DoD Kidney Cancer, Academy of Kidney Cancer Investigators – Early-Career Investigator Award | W81XWH 20 KCRP AKCIECIA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 20 KCRP AKCIECIA

The DoD Kidney Cancer Research Program (KCRP) Academy of Kidney Cancer Investigators - Early-Career Investigator Award (AKCI-ECIA) is a four-year funding and career development opportunity designed to build the next generation of independent kidney cancer research leaders. Instead of functioning like a typical career development grant that mainly supports an individual training plan at one institution, this award places early-career faculty into a structured, highly interactive virtual "academy" where they receive intensive mentoring, ongoing professional development, and sustained access to national networking and collaboration. The central purpose is to accelerate the transition of promising junior investigators into productive, well-connected kidney cancer researchers by combining research support with a guided mentorship and peer-learning environment.

A defining feature of this mechanism is the Academy model itself. Each applicant enters as an Early-Career Investigator (ECI) paired with a Designated Mentor, and the broader academy is overseen by an Academy Dean (selected previously, in FY19). The Dean functions as a program-wide resource who monitors progress, encourages communication across the cohort, and helps create opportunities for collaboration and engagement with the kidney cancer research and advocacy communities. The expectation is that ECIs will be active participants, not passive recipients of funding: they are required to join monthly webinars, attend workshops, communicate regularly with other ECIs and mentors, and contribute to a collaborative community that shares knowledge, professional experiences, and research insights.

The award supports kidney cancer research projects that can be basic, translational, and/or clinical in scope, with the ECI serving as the Principal Investigator on the application. Applicants must be truly early-career, and the program places strong emphasis on the candidate's commitment to a long-term career focused on kidney cancer. Although the academy provides a shared training and networking structure, the ECI and their Designated Mentor remain responsible for crafting the ECI's career development plan and for designing and executing the proposed research project. The program also explicitly encourages applications from investigators whose ability to pursue kidney cancer research has been constrained by limited resources or institutional gaps, such as difficulty identifying a qualified kidney cancer mentor locally, lack of access to key tools or datasets, limited collaboration opportunities, or similar obstacles. Those barriers should be explained directly in the application, and the academy structure is intended to help overcome them.

Mentorship is treated as a core deliverable rather than a formality. The Designated Mentor does not need to be at the same institution as the ECI, which opens doors for applicants at places without established kidney cancer programs. Mentors must have a strong mentoring track record, and to expand the academy's overall mentorship capacity, each Designated Mentor must also agree to serve as a Secondary Mentor to a different ECI in the academy. The mentor role is capped at one Primary mentorship (the applicant pair) and one Secondary mentorship, and the Academy Dean cannot serve as a Designated Mentor. This design pushes cross-institutional connection and helps ensure that mentorship expertise is distributed across the cohort rather than concentrated.

Participation requirements include in-person-style engagement through workshops: the ECI and Designated Mentor are required to attend a multi-day DoD KCRP AKCI Workshop every two years, and in alternating years attend a one-day workshop. Research proposals must include preliminary data to demonstrate feasibility, but importantly, that preliminary data does not have to come directly from kidney cancer studies, which can make the opportunity more accessible to early investigators pivoting into the field from adjacent areas. Like other DoD medical research opportunities, the proposed work must be relevant to active duty Service members, Veterans, military beneficiaries, and/or the broader American public, reflecting the program's mission-driven focus.

From a funding and administrative standpoint, awards are made as assistance agreements, meaning they may be issued as either a grant or a cooperative agreement depending on the expected level of DoD involvement during the project. If the agency anticipates no substantial involvement, the mechanism is a grant; if collaboration or other substantial involvement is expected, it becomes a cooperative agreement, and the specific areas of involvement are spelled out in the final award terms. For FY20, the anticipated maximum direct costs for the full period of performance are capped at $725,000. The program expected to commit about $4.64 million total to fund roughly four awards, with final selections dependent on scientific peer review, programmatic relevance, and the availability of federal funds.

Key opportunity details from the announcement include the funding opportunity number W81XWH-20-KCRP-AKCIECIA and CFDA 12.420, administered by the Department of Defense through the Department of the Army, USAMRAA. Eligibility is listed as unrestricted (open to any entity type, subject to any additional eligibility notes in the full announcement). The opportunity was posted May 12, 2020, with an original closing date of August 26, 2020, and awards planned to be made no later than September 30, 2021. Funding for awards made under this cycle was expected to use FY20 funds, with those funds available for use only through September 30, 2026, which shapes the practical window for spending and project execution even though the research period itself is four years.

• 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, Academy of Kidney Cancer Investigators – Early-Career Investigator 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 May 12, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 26, 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 4 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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