DoD Breast Cancer, Innovator Award | HT9425 23 BCRP INNOV

Opportunity Information: Apply for HT9425 23 BCRP INNOV

The Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) Innovator Award is designed to back unusually creative, high-impact leaders whose ideas could meaningfully accelerate progress toward ending breast cancer. Unlike many research grants that primarily evaluate a specific project plan, this opportunity is centered on the person leading the work. The main question the program is trying to answer is whether the Principal Investigator (PI) is the kind of rare, paradigm-shifting thinker who has already shown the ability to challenge entrenched assumptions, change how a field operates, and keep generating bold new concepts that can open up entirely different ways of approaching breast cancer.

This award targets established investigators with a strong track record of innovation and leadership, including the ability to build and guide effective partnerships and collaborations. The expectation is that the PI can clearly communicate a forward-looking vision for ending breast cancer that goes beyond conventional approaches and standard dogma. The program explicitly encourages high-risk, novel, and potentially transformative ideas, giving the PI both funding and flexibility to pursue work that might be too unconventional for more traditional mechanisms.

A notable feature is that prior experience in breast cancer research is not required, as long as the proposed focus is on breast cancer. This is meant to attract innovators from other disciplines who can bring fresh methods, technologies, or conceptual frameworks into breast cancer research and care. Even so, the PI must commit at least 15 percent level of effort during the award period specifically to conduct breast cancer research under this mechanism, and must assemble a research team with the expertise and collaborative capacity needed to execute the vision.

The program also builds in a workforce-development and idea-generation component by requiring applicants to incorporate mentoring of promising junior investigators. In other words, the award is not only about what the PI will pursue, but also about how they will cultivate emerging talent and help create an environment where new, unconventional ideas can develop.

Another central requirement is meaningful consumer advocacy involvement. The PI's research team must include two or more breast cancer consumer advocates who are breast cancer survivors and actively engaged with a breast cancer advocacy organization. These advocates must serve independently of their employment and cannot be employees of any organization participating in the application. They are expected to have strong awareness of current breast cancer issues and enough background and/or training in breast cancer research to provide informed, objective input. Their role is to help ground the work in patient realities and priorities, and to weigh in on the likely impact of the research for people who have breast cancer or are at risk.

Administratively, this opportunity was offered by the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA). The funding opportunity number is HT9425 23 BCRP INNOV. It falls under CFDA 12.420 and supports science and technology research and development through either a grant or a cooperative agreement. Eligibility is described as unrestricted (open to any type of entity), subject to any additional eligibility clarifications in the full announcement. The posting date was February 6, 2023, with an original closing date of June 28, 2023. The announcement listed an expectation of one award, and the award ceiling was shown as 0 in the source data (which typically indicates the ceiling was not specified in that field and would need to be confirmed in the full funding announcement or program guidance).

• 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 Breast Cancer, Innovator 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 Feb 06, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 28, 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 1 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 BCRP INNOV

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: