Department of Defense Rare Cancers Idea Development Grant

The FY23 RCRP Idea Development Award promotes new ideas that are still in the early stages of development and have the potential to yield impactful data and new avenues of investigation. This award supports research supported by preliminary data that could lead to critical discoveries or major advancements that will accelerate progress toward eradicating deaths and suffering from rare cancers. Applications should include a well-formulated, testable hypothesis based on strong scientific rationale.

Preliminary data with disease-specific rationale (may include correlative studies to ongoing clinical research) 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 the proposed rare cancer type(s)/subtype(s) under study.

Key elements of the Idea Development Award are as follows:

• Impact: Research that has high potential impact may lead to major advancements and greatly improve outcomes for people with rare cancers.

• Research Idea: Although the proposed research must have direct relevance to rare cancers, the required preliminary data, which may include unpublished results from the laboratory of the Principal Investigator (PI), research team, or collaborators named on the application, or may be from outside the rare cancers research field. Research should also be based on a sound scientific rationale that is established through logical reasoning and critical review and analysis of the literature.

The application should clearly and explicitly articulate the project’s potential impact on rare cancers. Applications that demonstrate exceptional scientific merit but lack high potential impact do not meet the intent of the Idea Development Award.