DoD Kidney Cancer, Clinical Research Nurse Development Award | W81XWH 20 KCRP CRNDA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 20 KCRP CRNDA

The DoD Kidney Cancer Clinical Research Nurse Development Award is a funding opportunity under the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) Kidney Cancer Research Program that is designed to strengthen the clinical research workforce by training nurses to specialize as clinical research nurses (CRNs) in kidney cancer. The program is built around the idea that CRNs are central to high-quality clinical trials because they help manage day-to-day trial operations while protecting patient safety and ensuring protocol integrity. Although the CRN field has grown and more training and certification options exist, the overall supply of nurses with deep clinical trial expertise remains limited, often because of gaps in accessible education, hands-on training opportunities, and financial support. This award aims to close those gaps by supporting a mentored, research-based training model that prepares nurses to take on advanced, long-term roles in kidney cancer clinical research.

A key feature of this mechanism is that applicants must propose both a kidney cancer-focused research project and a structured CRN development program (often described as a fellowship-style model). The research component is expected to have strong potential to move the field forward in a meaningful way, with an emphasis on work that could lead to breakthroughs or major advances rather than small, incremental steps. The application must clearly explain how CRN trainees will be directly involved in conducting and evaluating the kidney cancer clinical research effort, and the training plan needs to be detailed enough that reviewers can judge whether it will truly build competency across the clinical trial continuum. Preliminary data can be included and may strengthen feasibility, but it is not required; if preliminary data are provided, they are expected to come from the project leadership, and any key resources needed to carry out the work should be identified and backed up with documentation.

The award is structured around a formal partnership between two principal investigators who serve as the mentors for the trainee program. It requires a dual-PI model: a clinician (such as a physician or physician-scientist) acts as the Initiating PI and typically handles most administrative aspects of submission, while a CRN coordinator (or an equivalent clinical trial nursing leader) serves as the Partnering PI. Both PIs are expected to meaningfully co-develop the scientific project and the training plan, including the project narrative and statement of work. The clinician PI must be actively leading clinical trials and/or research, and the CRN coordinator must have at least two years of cancer or oncology clinical trial nursing experience. At least one of the two mentors must demonstrate kidney cancer clinical research experience. The two PIs do not have to be at the same institution, but the collaboration must be clearly established, and at least one PI must be located at the same institution as the prospective trainees.

Applications are judged heavily on mentorship strength and on whether the environment can support real-world, hands-on training. The mentors should show relevant expertise in kidney cancer and clinical trials through things like recent publications, active funding, and a clear commitment to developing trainees into independent, high-performing kidney cancer CRNs. A practical requirement is that trainees must have access to clinical trial patients and active trial activity so they can learn by doing, not just through coursework. The institutional setting also matters: the training site is expected to have an established track record in kidney cancer clinical trials and ongoing or soon-to-open kidney cancer studies with active patient recruitment during the project period. Competitive proposals describe how trainees will be integrated into a broader research culture through regular exposure to clinicians, scientists, research teams, seminars, and similar interdisciplinary experiences, and they also address what happens after training, such as plans to retain trainees or place them into collaborating institutions.

The career development plan is a central pillar of the application and must be kidney cancer-focused. Reviewers expect specifics about the anticipated trainees, how candidates will be identified or selected, what criteria will be used, and how the curriculum will unfold over the entire period of performance. The training model is expected to blend supervised experiential learning (for example, shadowing mentors, working with patients in clinical trial contexts, attending lab or team meetings, and learning relevant research techniques) with structured self-learning (such as conferences, seminars, journal clubs, and didactic training). The program can also include pathways to recognized credentials or certifications relevant to clinical research, and it should build practical competencies beyond bedside care, including regulatory and compliance literacy, data management, communication, networking, and even operational or budgeting skills that CRNs frequently need to manage trials effectively. A multidisciplinary approach is encouraged when appropriate, but applicants need to clearly explain how different disciplines fit together if included.

From a mission standpoint, proposed work must be relevant to active duty Service members, Veterans, military beneficiaries, and/or the broader American public. CDMRP also notes the Congressionally mandated Metastatic Cancer Task Force recommendations and encourages applicants to consider research ideas aligned with those recommendations, as long as the ideas fit within kidney cancer priorities and the limits of this mechanism.

On the funding and administrative side, awards are made as assistance agreements, which means the government is supporting a public-purpose research and training effort rather than buying a product or service for direct government use. Depending on the anticipated level of DoD involvement during the project, the award may be issued as a grant (minimal agency involvement) or a cooperative agreement (substantial agency involvement, such as collaboration or participation). For FY20, the anticipated maximum direct costs for the full project period were capped at $300,000. The program expected to commit roughly $0.96 million total to fund about two awards, with final funding dependent on federal availability and the scientific and programmatic merit of applications. Awards were expected to be made by September 30, 2021, and FY20 funds associated with resulting awards were expected to remain available for use until September 30, 2026.

The opportunity also highlights important compliance constraints for human-related research. Any DoD-funded work involving human subjects, human anatomical substances, or human cadavers must receive review and approval from the USAMRDC Office of Research Protections Human Research Protection Office (HRPO) before research can begin, in addition to local IRB or ethics review. Local IRB approval is not required at submission, but applicants should plan for HRPO timelines, which can take at least two to three months. For multi-institution projects, applicants must provide a plan for single IRB arrangements. Finally, while the award supports research and training connected to clinical trials, it does not pay for the actual costs of running a clinical trial; it may, however, support correlative studies associated with trials. If the project relies on access to DoD or VA populations, resources, or databases, the application must explain access and provide a plan for maintaining it throughout the project.

• 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 Kidney Cancer, Clinical Research Nurse 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 11, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Nov 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 KCRP CRNDA

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