DoD Breast Cancer, Distinguished Investigator Award | W81XWH 19 BCRP DIA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 19 BCRP DIA

The DoD Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) Distinguished Investigator Award is a highly selective funding opportunity designed for established, widely recognized scientific leaders who want to take on bold, unconventional ideas that could meaningfully speed up progress toward ending breast cancer. The program is not limited to traditional breast cancer researchers; it is intentionally built to attract exceptional investigators from any discipline, as long as the proposed work is clearly centered on breast cancer and has the potential to produce major advances. The Principal Investigator is expected to be a proven visionary with a strong record of groundbreaking contributions in their field, along with demonstrated ability to build and lead productive collaborations and partnerships. In other words, this mechanism is meant for researchers whose influence, creativity, and leadership are already well established, and who are positioned to tackle breast cancer with fresh, powerful approaches.

A defining requirement of the Distinguished Investigator Award is that the proposed research must represent a fundamental conceptual shift from the PI's existing body of work. The intent is to push investigators to move beyond incremental extensions of what they have already published and to pursue a new direction that reframes assumptions, introduces an original framework, or applies a distinctly different conceptual model to breast cancer. Simply switching focus from another cancer type to breast cancer, by itself, may not count as the kind of transformative shift the program is seeking. Projects that look like a continuation of the PI's prior research trajectory, or only modestly adjust existing methods and questions, are considered misaligned with the purpose of the award. At the same time, the program is open to high-risk, high-reward concepts and does not require extensive preliminary data, although proposals must still be scientifically rigorous and must include a clear, testable hypothesis supported by strong rationale.

Team composition is a major element of this award. The PI is expected to assemble a research team with the expertise needed to execute the vision and to ensure the project has credible breast cancer grounding. Investigators who do not already have breast cancer research experience are still eligible, but in those cases the application is expected to include at least one collaborator with breast cancer expertise to strengthen disease-specific relevance and feasibility. Beyond scientific collaborators, the award requires meaningful involvement of the breast cancer community: the research team must include two or more breast cancer consumer advocates. These advocates must be individuals diagnosed with breast cancer who are actively involved in a breast cancer advocacy organization, and they must serve as lay representatives whose participation is independent of their employment. They cannot be employees of any organization participating in the application. The opportunity emphasizes that these advocates should be knowledgeable about current breast cancer issues and have sufficient background or training in breast cancer research to contribute effectively. Their role is not symbolic; it is meant to provide objective, patient-centered input on the research direction, practicality, and potential real-world impact for people who have breast cancer or who are at risk.

The opportunity also carries a clear relevance requirement tied to military health. Proposed work must be pertinent to the healthcare needs of military Service members, Veterans, military beneficiaries, and/or the broader American public. In practice, this means the application should make a convincing case for why the research matters to these populations, whether through disease burden, unique exposures or risk factors, care delivery contexts, survivorship concerns, or other concrete connections to military and public health priorities.

Administratively, this is a Department of Defense funding opportunity managed by the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA) under the BCRP. The opportunity number is W81XWH 19 BCRP DIA and it is listed under CFDA 12.420, within the Science and Technology and other Research and Development category. The funding instrument type can be a grant or a cooperative agreement, and eligibility is described as unrestricted (open to any type of entity), subject to any additional eligibility language in the full announcement. The posting lists an expected number of awards of one, underscoring the prestige and competitiveness of the mechanism. The original timeline for the specific posting provided shows a creation date of January 22, 2019 and an original closing date of June 13, 2019.

• 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 Breast Cancer, Distinguished Investigator 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 Jan 22, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 13, 2019. (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 1 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 19 BCRP DIA

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