DoD Breast Cancer, Innovator Award | W81XWH 22 BCRP INNOV

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 22 BCRP INNOV

The DoD Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) Innovator Award is a highly selective funding opportunity designed to back people rather than narrowly defined projects. Its purpose is to empower rare, exceptionally creative leaders who have already shown they can challenge the status quo, shift scientific or clinical paradigms, and open up entirely new ways of thinking. The award is built around the idea that major leaps in breast cancer progress often come from bold, high-risk concepts, and it aims to give an established visionary the resources and flexibility to pursue unconventional ideas that could accelerate the path to ending breast cancer.

A key feature of this opportunity is that prior breast cancer experience is not required. The program explicitly welcomes innovators from other disciplines who can bring novel concepts, tools, or frameworks into breast cancer research. Even so, the proposed work must be focused on breast cancer, and the Principal Investigator (PI) must commit 50 percent of their full-time effort during the award period to breast cancer research. That 50 percent commitment can be met by combining effort supported through this award with effort supported by other current funding, as long as the overall dedication to breast cancer research meets the requirement.

The PI is expected to be established in their field and to have a strong track record of leadership, including the ability to build and guide productive partnerships and collaborations. Rather than rewarding incremental advances, the application needs to communicate a clear vision for ending breast cancer that questions prevailing assumptions and demonstrates the PI's capacity to think beyond conventional approaches. In practical terms, the PI is also expected to assemble a research team with the expertise needed to pursue the goals, reflecting the collaborative nature of ambitious, boundary-pushing work.

The opportunity also places strong emphasis on developing future talent and ensuring the work remains grounded in patient and survivor perspectives. Applications must include mentoring of promising junior investigators to help spark new ideas and support the next generation of innovators. In addition, the PI's team must include at least two breast cancer consumer advocates. These advocates must be individuals diagnosed with breast cancer who are active in a breast cancer advocacy organization, and their advocacy role must be independent of their employment. They cannot be employees of any organization participating in the application. The program expects these advocates to have enough knowledge of current breast cancer issues and sufficient background or training in research to provide meaningful, objective input, especially around the relevance of the work and its potential impact for people living with breast cancer or those at increased risk.

Administratively, this opportunity is offered by the Department of Defense (Department of the Army, USAMRAA) under Funding Opportunity Number W81XWH 22 BCRP INNOV. It is categorized as discretionary research funding in the science and technology/research and development space (CFDA 12.420) and may be awarded as a grant or cooperative agreement. Eligibility is broadly described as unrestricted, meaning many entity types may apply, subject to any additional eligibility language in the full announcement. The posting lists an expected number of awards of one, highlighting how competitive and singular this mechanism is. The original opportunity cycle referenced was created March 16, 2022 with an original closing date of July 27, 2022, and the published award ceiling is listed as 0, which typically signals that applicants must rely on the detailed program announcement for actual budget limits and structure rather than that summary field.

• 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 Breast Cancer, Innovator 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 16, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 27, 2022. (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 1 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 22 BCRP INNOV

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