechanisms, preliminary data are required for this award, but the preliminary results do not have to be generated directly in kidney cancer. The program allows preliminary support to come from kidney cancer-adjacent work, unpublished or published findings from the PI or collaborators, and/or relevant evidence from the scientific literature, as long as it supports the underlying rationale and feasibility of the proposed kidney cancer-focused project. Innovation is treated as a core review dimension: the program is looking for projects that introduce new paradigms, challenge prevailing assumptions, or reframe problems in ways that could produce outsized gains. High-risk, high-reward concepts are welcome, but only when the application makes a persuasive case that success would have a significant effect on research, patient care, and/or quality of life.

Impact is another central pillar. Projects should address a major unmet need or a central question in kidney cancer research or clinical practice and should be positioned to substantially advance at least one of the FY19 KCRP Areas of Emphasis (the announcement references these areas without listing them in the excerpt). The program also encourages alignment with the Congressionally mandated Metastatic Cancer Task Force recommendations, particularly ideas that could accelerate translational and clinical research for advanced and recurrent disease, as long as the work fits within the award limits and KCRP priorities.

The personnel plan is treated as more than a formality. The announcement makes it clear that having the right team is a decisive element, and applicants must demonstrate credible kidney cancer expertise either through the PI, the assembled research team, or documented collaborations. Collaborations should be substantiated rather than implied, typically through letters of support and clear descriptions of roles, access, and contributions. The effort level committed by the PI (and key personnel) must be appropriate to deliver the project as proposed, and for ECIs in particular, the application must also show institutional commitment beyond money, such as dedicated lab space, protected research time, and an environment that supports independence and growth.

The program also draws bright lines around compliance and allowable research activities. Clinical trials are not permitted under this mechanism, and the announcement uses a specific definition of a clinical trial as any study where human subjects are prospectively assigned to an intervention (including placebo or controls) to evaluate effects on health-related outcomes. Even without clinical trials, studies may still involve human specimens, human participants, or cadavers, and in those cases DoD requires an additional layer of regulatory oversight beyond the applicant institution. Any DoD-funded research involving human anatomical substances, human subjects, or human cadavers must be reviewed and approved by the USAMRMC Office of Research Protections, Human Research Protection Office (HRPO), before the research begins. Local IRB or ethics approval is not required at the time of application submission, but applicants should plan for HRPO review timelines, typically at least 2 to 3 months, and potentially longer for international research. If human subject recruitment is part of the project, the application must include quarterly enrollment targets across all sites in the Statement of Work, and awardees should expect recruitment milestones to be established and monitored as a condition of continued support.

If the project relies on Department of Defense or Department of Veterans Affairs populations, datasets, facilities, or other resources, applicants must describe access plans at submission and, in many cases, provide letters of support from appropriate authorizing officials. For DoD resources or active duty populations, the letter should be signed by the lowest-ranking official with approval authority. For VA-related access, confirmation typically needs to come from the VA Facility Director or their designee (such as the Associate Chief of Staff for Research and Development). The announcement also flags a practical constraint: certain DoD or VA resources may only be accessible through collaboration with a DoD or VA investigator who has a substantial role on the project, and if access is not adequately confirmed, the government can delay, withdraw, or revoke funding until access is demonstrated.

Animal research is allowed but carries its own compliance pathway. DoD-funded animal studies must be reviewed by the Animal Care and Use Review Office (ACURO) in addition to the institution's IACUC. As with human subjects oversight, IACUC approval is not required at application submission, but awardees should expect to provide protocols and supporting documents during the award process and to plan for ACURO review timelines (often 2 to 3 months) before animal work can begin.

Finally, the announcement underscores an expectation of sharing outcomes with the broader community. The CDMRP intends that data, results, and research resources produced through funded awards be made available to other researchers, advocates, and the public, consistent with guidance in the program's general application instructions. In practice, that means applicants should be prepared to think about how knowledge, datasets, tools, or other outputs will be disseminated in a way that helps accelerate progress beyond a single lab or institution.

• 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 Kidney Cancer, Idea Development 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 31, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Oct 01, 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 9 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 KCRP IDA

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