DoD Lung Cancer, Clinical Translational Research Partnership Award | W81XWH 20 LCRP CTRPA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 20 LCRP CTRPA

The DoD Lung Cancer Clinical Translational Research Partnership Award (CTRPA), offered under the FY20 Lung Cancer Research Program (LCRP) by the Department of Defense (USAMRAA; CFDA 12.420), is designed to push promising lung cancer advances out of the lab and into real clinical use. The core idea is to fund a true clinician scientist partnership that can move faster and more effectively than either investigator working alone. Projects are expected to be strongly translational, centered on a pilot, proof-of-principle, or early phase clinical trial, with accompanying correlative science that helps explain why an intervention works, for whom, and under what biological conditions.

A defining requirement is that the application be led by two independent, faculty-level (or equivalent) investigators functioning as genuine co-leaders: one must be a research scientist and the other must be a clinician. The program places heavy emphasis on equal intellectual contribution, meaning both partners should clearly shape the hypothesis, trial strategy, endpoints, and interpretation plan. This is not intended for situations where the clinician simply provides access to patients or supplies biospecimens while the scientist drives the study; that kind of arrangement is explicitly described as outside the intent of the mechanism. Multi-institutional teams are welcomed but not mandatory, and at least one member of the partnership must already have experience in lung cancer research or lung cancer patient care, reinforcing that the team needs real domain grounding from the start.

The work supported by this award is expected to look like an early clinical translation package rather than exploratory basic research. The proposed clinical trial should be built on a well-developed rationale, supported by strong preliminary data, and presented with clear methodology and a realistic execution plan. Correlative studies should be integrated and purposeful, aimed at extracting interpretable biological or clinical insights from the trial (for example, biomarkers, response predictors, or mechanistic signals tied to outcomes). If applicants propose additional preclinical work alongside the clinical trial, they need to justify why it is necessary to inform the trial results or interpret the correlative science, rather than adding loosely related experiments.

The opportunity also anticipates regulatory and operational realities for interventional clinical research. If the path to completing the work would ultimately require an FDA Investigational New Drug (IND) application and/or Investigational Device Exemption (IDE), the application must show that the team has access to the needed clinical reagents (such as therapeutic molecules or devices) and access to an appropriate patient population to run the study. In other words, feasibility is not optional; the program expects applicants to demonstrate that the trial can actually be launched and executed, not just envisioned.

A notable feature is the strong encouragement to include a consumer advocate as part of the research team. In this program, a consumer advocate is typically a lung cancer survivor or patient who is active in a lung cancer advocacy organization and participates as a lay representative focused on practical relevance and patient impact. The advocate is expected to contribute meaningfully across the project lifecycle, including shaping the research question, informing design decisions, supporting oversight and recruitment considerations, and helping evaluate whether the research is aligned with patient needs and real-world benefit. The intent is for patient perspective to function as a substantive input rather than a symbolic role.

Because the award is explicitly about partnership-driven translation, applications must lay out concrete plans for how the co-PIs and any participating institutions will work together day to day. This includes communication routines, coordination of research progress and decision-making, approaches to sharing and transferring data, and clarity around how results will be integrated across sites. For multi-institutional collaborations, the program further requires an intellectual property plan to address potential ownership and material-transfer issues upfront and to reduce institutional friction that could derail cooperation during the project.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number W81XWH-20-LCRP-CTRPA) is listed as a discretionary DoD funding announcement using cooperative agreement and grant mechanisms, open broadly to eligible applicant organizations (unrestricted eligibility subject to any additional conditions in the full announcement). The original posting dates for FY20 indicate a creation date of March 23, 2020, with an original closing date of August 3, 2020. The announcement anticipated a small number of awards (expected awards: 2), signaling a competitive program focused on highly credible, execution-ready clinical translational partnerships.

• 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 Lung Cancer, Clinical 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 Mar 23, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 03, 2020. (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 2 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 20 LCRP CTRPA

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