Department of Defense Lung Cancer Research Career Development Grant

Preliminary data are not required. However, logical reasoning and a sound scientific rationale for the proposed research must be demonstrated.

Key elements of this award are as follows:

• Principal Investigator (PI): PIs must be research- or physician-scientists at an early stage of their independent research careers. PIs must be within 5 years of their first faculty appointment (or equivalent) and exhibit a strong desire to pursue a career in lung cancer research.

• Mentorship: The mentor must be an experienced lung cancer researcher as demonstrated by a strong record of funding and publications in lung cancer research. In addition, the mentor must demonstrate a commitment to developing the PI’s career in lung cancer research.

• Career Development: A Career Development Plan is required and should be prepared with appropriate guidance from the mentor. A clearly articulated strategy for acquiring the necessary skills, competence, and expertise to have a career at the forefront of lung cancer research should be included. The plan should outline how the PI will gain experience in lung cancer research. Because career development is the focus of this award, the PI’s institution must demonstrate a commitment to the PI through a minimum of 40% protected time for the lung cancer research, though more protected time is highly desirable.

• Impact: Research that has high potential impact may lead to major advancements and significantly accelerate progress toward eradicating deaths from lung cancer.

• Relevance to Military Beneficiaries: The application should clearly articulate how the proposed research is relevant to Service members, Veterans, and their families.

The anticipated direct costs budgeted for the entire period of performance for an FY17 LCRP Career Development Award will not exceed $250,000. Refer to Section II.D.5, Funding Restrictions, for detailed funding information.

Military Relevance: The LCRP seeks to support research that is relevant to the healthcare needs of military Service members, Veterans, and their families. Military relevance will be considered in determining relevance to the mission of the DHP and FY17 LCRP during programmatic review. Investigators are strongly encouraged to consider the following characteristics as examples of how a project may demonstrate military relevance:

• Use of military or Veteran populations, biospecimens, data/databases, or programs in the
proposed research.

• Collaboration with Department of Defense (DoD) or VA investigators.

• Involvement of military consultants (Army, Air Force) or specialty leaders (Navy, Marine Corps) to the Surgeons General in a relevant specialty area.

• Description of how the knowledge, information, products, or technologies gained from the proposed research could be implemented in a dual-use capacity to address a military need that also benefits the civilian population.

• Explanation of how the project addresses an aspect of lung cancer that has direct relevance to military Service members, Veterans, or other military health system beneficiaries, including environmental exposures other than tobacco.

Use of Active Duty Military and VA Populations: If the proposed research plan involves access to active duty military and/or VA patient populations or resources, the PI is responsible for establishing and demonstrating such access. If possible, access to target active duty military and/or VA patient populations/resources should be confirmed at the time of application submission by inclusion of a letter of support, signed by the lowest ranking person with approval authority, for studies involving active duty military Service members, Veterans, military and/or VA-controlled study materials, and military and/or VA databases. If access cannot be confirmed at the time of application submission, the Government reserves the right to withhold or revoke funding until the applicant has demonstrated support for and access to the relevant population(s) and/or resources. Note that access to a Veteran population for clinical studies may only be obtained by either collaboration with a VA investigator where the VA investigator has a substantial role in the research or by advertising to the general public.