DoD Breast Cancer, Transformative Breast Cancer Consortium Award | HT9425 23 BCRP TBCCA

Opportunity Information: Apply for HT9425 23 BCRP TBCCA

The DoD Breast Cancer Transformative Breast Cancer Consortium Award (FY23) is a large, team-based funding opportunity from the Department of Defense (USAMRAA) intended to back ambitious, highly integrated collaborations that can meaningfully change the lives of people who have breast cancer and people at risk for it. The program is aimed at work that accelerates progress toward ending breast cancer by creating genuinely new ways of thinking about and solving major, field-wide problems. A key point baked into the announcement is that "transformative" is defined in terms of real-world impact on people, not improvements limited to research infrastructure, administrative systems, or healthcare delivery mechanics.

At its core, the award supports a consortium model where multiple project teams pursue different but tightly connected research projects under a single central hypothesis. The required structure is at least four and no more than five project teams. Each team has its own Principal Investigator, and the entire effort is led by a Consortium Director. To ensure the collaboration is truly multi-institutional rather than concentrated in one place, no more than two project teams may be based at the same institution. The expectation is not that teams simply run parallel projects; instead, every component has to be meaningfully integrated so the teams depend on each other scientifically and collectively drive toward answering the overarching question posed by the consortium.

The DoD is explicit that this mechanism is not meant to replicate or compete with other large collaborative cancer efforts (for example, NCI SPOREs), and it should not look like a bundle of loosely related subprojects assembled under one umbrella. Reviewers are being asked to look for something more synthetic and paradigm-shifting: a consortium that tackles fundamental, overarching problems in breast cancer in a way that could not realistically be accomplished by a single lab, a single institution, or a conventional program project structure. In addition to the main research program, the award also reserves funding for "seed projects" during the performance period. These seed projects are meant to let the consortium rapidly test brand-new, high-risk/high-reward ideas that emerge from the collaboration as the work unfolds, rather than locking the entire award into only what was proposed on day one.

Scientific scope is framed through the FY23 Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) Overarching Challenges and a broader concept called the "Breast Cancer Landscape," which the program uses to describe persistent barriers and unmet needs across the field. Applicants can choose to focus directly on one or more FY23 BCRP Overarching Challenges, or they can justify a different fundamental issue that still aligns with the mission of ending breast cancer. If they choose a different issue, it must be paired with at least one of the FY23 Overarching Challenges, effectively anchoring the work in the program's stated priorities. The research is expected to be truly innovative and "brand-new" in the sense of shifting paradigms, not simply extending existing approaches.

Another defining feature is the requirement for multidisciplinary, ecologic thinking. The announcement emphasizes bringing different disciplines together to look at "all aspects of the disease" and to integrate those perspectives into one coordinated plan. In practice, that means the consortium is expected to combine complementary viewpoints (for example, basic biology, computational approaches, clinical insight, population factors, environmental or behavioral dimensions, and other relevant domains) to attack the selected challenge(s) in a deep and comprehensive way. The plan should also intentionally cover questions tied to the central hypothesis that have not been adequately addressed before, rather than revisiting well-trodden lines of inquiry.

Integration is treated as a major review-critical element, not a box-checking exercise. Applications must explain, in detail, how the consortium will be integrated substantively across teams, beyond standard items like meeting schedules, a communication plan, an organizational chart, or naming a few cross-cutting personnel. The program wants a concrete description of shared workflows, interdependent methods, coordinated data or sample strategies, harmonized experimental or analytic pipelines, and other research processes that demonstrate the teams are operating as one scientific engine rather than independent units. Administrative and logistical integration matters too, but it is not sufficient by itself; the application must show how the science is designed to be synergistic and inseparable across the consortium.

The award also strongly encourages inclusion of breast cancer advocates alongside leading scientists and clinicians, reflecting the program's focus on outcomes that matter to people living with breast cancer or at increased risk. While the consortium may include phase 1 clinical trials and may collaborate with pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies when appropriate, a clinical trial is not required. Importantly, the announcement notes that the primary thrust of the application should not be a clinical trial, signaling that the mechanism is meant to drive transformative conceptual or mechanistic advances that can reshape the landscape, with clinical translation as a possible component rather than the sole centerpiece.

Administratively, this opportunity is listed as a discretionary DoD funding opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number: HT9425-23-BCRP-TBCCA; CFDA: 12.420) using grant and/or cooperative agreement instruments, and eligibility is described as unrestricted by entity type unless further limited in the detailed eligibility text. For FY23, the program anticipated making one award, and the original closing date was June 28, 2023. The announcement also clarifies the relationship to a separate, newly introduced FY23 Transformative Breast Cancer Consortium Development Award. That development mechanism is intended to help groups form a consortium framework and generate preliminary work for a future full consortium application, but it is not a prerequisite for applying to the main Transformative Breast Cancer Consortium Award. A practical restriction applies in FY23: an investigator may serve as Consortium Director on either the full consortium award application or the development award application, but not both.

• 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, Transformative Breast Cancer Consortium 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 Feb 06, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 28, 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 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.

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