DoW Pancreatic Cancer Research Program, Idea Development Award

The Pancreatic Cancer Research Program Idea Development Award is a federal funding opportunity administered by the Defense Health Agency Contracting Activity through the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs as part of the Pancreatic Cancer Research Program. The funding opportunity supports innovative, high-risk and high-reward pancreatic cancer research projects that have the potential to generate impactful discoveries, major scientific advancements, or entirely new avenues of investigation that could improve outcomes for individuals living with pancreatic cancer. Congress established the Pancreatic Cancer Research Program in 2020 to support scientifically rigorous and high-impact pancreatic cancer research, and appropriations through fiscal years 2020 through 2024 totaled approximately $66 million. The program vision is to reduce the burden of pancreatic cancer among Service Members, Veterans, their Families, and the American public. The mission emphasizes prevention, earlier diagnosis, improved therapeutic tools, and better outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients. The Idea Development Award specifically supports projects that align with at least one of the fiscal year 2026 focus areas. These focus areas include early detection research, identification and characterization of risk, supportive care and survivorship research, understanding metabolic disruptions such as diabetes and cachexia, tumor development and metastasis research, biomarker development for therapeutic response prediction, and new therapeutic targets and approaches. Applications must demonstrate innovation and cannot simply represent incremental advances on existing published work. The funding opportunity requires preliminary data relevant to the proposed project, although the preliminary data may originate from outside the pancreatic cancer field if the relevance is justified scientifically. The funding mechanism permits clinical research studies but explicitly prohibits clinical trials. Research teams are encouraged to include expertise in pancreatic cancer research and are also encouraged to include a biostatistician. Applications involving collaborations among academia, industry, the Department of War, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and other federal agencies are strongly encouraged. The funding opportunity provides support for both single principal investigator applications and a Partnering Principal Investigator Option for Early-Career Investigators. Independent investigators at any career level may apply as a single principal investigator. Under the partnering option, an experienced mentor investigator partners with an Early-Career Investigator who is no more than eight years from their first faculty appointment, excluding family medical leave periods. The mentor and Early-Career Investigator may be located at different institutions. The program intends this mechanism to promote career development in pancreatic cancer research while advancing innovative collaborative projects. The initiating principal investigator is responsible for most administrative submission activities, although both investigators must contribute substantially to the project. If funded, separate awards are issued to each participating organization. Funding details include an anticipated total program allocation of approximately $9.9 million to support around 12 awards. Single principal investigator applications may request up to $700,000 in total costs over a maximum three-year period of performance. Applications submitted through the Partnering Principal Investigator Option may request combined total costs up to $950,000 across both awards. Indirect costs are permitted in accordance with negotiated institutional rates. Allowable costs include travel for scientific meetings, collaboration activities, and participant reimbursement expenses related to clinical research studies. Clinical trial costs are specifically prohibited. Cost sharing is not required for eligibility. Awards are expected to be made no later than September 30, 2027, and the fiscal year 2026 funds expire for use on September 30, 2032. The submission process uses a two-step application structure. All applicants must first submit a pre-application through the Electronic Biomedical Research Application Portal. The pre-application requires a narrative describing the research idea, impact, innovation, personnel qualifications, and if applicable, the mentoring and researcher development components for Early-Career Investigator applications. Applicants invited to proceed must then submit a full application either through Grants.gov for extramural organizations or through eBRAP for intramural Department of War organizations. The full application package includes a detailed project narrative, supporting documentation, technical and lay abstracts, statement of work, impact statement, innovation statement, accomplishments statement, budget documentation, and several optional or conditional attachments depending on study design and investigator status. Animal studies require a separate animal research plan, and Partnering Principal Investigator applications require additional mentoring and eligibility documentation. Applications undergo a two-tier review process consisting of peer review followed by programmatic review. Peer review evaluates research strategy and feasibility, impact, innovation, statistical plans, and personnel qualifications. Additional evaluation criteria apply to Early-Career Investigator applications, including assessment of the researcher development plan and the investigator’s long-term career potential. Programmatic review considers peer review outcomes as well as alignment with program priorities, portfolio balance, impact, and innovation. Applications may be administratively withdrawn if they fail to address a fiscal year 2026 focus area, propose a clinical trial, exceed page limits, contain prohibited URLs, involve ineligible investigators, or duplicate submissions within the same fiscal year program. The funding opportunity announcement identifies several key deadlines. Pre-applications are due by July 7, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Invitations to submit full applications are expected by August 13, 2026. Full applications are due October 7, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, with the verification period ending October 13, 2026. Peer review is anticipated in December 2026 and programmatic review in January 2027. Applicants must maintain active registrations in SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and eBRAP before submission. Questions regarding application requirements may be directed to the eBRAP Help Desk at help@eBRAP.org or 301-682-5507, while Grants.gov technical assistance is available at support@grants.gov or 800-518-4726. The funding opportunity number for this program is HT942526PCARPIDA.

Applications should strongly emphasize innovation beyond incremental advances, provide compelling preliminary data, clearly align with at least one FY26 PCARP Focus Area, include rigorous statistical and reproducibility plans, and demonstrate pancreatic cancer expertise within the research team.