DoD Melanoma Technology Development Partnership Award by Department of Defense

With the Technology Development Partnership Award (TDPA), the FY20 MRP encourages investigations into emerging technologies to assist in the detection, diagnosis, prognosis, and ultimately treatment of melanoma. The intent of the TDPA is to foster collaboration between biomedical sciences and physical sciences (e.g., bioengineering, computational science, imaging science, and bioinformatics) and spur progress in the development of computational approaches, bioinformatics, devices, or knowledge based products or outcomes, etc. A “Knowledge Product” is a non-materiel product that addresses an identified need in a melanoma, is based on current evidence and research, aims to transition into medical practice, training, tools, or to support materiel solutions (systems to develop, acquire, provide, and sustain medical solutions and capabilities), and educates or impacts behavior throughout the continuum of care, including primary prevention of negative outcomes.

The TDPA is a partnership award with an Initiating Principal Investigator (PI) and a Partnering PI. One PI must be from the biomedical sciences and one PI must be from the physical sciences. The TDPA encourages a cross-disciplinary approach to address research or patient outcome gaps in diagnostics, high risk markers, tumor dormancy, and tumor spread. It should be clear that the project will require both PIs and the project will benefit from each discipline’s perspective. Applications should apply a convergent methodology where a physical science approach lends support and enhancement to the understanding of melanoma initiation and progression. The project must clearly respond to the FY20 MRP Challenge Statement. The PI identified as the Initiating PI will be responsible for the majority of the administrative tasks associated with application submission. Both PIs should contribute significantly to the development of the proposed research project, including the Project Narrative, Statement of Work (SOW), and other required components. If recommended for funding, each PI will be named to an individual award within the recipient organization. For individual submission requirements for the Initiating and Partnering PI, refer to Section II.D.2, Content and Form of the Application Submission. The TDPA requires applicants to study one focus area within the melanoma field: bioengineering approaches to address diagnostics, high risk markers, dormancy, and metastasis.