Pancreatic Cancer, Translational Research Partnership Award | HT9425 23 PCARP TRPA

Opportunity Information: Apply for HT9425 23 PCARP TRPA

The FY23 Pancreatic Cancer Research Program (PCARP) Translational Research Partnership Award is a Department of Defense funding opportunity designed to push promising pancreatic cancer ideas closer to real-world clinical use. The program is built around true team science: it funds projects where progress depends on a two-person partnership between a clinician investigator and a research scientist who are independent investigators and who share equal intellectual ownership of the project. The intent is to support work that would be difficult to accomplish if each investigator pursued the question separately, with a strong emphasis on projects that deliberately blend disciplines (often described as convergence science). At least one of the two partners must bring direct expertise in pancreatic cancer research or pancreatic cancer patient care, while bringing in experts from outside the pancreatic cancer field is viewed as a plus when it strengthens the approach.

A central requirement is that the collaboration must be genuinely translational and bidirectional. The application is expected to show a reciprocal flow of ideas, data, and interpretation between the clinic and the laboratory, rather than a one-way path where basic science simply hands something off to the clinic, or where the clinician is only involved to provide access to specimens or patients. Reviewers are looking for clear evidence that clinical realities (patient characteristics, outcomes, treatment responses, care workflows, unmet needs) will shape the research plan, and that research findings will, in turn, inform the next clinical steps. Translational activities can include correlative studies, use or development of annotated biorepositories, and analyses that connect clinical variables to biological mechanisms, with the broader goal of validating key findings, closing knowledge gaps, and generating results that can be moved forward toward clinical application.

In terms of what the award will and will not support, the program is not positioned as a mechanism to fully fund large-scale clinical trials. That said, it explicitly allows several clinically grounded study types that can be highly informative for translation, including retrospective tissue analyses, correlative studies linked to clinical data, and small pilot clinical trials. Applicants also have to demonstrate feasibility in practical terms, meaning they should show they have access to the needed specimens, datasets, patient populations, technologies, and/or interventions required to execute the work as proposed.

Preliminary data are mandatory. The program requires published or unpublished results from the applicants labs or named collaborators that are relevant to pancreatic cancer and the proposed project. Importantly, while the preliminary data must support the feasibility of the hypothesis and approach, the data do not have to come exclusively from pancreatic cancer studies. The announcement recognizes that strong translational ideas may originate in many ways, including laboratory discoveries, population-based observations, or patterns noticed firsthand by clinicians in day-to-day patient care, even when those early signals are anecdotal. The key is to use those observations as a credible launching point for a rigorous plan that moves an idea closer to use in patients.

Because this is a partnership award, the structure of the application and the execution plan matter. Two principal investigators are required: an Initiating PI who leads most submission and administrative tasks and a Partnering PI. If funded, each PI is named on an individual award within the recipient organization, reinforcing the expectation that both investigators are central to the work. The proposal must spell out how and why the combined expertise is essential, and it must include concrete plans for how the partners will interact during the project, including communication routines, coordination of progress and results, and secure data transfer. For multi-institution collaborations, the opportunity also requires an intellectual property plan to anticipate and resolve ownership and material transfer issues that could otherwise slow down or derail cooperation.

The program also reflects the DoD health mission and encourages projects with relevance to military and veteran communities. The stated translational goal is to advance concepts that can ultimately benefit active-duty Service Members, Veterans, other military beneficiaries, and the broader American public. Applicants are encouraged to consider recommendations from the congressionally mandated Metastatic Cancer Task Force, particularly ideas aimed at improving outcomes for advanced-stage or recurrent disease, as long as they fit within PCARP priorities and the boundaries of this award mechanism. Consistent with that mission, collaborations that bridge military or Veteran institutions and non-military organizations are strongly encouraged, since these partnerships can combine infrastructure, specialized expertise, and access to unique clinical populations to accelerate meaningful progress.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is listed as Funding Opportunity Number HT9425-23-PCARP-TRPA and is offered by the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, USAMRAA under CFDA 12.420. The mechanism is listed as a grant and/or cooperative agreement, eligibility is described as unrestricted (open to any entity type, subject to any additional eligibility language in the full announcement), and the program anticipated making around four awards. The original application closing date listed for this FY23 opportunity was October 5, 2023.

• 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 "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 Apr 17, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Oct 05, 2023. (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 4 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 HT9425 23 PCARP TRPA

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