DoD Rare Cancers, Resource and Community Development Award | W81XWH 20 RCRP RCDA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 20 RCRP RCDA

The Department of Defense Rare Cancers, Resource and Community Development Award (FY20 RCRP RCDA; Funding Opportunity Number W81XWH 20 RCRP RCDA) is a discretionary research and development funding opportunity run through the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA). It is designed to strengthen the rare cancers research landscape by building and expanding shared resources and community-facing infrastructure that can accelerate discoveries and, ultimately, improve outcomes for people affected by rare cancers. Rather than focusing narrowly on a single laboratory project or one disease subtype, the emphasis is on creating broadly useful platforms and tools that help the entire rare cancers ecosystem work faster and more collaboratively.

The core problem the program is trying to address is that rare cancers are often underserved because the patient populations are small, research efforts are fragmented, and critical information and materials are hard to find or hard to share. The opportunity description highlights several persistent gaps: weak communication and dissemination of research and clinical findings within rare cancer communities; an overall shortage of therapeutics and the mechanistic studies needed to guide therapy development; limited access to research and clinical resources such as patient tissues and biospecimens, cell lines, and tumor models; and insufficient infrastructure for sharing data and other resources across institutions and stakeholder groups. The RCDA is meant to directly reduce those bottlenecks by funding efforts that make it easier to locate, access, and use rare cancer knowledge and assets.

A central goal of the award is to develop platforms that can share resources and knowledge relevant to rare cancers, including information on available experimental models, molecular pathways implicated in disease, and therapeutic approaches under investigation or in use. In practice, this can include resource hubs, coordinated repositories, registries, data-sharing systems, or other community-oriented mechanisms that enable researchers, clinicians, and patient communities to connect to high-quality materials and up-to-date insights. The opportunity explicitly frames collaboration and information sharing as key outcomes, encouraging projects that link stakeholders who do not always operate in the same spaces, such as researchers, patients, caregivers, clinicians, and broader community members.

From an administrative standpoint, the program allows funding through either grants or cooperative agreements, signaling that some awards may involve more active federal involvement in project coordination and deliverables depending on the mechanism used. It falls under Science and Technology and other Research and Development, with CFDA number 12.420. Eligibility is described as unrestricted (open to any entity type), with the caveat that applicants should still check any additional eligibility language provided in the full announcement text. The funding opportunity was created on August 13, 2020, with an original closing date of November 30, 2020, and it anticipated making about two awards. The listed award ceiling is shown as 0 in the source data, which typically indicates that the ceiling was not captured in that field or was specified elsewhere in the full announcement rather than implying that no funding was available.

Overall, this award opportunity is best understood as infrastructure and capacity-building support for the rare cancers field. It prioritizes tangible, shareable resources and systems that improve coordination, speed up research translation, and make knowledge and materials more accessible across the rare cancers community, with the long-term aim of improving patient care and treatment options.

• 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 Rare Cancers, Resource and Community Development 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 Aug 13, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Nov 30, 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 RCRP RCDA

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