DoD Breast Cancer, Innovator Award | W81XWH 18 BCRP INNOV

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 18 BCRP INNOV

The DoD Breast Cancer, Innovator Award (Funding Opportunity Number W81XWH-18-BCRP-INNOV) is a Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) funding mechanism designed to back a person more than a single, tightly defined project. Its purpose is to identify and empower unusually creative, high-impact leaders who have a track record of challenging conventional thinking and producing work that shifts the direction of a field. While the research must ultimately be focused on breast cancer, the program is explicitly looking for investigators whose ideas are bold, unconventional, and potentially transformative, even if they come with higher scientific risk. The underlying goal is to accelerate progress toward ending breast cancer by giving exceptional innovators the resources and flexibility to pursue their most visionary concepts.

A central theme of this opportunity is that the Principal Investigator (PI) is the primary asset being evaluated. Reviewers are meant to assess the PI as a paradigm-shifting innovator: someone established in their discipline, recognized for changing how people think or act in research or patient care, and able to articulate a forward-looking vision that goes beyond current dogma. The award is intended for rare individuals who not only produce creative ideas, but also demonstrate the leadership needed to build momentum around those ideas through partnerships, collaborations, and team science. The expectation is that the PI can assemble and lead a research team with the right expertise to execute ambitious goals, while keeping the broader mission of meaningful breast cancer impact at the center.

The opportunity welcomes applicants from any field, including those without prior breast cancer research experience, as long as the proposed work is clearly centered on breast cancer. In fact, the solicitation encourages people from other disciplines to bring fresh concepts, methods, and perspectives into breast cancer research. At the same time, the PI must demonstrate a serious commitment to the breast cancer focus during the award period by devoting at least 50 percent of their full-time professional effort to breast cancer research. That effort can be met through a combination of this award and other active support, but the requirement signals that the PI is expected to prioritize breast cancer as a major component of their professional work during the funded term.

Another defining requirement is the emphasis on community and patient-relevant perspective through formal involvement of breast cancer consumer advocates. The PI’s research team must include two or more consumer advocates who are breast cancer survivors (individuals diagnosed with breast cancer) and who are actively engaged in a breast cancer advocacy organization. These advocates must serve as lay representatives whose role is independent of their employment, and they cannot be employees of any organization participating in the application. The intent is to ensure objective, real-world input on the research direction and the likely impact for people living with breast cancer or at risk for the disease. The solicitation also notes that advocates should be knowledgeable about current breast cancer issues and have sufficient background or training to contribute meaningfully to the research discussion, not merely provide symbolic participation.

In addition to supporting senior, visionary leadership, the Innovator Award also builds in a workforce-development element by requiring mentoring of promising junior investigators. This requirement is meant to spread innovative thinking and help cultivate the next generation of researchers who can generate novel ideas and push the field forward. In practice, this means applications should describe how the PI will guide and develop early-career scientists in ways that meaningfully contribute to the innovative aims of the program.

From an eligibility and administrative standpoint, the opportunity is listed as discretionary funding, using either a cooperative agreement or a grant as the instrument type, under the Department of Defense (Department of the Army, USAMRAA). The CFDA number associated with the program is 12.420. Eligibility is described as unrestricted (open to any type of entity), subject to any additional eligibility clarifications that may appear in the full announcement. The solicitation indicates an expected number of awards of one. The listing shows an award ceiling of 0, which typically indicates that the ceiling is not specified in the summary field and would need to be confirmed in the full funding announcement or associated program documents. The opportunity record provided indicates a creation date of March 27, 2018, and an original closing date of August 14, 2018.

Finally, the proposed research must be relevant not only in a general public health sense but specifically to active duty Service members, Veterans, military beneficiaries, and/or the broader American public. This relevance requirement reflects the DoD context of the program and its interest in ensuring that supported research can plausibly contribute to outcomes that matter for military-connected populations as well as civilians. Overall, the Innovator Award is positioned as a rare, prestige-style research investment: it seeks to fund an established, highly original leader with the freedom to pursue bold, high-risk ideas in breast cancer, grounded in collaboration, meaningful patient-advocate engagement, and mentorship of junior talent.

• 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 Mar 27, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 14, 2018. (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 W81XWH 18 BCRP INNOV

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