DoD Melanoma, Team Science Award | W81XWH 20 MRP TSA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 20 MRP TSA

The DoD Melanoma, Team Science Award (FY20 MRP TSA; Funding Opportunity Number W81XWH 20 MRP TSA) is a Department of Defense research funding opportunity administered through the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA). It is designed to support hypothesis-driven melanoma research that directly addresses the program's overarching FY20 Melanoma Research Program (MRP) Challenge Statement while also covering at least one of the required FY20 MRP Focus Areas. The intent is not to fund isolated projects, but to push melanoma research forward by deliberately structuring a collaboration that can tackle critical knowledge gaps more effectively than any single lab or discipline could on its own.

A defining feature of this award is the emphasis on multidisciplinary "team science." Applicants are expected to assemble a team that brings together different fields, methods, and perspectives to create a genuinely novel approach to melanoma research. The project is expected to be jointly designed as one integrated effort, with clear, interdependent scientific aims. Reviewers are looking for a well-justified explanation of synergy: the application must spell out what each partner uniquely contributes, how the pieces fit together, and why the combined approach will accelerate progress in ways that separate, parallel projects would not. In practical terms, that means each team member should provide distinct expertise (for example, complementary clinical, computational, immunology, genomics, drug development, imaging, or epidemiology capabilities), and the work plan should show how those capabilities interact to produce outcomes that require collaboration.

Although the research is conceived as a single unified project, the administrative structure recognizes multiple leaders. Each collaborating investigator is treated as a Principal Investigator (PI), and each PI must submit a separate application. Each PI will be named on an individual award, even though the project is designed and executed collaboratively. This setup reinforces shared leadership and accountability across the team while still requiring each PI to meet the application and award requirements associated with their portion of the overall project.

From a funding mechanics standpoint, the opportunity is listed as discretionary and uses either a grant or cooperative agreement as the funding instrument type, under the Science and Technology and other Research and Development activity category (CFDA 12.420). Eligibility is broadly described as unrestricted, meaning it is open to any type of entity unless limited by additional eligibility language in the full announcement. The funding opportunity was posted April 21, 2020, with an original closing date of September 24, 2020. The listing indicated an expectation of two awards, and the award ceiling is shown as 0 in the source data, which typically signals that applicants need to consult the full solicitation for any actual budget caps or award size guidance rather than relying on that field alone.

Overall, the FY20 MRP Team Science Award is aimed at high-impact melanoma research that is tightly aligned with DoD MRP priorities and is executed through a deliberately integrated collaboration. Competitive proposals would clearly connect a strong, testable hypothesis to the Challenge Statement and required Focus Areas, define concrete roles for each PI that showcase non-overlapping strengths, and demonstrate an integrated plan where shared datasets, coordinated experiments, and cross-disciplinary methods produce outcomes that would not be achievable through independent efforts.

• 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 Melanoma, Team Science 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 Apr 21, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 24, 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 MRP TSA

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