DoD Lung Cancer Idea Development Grant

New Investigators: The FY17 Idea Development Award mechanism encourages applications from independent investigators in the early stages of their careers (i.e., within 10 years of their first faculty appointment, or equivalent). The New Investigator category is designed to allow applicants early in their faculty appointments to compete for funding separately from established investigators. Applications from New Investigators and Established Investigators will be peer and programmatically reviewed separately. Principal Investigators (PIs) using the New Investigator category are strongly encouraged to strengthen their applications by collaborating with investigators experienced in lung cancer research and/or possessing other relevant expertise. It is the responsibility of the applicant to describe how the included collaboration will augment the PI’s expertise to best address the research question. All applicants for the New Investigator category must meet specific eligibility criteria as described in Section II.C, Eligibility
Information.

Preliminary data to support the feasibility of the research hypotheses and research approaches are required; however, these data do not necessarily need to be derived from studies of lung cancer.

Key elements of this award are as follows:

• Innovation: Research deemed innovative may introduce a new paradigm, challenge current paradigms, look at existing problems from new perspectives, or exhibit other uniquely creative qualities.

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

It is the responsibility of the PI to clearly and explicitly articulate the project’s innovation and its potential impact on lung cancer and its relevance to military beneficiaries. The project’s impact to both lung cancer research and to lung cancer patients should be articulated, even if clinical impact is not an immediate outcome. Applications that demonstrate exceptional scientific merit but lack innovation and high potential impact do not meet the intent of the Idea Development Award.

The anticipated direct costs budgeted for the entire period of performance for an FY17 LCRP Idea Development Award will not exceed $350,000. 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.