DoD Prostate Cancer, Data Science Award | HT942524PCRPDSA

Opportunity Information: Apply for HT942524PCRPDSA

The FY24 DoD Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) Data Science Award is a grant opportunity from the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA) that funds prostate cancer research driven by quantitative and analytical methods applied to large and/or complex datasets. The core goal is to generate new knowledge and actionable insight from existing prostate cancer data in ways that directly advance one or more of the FY24 PCRP Overarching Challenges. A central expectation is that any tools, resources, algorithms, workflows, or computational processes produced through the award will be openly shared with the broader prostate cancer research and patient community, so that the impact extends beyond a single lab or institution.

Projects supported under this mechanism are explicitly data-science-centered and can be grounded in areas such as computational biology, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, epidemiology, -omics analyses, medical imaging, digital pathology, and the analysis of other clinically annotated datasets. Applicants can also propose integrative efforts that combine multiple data types (for example, linking clinical records with imaging, pathology, and genomic or transcriptomic data) to deepen understanding of prostate cancer and improve research or patient-care decision making. The program is particularly interested in resources or tools that improve access to standardized and harmonized datasets and enable real-time clinical care applications, but the award cannot be used to create new datasets. Instead, it is designed to leverage established, retrospective databases, including those tied to large patient studies, long-term health records, and repositories with high-quality, well-annotated biospecimens.

From a study design standpoint, applicants may either develop a new data-science tool or apply and extend existing methods to analyze large datasets with the intent of moving the field forward relative to the program challenges. Preliminary data are encouraged to strengthen feasibility and rationale, but they are not required, and any preliminary data included should come from the proposing principal investigator(s) or collaborators. Strong applications are expected to include rigorous plans for validation and performance assessment, such as benchmarking against existing approaches, comparison studies, and careful evaluation of tool quality and utility. The data used must be large enough to support appropriate statistical power, and applicants must document that they have access to the necessary datasets and/or samples in sufficient numbers to produce robust results.

A major review focus is impact: proposals must clearly explain how their analytical approach will provide a solution to at least one FY24 PCRP Overarching Challenge, why the expected outputs matter in both the near and long term, and how the work differs from or outperforms existing efforts in the same space. In addition, every application must include a Data and Resource Sharing Plan describing how resulting tools and computational processes will be made publicly available, and how the team anticipates incorporating new data generated by future studies to refine and improve the tool or method over time, consistent with CDMRP data and resource sharing expectations.

The opportunity also encourages team science through a Partnering PI option that allows two principal investigators with complementary expertise to apply together, including collaborations between data scientists and clinicians. Under this structure, one PI serves as the Initiating PI (handling most submission administration) and the other as the Partnering PI; if funded, each PI is named on a separate award with separate reporting and administrative requirements. The program additionally highlights interest in projects aligned with the Metastatic Cancer Task Force recommendations (as long as they fit the opportunity’s scope), and it encourages innovative nuclear medicine-related research that could support earlier diagnosis and more effective treatment, particularly in ways that improve outcomes for active-duty Service Members and their families. Applications from military investigators and multidisciplinary partnerships spanning academia, industry, the military, the VA, and other federal agencies are strongly encouraged, especially when collaborators provide unique infrastructure or access to distinct patient populations or databases; proposals relying on unique resources must describe access at submission and provide a plan to maintain it throughout the project.

There are clear limitations. Prospective recruitment of human subjects and clinical trials are not allowed. The program distinguishes observational clinical research (for example, diagnostic studies, biomarker work, health disparity analyses, epidemiology, outcomes and health services research that does not evaluate interventions) from clinical trials as defined under 45 CFR 46.102. In other words, the work can use human data and specimens in an observational framework, but it cannot prospectively assign participants to interventions to measure intervention outcomes. Projects are also expected to follow rigorous research design and reporting standards aimed at reproducibility and translational value, drawing on widely recognized best practices (randomization concepts where applicable, blinding when relevant, sample-size estimation, and careful data handling).

On funding and logistics, awards are made as grants (31 USC 6304). The anticipated budget is up to $1.0 million in direct costs for the entire period of performance. The DoD expects to allocate about $11.2 million total to fund roughly seven awards under this mechanism, contingent on federal funding availability and review outcomes. The original application closing date listed for this opportunity was August 30, 2024. Awards supported with FY24 funds are expected to be made no later than September 30, 2025, and FY24 funds are anticipated to remain available for use until they expire on September 30, 2030. Eligible applicants are listed as unrestricted, meaning the opportunity is broadly open rather than limited to a narrow applicant class.

• 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 Prostate Cancer, Data Science 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 2024-05-01.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-08-30. (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 7 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted.

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