DoD Rare Cancers, Resource Community Development Award | HT942524RCRPRCDA

Opportunity Information: Apply for HT942524RCRPRCDA

The FY24 DoD Rare Cancers Research Program (RCRP) Resource and Community Development Award (RCDA) is a grant opportunity from the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA) that funds the creation or expansion of shared research resources and community-facing platforms aimed at improving outcomes for people with rare cancers. The program is designed to tackle persistent, practical barriers in rare cancer research and care, especially the fact that patients, clinicians, and researchers are often scattered across institutions and geographies, with limited ways to pool samples, data, and knowledge. Rather than supporting a single narrow research experiment, this mechanism prioritizes building infrastructure that makes many future studies faster, more feasible, and more collaborative.

The core purpose is to develop clinical or preclinical datasets and resource platforms that enable broad sharing of rare cancer assets such as biospecimens, models, molecular datasets, and other tools that are typically hard to obtain in rare indications. The opportunity highlights several common gaps it wants projects to address: weak communication and dissemination of rare cancer findings within communities; too few therapeutics and mechanistic studies to guide treatment development; insufficient access to high-quality research and clinical resources (like patient tissues, cell lines, tumor models); and a lack of infrastructure for sharing data and resources across groups. In practice, the DoD is looking for projects that create hubs or systems where stakeholders can find what exists, contribute what they have, and coordinate efforts so that rare cancer research is not constantly reinventing the wheel.

Projects can take many forms, but they should generally build toward one or more shared resources that can be accessed and used by the broader field. Examples explicitly encouraged include: building and sharing a rare tumor biospecimen repository with strong clinical annotation; creating global-accessible databases or banks that centralize patient registry data; centralizing and sharing research models and multi-omics molecular data (genomics, transcriptomics, immune profiling, proteomics, metabolomics, methylomics, and bioinformatics); developing a data, reagent, or model exchange program where researchers list shareable resources tagged to relevant indications; enabling or leveraging longitudinal studies that track natural history and treatment response over time; and developing new methods and systems for collecting, sharing, and analyzing data or biospecimens. The list is not meant to be limiting, but the emphasis stays on resources that are genuinely useful beyond the applicant institution and can support multiple downstream studies.

Applications are expected to be built on a clear scientific rationale and a thoughtful project design that explains why the proposed platform or community resource addresses an unmet need in rare cancers research. Reviewers will be looking for a strong explanation of what makes the approach better than standard or fragmented methods, and for a credible collaboration and data-sharing plan from the start. Another important theme is breadth of benefit: the DoD wants applicants to show how the final resource will help at least one rare cancer type or subtype, and it is encouraged (when feasible) to design platforms that can support multiple rare cancers rather than a single niche use case.

Several award features are emphasized as mandatory or central. Impact is a key requirement: the resource should be positioned to create long-term advantages that could materially improve outcomes for people with rare cancers, not just produce a one-time dataset with limited reuse. Patient advocate partnership is required, and it is not a token role. The research team must include at least two patient advocates from rare cancer advocacy organizations (or closely related support groups) who have been directly affected by a rare cancer as a patient or caregiver/family member. These advocates are expected to be involved early and continuously in shaping the research question, design, oversight, and evaluation, with ongoing integration into the work rather than only attending occasional meetings. Their contributions should focus on objective input about relevance, feasibility, and real-world impact for the rare cancer community, and they are expected to have a solid understanding of the current rare cancers research landscape.

Because this award is developmental and infrastructure-focused, preliminary data are not required, although they can be included if they help demonstrate feasibility. Even without preliminary results, applications must show logical reasoning grounded in existing knowledge and best practices. Human subjects research is allowed, but clinical trials are explicitly not supported under this mechanism; any clinical research must be non-trial in nature and should be used to build sharable platforms, clinical annotation datasets, processes, and/or infrastructure for data and tissue sharing. On the preclinical side, applied research is allowed, including work that uses or creates animal models, as long as it is oriented toward practical, translational value rather than purely basic science.

Community building, dissemination, and sustainment are treated as essential parts of the proposal, not optional add-ons. Applicants must include a plan for how they will build or strengthen the rare cancers stakeholder community around the resource, and they must justify why the community is necessary for developing and maintaining the platform over time. A dissemination plan is required to explain exactly how the finished platform will be made easily available to scientific and/or clinical communities and how it will function as an information-sharing network. A sustainment plan is also required and should explain how the resource will be maintained and expanded beyond the award period, including how less-studied rare cancers may be incorporated, how resources will be gathered and annotated in the long term, and what steps will be taken to keep the platform usable and relevant after initial funding ends.

The announcement also signals several areas of special interest and alignment. Applicants are encouraged to consider recommendations from the congressionally mandated Metastatic Cancer Task Force, as long as the proposed work fits the award’s scope and FY24 program priorities. Collaborations between military or Veteran institutions and non-military institutions are strongly encouraged to leverage unique populations, infrastructure, and expertise that can accelerate progress relevant to Service Members, military Families, and the broader public. The DoD also encourages innovative work involving nuclear medicine and related techniques that could improve early diagnosis, treatment effectiveness, and precision imaging or targeted therapies. In addition, proposals that address conditions affecting women uniquely, disproportionately, or differently than men are encouraged, including designs that analyze sex as a biological variable and tie expected findings to improved women’s health outcomes.

Finally, the opportunity emphasizes rigor and reproducibility expectations for both preclinical and clinical research. Applicants are expected to follow strong study design and reporting practices that support translation and repeatability, reflecting widely accepted standards such as randomization, blinding, sample-size estimation, and clear data handling procedures. In short, this RCDA is aimed at building the shared scaffolding rare cancer research often lacks: high-quality, well-annotated resources, connected stakeholder communities, and practical systems for sharing data, models, and insights at scale.

Key administrative details provided include: Opportunity number HT942524RCRPRCDA; CFDA 12.420; funding instrument is a grant; eligible applicants are unrestricted; agency is the Department of the Army (USAMRAA); original closing date was 2024-09-23; and the program anticipated making around 5 awards (award ceiling not listed in the provided text).

• The Dept. of the Army -- USAMRAA in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "DoD Rare Cancers, Resource Community Development 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 2024-04-19.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-09-23. (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.

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