DOD Melanoma, Discovery Award | W81XWH 21 MRP DA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 21 MRP DA

The FY21 Department of Defense Melanoma Research Program (MRP) Discovery Award is designed to fund bold, early-stage melanoma studies that are intentionally high-risk but could pay off with major advances. The central aim is to support research that is clearly non-incremental and genuinely innovative, meaning it should generate new insights, fresh scientific paradigms, enabling technologies, or new applications that move the melanoma field in a direction it would not reach through routine, step-by-step progress. Projects are expected to tackle an important question for melanoma research and/or for the melanoma patient community, and the work should be positioned as groundwork that opens up new future lines of investigation rather than simply finishing the next chapter of an existing story.

A key expectation is that the proposed project is built around a well-formulated, testable hypothesis, backed by a solid scientific rationale and a credible study design. Unlike many other research grant mechanisms, preliminary data is not required for this award, which is meant to make room for truly new ideas that may not yet have extensive supporting datasets. Applicants are allowed to include preliminary results if they have them, but those data will be reviewed specifically in terms of whether they support the proposed aims, objectives, and hypothesis. Importantly, the program notes that presenting a large amount of preliminary data can be a signal that the project may be better suited for a different funding mechanism, since this award is meant to catalyze earlier, riskier concepts rather than fund well-developed work that is already strongly established.

Innovation is the defining feature of this opportunity, and the program is explicit about what does not qualify as innovative. Examples of non-innovative work include using standard, published in vitro assay panels simply to further characterize a model system, inserting already-known biomarkers into animal or clinical models without a genuinely new conceptual angle, proposing the next logical continuation of a prior project, or otherwise delivering only an incremental advance on existing published data. In other words, reviewers are looking for proposals that reframe a problem, introduce a new approach, or create a capability that could change how melanoma is studied, detected, prevented, or treated, rather than proposals that mostly extend what is already in the literature.

The intended outcome of the Discovery Award is the generation of robust preliminary data that can serve as a launchpad for later-stage efforts and follow-on grants. Applications will not be penalized for lacking preliminary data, and any data included will be evaluated on its relevance and support for the proposal rather than on volume. The opportunity also emphasizes that early career investigators are encouraged to serve as Principal Investigator, including postdoctoral fellows or equivalents, as long as the applying organization names them as the PI.

Administratively, the opportunity is offered by the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, through USAMRAA, under Funding Opportunity Number W81XWH 21 MRP DA. The funding instrument types include grants and cooperative agreements, and eligibility is broadly unrestricted (open to any entity type, subject to any clarifications in the full announcement). The CFDA number listed is 12.420. For this FY21 cycle, the posting indicates an expected number of awards around 10, with an original closing date of November 10, 2021. The award ceiling is listed as 0 in the source data, which typically means applicants must rely on the full solicitation details for budget caps or that the cap is not represented in the extracted fields.

• The Department of Defense, Dept. of the Army -- USAMRAA in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "DOD Melanoma, Discovery Award" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.420.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 18, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Nov 10, 2021. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for W81XWH 21 MRP DA

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