See all three awards and their program announcements

The FY23 Defense Appropriations Act provides funding for the Rare Cancers Research Program (RCRP to support research of exceptional scientific merit in the area of rare cancers research. The managing agent for the anticipated program announcements/funding opportunities is the CDMRP at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC).

Vision Statement: To greatly improve outcomes for people with rare cancers through discovery and community building, and expansion of knowledge across the cancer landscape.

Mission Statement: Elevate rare cancers research to catalyze knowledge-building and enable clinically impactful discoveries for the benefit of Service Members, their families, Veterans, and/or the American public.

• Biology and Etiology:  Identify disease-defining molecular pathways, cell context, and microenvironment
• Research Model:  Develop and validate rare tumor-specific models that can support clinical trial readiness
• Therapy:  Identify novel therapeutic strategies, including drug repurposing
• Platform Development:  Development of platforms (such as tumor tissue repository with clinical annotation, centralized databanks, patient registry with common data structure, research model and “Omics” database, and longitudinal studies of natural history and treatment response) for multiple rare cancers to allow sharing of data, bio-specimens, and resources.

Concept Award
LOI Due: July 14, 2023
Application Due: Aug. 25, 2023

Investigators at or above the level of postdoctoral fellow

• Supports high-risk/high-reward research that is in the earliest stages of idea development or an untested theory that addresses an important problem related to rare cancers. Proof-of-concept is the anticipated outcome.
• Reviewers will be blinded to the identity of the Principal Investigator, collaborators, and their organization(s).
• Submission must address at least one of the FY23 Focus Areas of Biology and Etiology, Research Model, and/or Therapy.
• Preliminary data are not required.
• Clinical trials are not allowed.
• Maximum funding of $100,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs) 
• Maximum period of performance is 2 years

Idea Development Award
Preproposal Due: June 26, 2023
Application Due: Sept. 29, 2023

Investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor

• Preproposal submission is required; application submission is by invitation only.
• Supports high-risk/high-reward research with the potential to yield impactful data in the rare cancer field.
• Preliminary data with disease-specific rationale (may include correlatives studies to ongoing clinical research) to support the feasibility of the research hypotheses and research approaches are required; however, these data may be derived from studies of the proposed rare cancer type(s)/subtype(s) under study. 
• Submission must address at least one of the FY23 Focus Areas of Biology and Etiology, Research Model, and/or Therapy.
• Clinical trials are not allowed.
• Maximum funding of $350,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs)
• Maximum period of performance is 3 years

Resource and Community Development Award
Preproposal Due: June 26, 2023
Application Due: Sept. 29, 2023

Investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor

• Preproposal submission is required; application submission is by invitation only.
• Emphasis on research resources development to facilitate collaboration and information sharing among stakeholders such as researchers, patients, family members, caregivers, clinicians, and other members of the rare cancers community. 
• Supports platform development or infrastructure that can be applied to multiple rare cancers.
• Preliminary data are not required but may be included (translational research and clinical studies may be included).
• Submission must address the Platform Development Focus Area.
• Clinical trials are not allowed.
• Maximum funding of $800,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs) 
• Maximum period of performance is 4 years

A pre-application is required and must be submitted through the electronic Biomedical Research Application Portal (eBRAP) at https://eBRAP.org prior to the pre-application deadline.  All applications must conform to the final funding opportunity announcements that are available for downloading from the Grants.gov website.  The application package containing the required forms for each award mechanism will also be found on Grants.gov.  A listing of all CDMRP and other USAMRDC extramural funding opportunities can be obtained on the Grants.gov website by performing a basic search using CFDA Number 12.420.