DoD Pancreatic Cancer, Translational Research Partnership Award | W81XWH 20 PCARP TRPA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 20 PCARP TRPA

The DoD Pancreatic Cancer Translational Research Partnership Award (FY20 PCARP TRPA; Funding Opportunity Number W81XWH-20-PCARP-TRPA) is a Department of Defense funding opportunity administered through the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA) that is designed to speed the translation of promising pancreatic cancer discoveries into clinically relevant applications. Its central purpose is to build and support a true two-investigator partnership that joins a research scientist with a clinician investigator to tackle a specific pancreatic cancer problem in a way that would be difficult for either investigator to achieve alone. The mechanism emphasizes that the collaboration must be genuine and balanced, with clear evidence that both partners provided equal intellectual leadership in shaping the project, rather than one party playing a limited supporting role.

A defining requirement is the structure of the partnership itself. One partner must function as the research scientist and the other as the clinician investigator, and the project should rely on the distinct expertise each brings. The program strongly encourages multi-institutional and multidisciplinary teams, reflecting the reality that meaningful translational progress often requires access to different patient populations, technical platforms, and complementary scientific perspectives. At least one partner must bring direct expertise in pancreatic cancer research or pancreatic cancer patient care, while participation by experts from outside the pancreatic cancer field is encouraged when it adds needed skills or innovative approaches.

The award is explicitly focused on translation, meaning proposals must show a two-way flow of information between basic science and clinical practice. Competitive applications are expected to explain how clinical observations, patient data, or real-world care challenges inform the laboratory or analytic strategy, and how resulting findings will be positioned to feed back into clinically actionable next steps. The opportunity recognizes multiple translational pathways, including correlative studies that connect molecular or mechanistic findings to patient outcomes, and the development or use of annotated biorepositories that pair high-quality specimens with robust clinical information. Applicants are expected to describe how their study will leverage clinical data to close key knowledge gaps, validate pivotal discoveries, build on potentially transformative preliminary findings, or pursue novel clinical signals that deserve deeper investigation.

In terms of what the program will and will not support, it is not intended to fully fund large-scale clinical trials. However, it does allow and even anticipates translationally oriented human-focused work such as retrospective tissue analyses, correlative clinical studies, and small pilot clinical trials when those activities are tightly integrated with the overall translational plan. Importantly, a proposal where the clinician partner simply provides access to patient samples or facilitates recruitment without meaningful intellectual engagement does not align with the intent of the mechanism; the clinician must be a co-driver of the scientific strategy and interpretation, not merely a source of materials.

Applications are also expected to make a clear case for impact and feasibility. On impact, the research should plausibly advance pancreatic cancer research and/or patient care and should accelerate progress toward practical applications across the continuum, including prevention, diagnosis, detection, prognosis, treatment, and survivorship. On feasibility, investigators must demonstrate access to the necessary specimens, datasets, and/or clinical interventions required to complete the work as proposed. Another key requirement is preliminary data: the opportunity requires unpublished results that are relevant to pancreatic cancer and directly support the proposed project, coming from the laboratories of the principal investigators or named collaborators.

Administratively, this opportunity was listed under CFDA 12.420 within the Science and Technology and other Research and Development activity category, and it permitted multiple funding instrument types (grant or cooperative agreement). Eligibility was broadly described as unrestricted (open to any type of entity), subject to any additional clarifications in the full announcement. The posting indicates an expected two awards, with an original closing date of November 20, 2020, and a creation date of July 1, 2020.

• 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 Pancreatic 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 Jul 01, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Nov 20, 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 PCARP TRPA

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