DoD Kidney Cancer, Concept Award | W81XWH 22 KCRP CA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 22 KCRP CA

The DoD Kidney Cancer Research Program (KCRP) Concept Award is a Department of Defense funding opportunity meant to spark genuinely new directions in kidney cancer research. It is built for highly innovative, untested ideas that could open up entirely new avenues in the field, especially those that come from unexpected or serendipitous observations. The program is explicit that this mechanism is not for incremental extensions of an existing, well-developed project. Just as important, applicants are not allowed to include or even discuss preliminary data, which signals that reviewers are expected to weigh the strength of the concept, the logic behind it, and the potential impact rather than how far the work has already progressed.

The goal is to support high-risk, potentially high-reward studies that would be difficult to fund through more conventional mechanisms. A strong application should clearly explain what the novel idea is, why it is bold and different from current thinking, and how it would enhance overall knowledge of kidney cancer or launch a fresh investigative path. The award is framed as a starting point: the work funded under a Concept Award is expected to help generate the kind of early findings that could later serve as preliminary data for a larger follow-on proposal, whether within DoD programs or elsewhere.

Relevance to military and public health is a core requirement. Proposed research must be applicable to active-duty Service Members, Veterans, military beneficiaries, and/or the broader American public. The program also strongly encourages collaborations, particularly between military or Veteran institutions and non-military partners. The intent is to combine strengths such as unique patient populations, specialized infrastructure, and complementary expertise, with the broader goal of accelerating progress on questions that matter to the Warfighter, military families, and the public.

Applications are reviewed using a blinded process, meaning reviewers will not know the identities of the principal investigator, collaborators, or the organizations involved. This is designed to keep the focus on the idea, approach, and potential impact rather than reputation or institutional prestige. Applicants have to follow specific identity-blinding instructions in the full application guidelines to avoid inadvertently revealing who is behind the work.

From an administrative standpoint, awards under this announcement are issued as assistance agreements, which can be either grants or cooperative agreements. Which one is used depends on how much DoD involvement is expected during the project. If the government anticipates no substantial involvement, it will be a grant; if substantial involvement is anticipated (for example, collaboration, participation, or intervention during the research), it will be a cooperative agreement. The final determination, including the project start date and the exact award arrangement, is made during negotiations.

Funding levels are relatively small on purpose, matching the award's role as an early-stage test of a new concept. The anticipated maximum for direct costs over the full period of performance is $100,000. Program-wide, the DoD expected to allocate about $2.56 million to make roughly 16 awards, though funding ultimately depends on federal appropriations, application volume, and application quality as determined by scientific and programmatic review. Awards were expected to be made no later than September 30, 2023, and the FY22 funds anticipated for these awards were projected to remain available for use only through September 30, 2028, reflecting the normal time limits tied to the fiscal year of the appropriation.

There are also clear boundaries on what kinds of studies are permitted. Clinical trials are not allowed. Beyond that, the opportunity narrows the acceptable scope of human-related work: research involving human subjects or specimens must qualify as exempt under the relevant federal human subjects regulations or be eligible for expedited review. Exemption or expedited status is first determined by the applicant's Institutional Review Board (IRB). Projects that do not qualify for exempt status are subject to administrative withdrawal, which makes it critical that the proposed human-related methods fit the program's constraints from the beginning. While local IRB approval is not required at the time of application submission, any DoD-funded human research still must undergo additional Department of Defense review through the USAMRDC Office of Research Protections, Human Research Protection Office (HRPO), before the work can begin, and applicants are advised to plan for up to about three months for that process once complete documentation is submitted.

If the work involves animal research, there is a similar dual-layer oversight structure. Local Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) approval is not required at submission, but projects must be reviewed and approved by the USAMRDC Animal Care and Use Review Office (ACURO) in addition to local review before research begins, and applicants are told to expect a multi-month review timeline (often three to four months). The announcement also emphasizes rigor and reproducibility in preclinical designs, pointing applicants toward established best practices like randomization, blinding, sample-size estimation, and transparent data handling, and it specifically cites the ARRIVE 2.0 guidelines and related standards for reporting and study design.

Finally, the program highlights broader strategic alignment with efforts to speed progress for advanced and recurrent cancers. It references recommendations from a congressionally mandated Metastatic Cancer Task Force and encourages applicants to consider research ideas that respond to those recommendations, as long as the projects stay within the Concept Award rules and align with KCRP priorities. For applicants seeking to use Department of Defense or Department of Veterans Affairs resources, databases, or access to active-duty populations, the application must describe that access up front and include a plan to maintain it throughout the project, since feasibility and continued access are essential for successful execution under this mechanism.

• 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, Concept 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 11, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 14, 2022. (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 16 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.

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