The Department of Defense (DoD) Lung Cancer Career Development Award for Early-Career Researchers

 The FY21 LCRP Career Development Award supports early-career, independent investigators to conduct impactful research under the mentorship of an experienced lung cancer researcher as an opportunity to obtain the funding, mentoring, and experience necessary for productive, independent careers at the forefront of lung cancer research. This award is intended to support impactful research projects with an emphasis on discovery.

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 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 and suffering from lung cancer.

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

Relevance to Military Health: The LCRP seeks to support research that is relevant to the healthcare needs of military Service members, Veterans, and their families. Relevance to military health will be considered in determining relevance to the mission of the DHP and FY21 LCRP during programmatic review. Investigators are strongly encouraged to consider the following characteristics as examples of how a project may demonstrate relevance to military health:

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

·         Collaboration with Department of Defense (DoD) or Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) investigators.

·         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.