DoD Prostate Cancer, Data Science Award | HT9425 23 PCRP DSA

Opportunity Information: Apply for HT9425 23 PCRP DSA

The FY23 DoD Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) Data Science Award is a research funding opportunity focused on using modern quantitative and analytical methods to extract new knowledge from large and/or complex prostate cancer datasets. The central idea is to support projects that either develop new data-science tools or apply existing computational approaches in ways that meaningfully advance prostate cancer research and patient care, specifically in alignment with one or more of the FY23 PCRP Overarching Challenges. A strong emphasis is placed on producing outcomes that can move the field forward in practical terms, not just academically, and on ensuring that tools, resources, and computational processes created through the award are made available for broad public use.

This mechanism is intentionally geared toward data-driven prostate cancer research grounded in disciplines such as computational biology, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, epidemiology, analysis of omics data (for example genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics), medical imaging, digital pathology, and analysis of other clinically annotated datasets. Applicants are allowed and encouraged to integrate multiple data types in a single study (for instance combining clinical records with imaging and molecular profiles) to generate deeper insights than any single dataset could provide alone. The program is particularly interested in projects that improve access to standardized and harmonized datasets and that could support real-time clinical care use cases. At the same time, the award is explicit that it cannot be used to create brand-new datasets; proposed analyses must rely on established, retrospective data sources. Projects leveraging data from large patient cohorts that include long-term health records and/or well-annotated, high-quality biospecimen repositories are viewed as strong fits.

From a study design standpoint, the award supports tool development and rigorous analytical work, with an expectation that investigators will think carefully about validation. While preliminary data is strongly encouraged to support feasibility and rationale, it is not mandatory; if provided, it should come from the PI or the collaborating team. Applications are expected to include plans for careful evaluation of performance and utility, such as benchmarking against existing methods, comparisons across datasets, validation on independent cohorts, or other robust assessments that demonstrate the approach is reliable and adds value. Any datasets used must be large enough to provide appropriate statistical and analytical power, and applicants must document access to the necessary datasets and/or patient samples in sufficient numbers to deliver credible results.

Several boundaries are clearly defined. Prospective recruitment of human subjects is not allowed, and clinical trials are not allowed. The program distinguishes observational clinical research (such as secondary analyses of patient data, diagnostic or detection studies that do not test an intervention, epidemiologic studies, outcomes and health services research) from clinical trials, which are defined as studies that prospectively assign human subjects to an intervention to evaluate outcomes. Projects must stay on the observational and retrospective side of that line. If the work involves human data, specimens, or interaction with human subjects in any non-exempt way, it will require both local IRB/Ethics Committee approval and a separate Department of Defense human research protection review through the USAMRDC Office of Human and Animal Research Oversight (OHARO) and the Office of Human Research Oversight (OHRO) before research can begin. Applicants are also expected to plan for the single-IRB requirement for non-exempt cooperative research conducted across multiple U.S. institutions.

Collaboration is a major theme of the opportunity. The funding announcement encourages meaningful partnerships, especially collaborations that bridge data science and clinical expertise, and it offers a formal Partnering Principal Investigator option that supports two PIs with distinct contributions. One PI serves as the Initiating PI responsible for most submission-related administration, while the Partnering PI contributes substantially to the project narrative, statement of work, and overall scientific plan. If funded, each PI is named on an individual award within the recipient organization. The program also strongly encourages collaborations between military or Veteran institutions and non-military institutions, highlighting the value of combining infrastructure, expertise, and access to unique clinical populations to produce findings relevant to Service members, military families, Veterans, and the broader public. Applicants are also pointed toward recommendations from the congressionally mandated Metastatic Cancer Task Force as a potential source of ideas, as long as proposed work fits the award scope and FY23 PCRP priorities.

On the funding side, the award is made as either a grant or a cooperative agreement, depending on how much substantial involvement the DoD anticipates during project performance (with cooperative agreements implying a more active federal role). The anticipated direct costs for the full period of performance should not exceed $1,000,000. Program leadership expected to allocate about $3.2 million total for this mechanism, with an anticipated two awards. Awards were expected to be made no later than September 30, 2024, and projects funded with FY23 dollars must operate within the federal availability window for those funds, which expire for use on September 30, 2029. Eligibility is described as unrestricted (open broadly to entity types), subject to any additional requirements in the full announcement.

A defining requirement of the Data Science Award is openness and sharing. The program expects that resources produced under the award, including tools and computational processes, will be openly shared with the prostate cancer research and patient community. Applications must include a data and resource sharing plan that explains how deliverables will be made accessible and how the tool or resource will be maintained or updated as new data from future studies become available. The overall expectation is that funded projects will not only produce publishable results, but will leave behind reusable, high-value tools or analytical frameworks that others can adopt, test, and build on to accelerate progress against key prostate cancer challenges.

• 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, Data Science 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 Apr 26, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 24, 2023. (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 2 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 HT9425 23 PCRP DSA

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