DoD Peer Reviewed Cancer, Translational Team Science Award | W81XWH 19 PRCRP TTSA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 19 PRCRP TTSA

The DoD Peer Reviewed Cancer, Translational Team Science Award (TTSA) under the FY19 Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program is designed to push promising cancer research closer to real-world clinical use by funding hypothesis-driven translational studies that are tied to a clinical trial. The emphasis is on projects that build directly on findings from prior clinical investigations and are positioned to inform a next-phase clinical trial or a future clinical application. While the mechanism can support clinical trial costs, the core intent is not simply to bankroll a trial. Instead, it is meant to fund a coordinated, multi-investigator clinical research effort that uses clinical evidence to answer key translational questions and move an intervention, strategy, or insight toward practical use in patient care.

A central theme of the award is advanced translation: proposals are expected to show a clear, two-way flow of information between clinical and basic science (or the reverse), demonstrating that the research plan is shaped by clinical trial observations and is structured to resolve clinically meaningful uncertainties. The funded work should tackle critical knowledge gaps that affect clinical outcomes, confirm and validate important results, expand on findings that could be game-changing, or rigorously investigate novel observations emerging from clinical settings. In other words, applicants are expected to use clinical data and clinical context as a foundation, then design a study that materially strengthens the evidence needed to justify or optimize the next clinical step.

For FY19, the program highlighted several Areas of Emphasis that are strongly encouraged (though not strictly required): interventions that improve quality of life for cancer patients and/or survivors, cancer prevention or early detection, and understanding metastatic disease in ways that improve outcomes. Projects outside these emphasis areas are still eligible, but they must make a persuasive case that, once translated into the clinic, the research will have lasting impact in the area being studied. This requirement effectively raises the bar for applications that fall outside the encouraged themes, since reviewers will expect a compelling clinical rationale and a clear line of sight to durable benefit.

The TTSA supports a range of study types and research materials, including work in animal models, studies involving human subjects, and research using human anatomical substances (such as tissue or biospecimens). It also allows the development or use of relevant preclinical models when those models are necessary to advance the translational objectives. At the same time, the program draws a boundary around what it is not trying to fund: it is not intended to support broadly exploratory, technology-driven efforts like high-throughput screening or large-scale sequencing as a primary activity, particularly when those activities are not tightly integrated into a translational, clinically anchored hypothesis and pathway to application.

Team science and collaboration are not optional features of this mechanism; they are structural requirements. Applications must include at least two and no more than three Principal Investigators who jointly lead a single overarching study, with each PI contributing distinct, necessary expertise. The collaboration is expected to be real and interdependent, meaning the project should be designed such that the success of the work relies on the complementary skills and active contributions of the team rather than parallel, loosely connected subprojects. The program also strongly encourages including at least one military or Department of Veterans Affairs investigator as an equal partner with meaningful intellectual and effort-based involvement. The solicitation is explicit that this person should not be added merely to gain access to military or VA populations; they should play a substantial role in shaping and executing the research. For the purposes of the award, military/VA investigators include active duty or reserve personnel, DoD civilians, individuals detailed to other agencies, and investigators based at VA research facilities.

Another defining requirement is relevance to military health. Proposed research must address at least one of the FY19 PRCRP Military Health Focus Areas and must be clearly relevant to active duty Service members, Veterans, and other military beneficiaries. This is not a minor framing exercise; applicants need to connect the cancer problem, the clinical context, and the anticipated benefit to military and veteran health needs in a credible way. The program points applicants to PRCRP and Military Health System and VA resources to help ground that relevance.

Impact expectations are high. The award is meant to support work with a realistic potential to meaningfully affect cancer research and/or patient care, and to accelerate the movement of ideas across the cancer continuum (prevention, detection, diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, and survivorship) into clinical application within at least one of the program topic areas. Consistent with that translational focus, preliminary evidence is required: clinical data must be included in the application and/or supported through citations to relevant prior work by the investigators that directly underpins the proposed study. This requirement signals that the TTSA is aimed at teams that already have a clinical signal or clinically grounded foundation and are ready to do the next, more definitive translational step.

Administratively, this FY19 opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number W81XWH 19 PRCRP TTSA) was offered by the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, USAMRAA, and used grant and cooperative agreement funding instruments under the Science and Technology and other R and D category (CFDA 12.420). Eligibility was described as unrestricted, meaning a wide range of organizations could apply subject to any specific limitations in the full announcement. The original application closing date was September 11, 2019, and the program anticipated making around eight awards. The posted award ceiling was listed as 0, which typically indicates that the specific maximum was not stated in that field and applicants would need to consult the full solicitation for budget constraints and expectations.

• 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 Peer Reviewed Cancer, Translational Team 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 Mar 21, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 11, 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 8 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 PRCRP TTSA

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