DoD Kidney Cancer, Translational Research Partnership Award | W81XWH 22 KCRP TRPA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 22 KCRP TRPA

The DoD Kidney Cancer, Translational Research Partnership Award (FY22 KCRP TRPA) is a funding opportunity from the Department of Defense (USAMRAA/CDMRP) designed to push promising kidney cancer discoveries closer to real-world clinical use. Its core purpose is to speed up translation by requiring a true partnership between two independent, faculty-level investigators: one must be a clinician and the other a research scientist. The program is built around the idea that certain kidney cancer problems are better solved when clinical insight and laboratory or computational expertise are tightly integrated, rather than pursued in parallel by separate teams. Multi-institutional partnerships are encouraged, and collaborations that connect military or Veteran institutions with non-military partners are viewed as especially valuable because they can combine infrastructure, data resources, and access to unique patient populations relevant to Service Members, Veterans, and other beneficiaries.

A central expectation is that the collaboration is intellectually balanced and genuinely synergistic. Both principal investigators are expected to have had equal intellectual input into the project design, and the clinical partner cannot be relegated to a passive role such as only providing tissue samples or patient access. Instead, applications need to show an active, two-way exchange between the clinic and the lab, with ideas, findings, and decisions moving in both directions throughout the project. Translational research here is not treated as a simple "bench to bedside" pipeline; reviewers are looking for a reciprocal flow of information where clinical realities shape the basic science questions and basic science results loop back to inform clinically meaningful next steps.

Projects must tackle a clear, central kidney cancer question and should be positioned to make a meaningful impact on research and/or patient care. The opportunity is broad with respect to translational endpoints, covering prevention, diagnosis, detection, prognosis, treatment, and survivorship, but it explicitly does not allow clinical trials under this mechanism. That said, correlative studies tied to an ongoing or completed clinical trial can be supported, as long as the proposed team can document confirmed access to the relevant specimens and/or data at the time of application. The program also encourages bringing in experts from outside the kidney cancer field when that outside expertise strengthens innovation or accelerates translation.

Feasibility is a major emphasis. Applications must include preliminary data to support the hypothesis and approach, although those data do not have to come directly from kidney cancer studies if they credibly support the methods and underlying concept. The research idea itself can come from multiple sources, including laboratory findings, population-based research, or clinical observations and anecdotal patterns recognized through patient care. Regardless of origin, the end goal is a clinically relevant application that matters to military and public health, with a plan that convincingly shows how the partnership will translate the concept toward that use.

Operationally, the award requires two PIs with defined roles: an Initiating PI who handles most application administration and a Partnering PI who shares responsibility for the science and key application components (such as the project narrative and statement of work). If funded, each PI is named on an individual award within their organization, reinforcing the expectation of shared leadership rather than a subcontract-style arrangement. For multi-institution efforts, the application must spell out how the team will work together in practice, including planned communication routines, coordination of progress and results, and secure data transfer processes. Multi-institution applications also must include an intellectual property plan to address potential ownership or material transfer issues in advance, with the intent of removing barriers that could otherwise slow cooperation or delay translation.

In terms of funding and scale, the anticipated direct costs for the full period of performance are capped at $750,000. The program expected to allocate about $6.0 million total to fund roughly five awards. Awards were expected to be made no later than September 30, 2023, and the underlying FY22 funds were expected to remain available for use through September 30, 2028, reflecting the time-limited nature of federal fiscal year funding. The award instrument can be either a grant or a cooperative agreement; which one is used depends on whether substantial DoD involvement is anticipated during performance (for example, collaboration or intervention by the funding agency would push the mechanism toward a cooperative agreement).

Regulatory and compliance requirements are clearly flagged because many translational projects touch humans, human biospecimens, animals, or military and VA data systems. Any DoD-funded work involving human subjects, human anatomical substances, or cadavers must undergo DoD-level review and approval by the USAMRDC Human Research Protection Office (HRPO) in addition to local IRB or ethics review, with applicants advised to plan for up to about three months for HRPO review after submission of complete materials. Local IRB approval is not required at the time of application submission. If more than one institution is involved, applicants must provide a plan for a single IRB arrangement, identifying the lead institution responsible for the master protocol and consent and serving as the central regulatory point of contact. For animal research, a parallel DoD review is required through ACURO in addition to the local IACUC, with review timelines commonly estimated at three to four months. The announcement also underscores expectations for rigor and reproducibility in animal work, pointing applicants to widely used standards such as randomization, blinding, sample-size estimation, and the ARRIVE 2.0 guidelines.

Finally, the opportunity sits within broader DoD priorities around accelerating progress for advanced and metastatic cancers. Applicants are encouraged to consider recommendations from the congressionally mandated Metastatic Cancer Task Force, as long as proposed work stays within the award’s boundaries (notably, no clinical trials) and aligns with FY22 Kidney Cancer Research Program priorities. Overall, the award is aimed at funding teams that can prove they have the people, access, preliminary evidence, coordination plan, and translational strategy to move a kidney cancer concept meaningfully closer to clinical application through a true clinic-lab partnership.

• 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 Kidney Cancer, Translational Research Partnership 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 Apr 11, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Oct 06, 2022. (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 5 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.

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