DOD Kidney Cancer, Clinical Research Nurse Development Award | W81XWH 21 KCRP CRNDA

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81XWH 21 KCRP CRNDA

The DOD Kidney Cancer Clinical Research Nurse Development Award (CRNDA) is a Fiscal Year 2021 funding opportunity under the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP), administered by the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA). Its main purpose is to strengthen the kidney cancer clinical research workforce by helping institutions create and pilot a mentored clinical research nurse (CRN) training pathway, essentially a fellowship-style program, while simultaneously conducting a kidney cancer-focused clinical research project. The program is built on the idea that CRNs are central to the daily execution of clinical trials and to protecting participants, maintaining protocol compliance, managing regulatory and data requirements, and ensuring high-quality trial conduct from protocol development through closeout and dissemination. Even though CRN roles have grown and certification options exist, the opportunity emphasizes that the overall supply of nurses with deep clinical trial expertise is still limited, in part because hands-on training and dedicated financial support can be hard to access.

A defining feature of this award is its required partnership leadership model. Every application must be led by two equal Principal Investigators who serve as mentors for the training program: an Initiating PI who is a clinician (physician, physician-scientist, or equivalent) and a Partnering PI who is a CRN coordinator or equivalent. The Initiating PI handles most administrative responsibilities for the submission and must be leading or substantially involved in active clinical trials and/or research. The Partnering PI must have at least two years of cancer or oncology clinical trial research nurse experience. At least one of the two PIs must demonstrate kidney cancer clinical research experience. The two PIs do not need to be from the same institution, but the collaboration must be clearly established, and at least one PI must be at the same institution as the prospective CRN trainees. If funded, each PI is formally named on an individual award within the recipient organization, reflecting the shared leadership expectation.

On the science and program side, the award is not just a training grant in isolation; it requires a kidney cancer research project with real potential to matter. The proposal must be kidney cancer-specific and must clearly describe how CRN trainees will participate in conducting and assessing the clinical trial research project. The research approach is expected to be feasible and well-justified with clearly articulated methods and goals. Preliminary data are encouraged but not required; if included, the opportunity notes it should come from both the Initiating and Partnering PIs. The funded work can be broader than a traditional drug trial and is meant to be accessible and relevant to CRNs, including projects that create CRN onboarding education, establish professional development models, elevate and formalize the CRN role within nursing practice, or develop best-practice models for CRN support of clinical trials.

Impact is treated as a central review consideration. The award is looking for projects that can accelerate progress toward ending kidney cancer or meaningfully improve care and experience for patients participating in kidney cancer clinical trials. The expected impact can be short-term or long-term, but it must go beyond incremental improvements. Applications are expected to specify which kidney cancer patient populations, or at-risk individuals, would ultimately benefit. In addition, the proposed research must be relevant to active-duty Service Members, Veterans, military beneficiaries, and/or the American public, aligning the work with the DOD health mission.

The training and mentorship requirements are detailed and practical. The mentors must show the expertise needed to guide trainees into kidney cancer clinical trial nursing, including evidence such as recent publications, active peer-reviewed kidney cancer funding, or a clear record of kidney cancer clinical research engagement. They also must demonstrate a real commitment of time and an environment that provides hands-on access to clinical trial patients, for example by pointing to active, recruiting kidney cancer trials. While prior experience mentoring clinical trial nurses is valued, the announcement indicates that a weaker mentoring track record can be offset by a strong, credible career development plan.

The training environment is also scrutinized. The host institution (or training site) is expected to have strong, interdisciplinary kidney cancer research activity and an established history of kidney cancer clinical trials. Applicants need to show that trainees will be integrated into an active research culture with ongoing exposure to kidney cancer clinicians and scientists, research teams, seminars, and similar forums. Just as importantly, the environment must support practical trial immersion: the institution should have active and open kidney cancer clinical trials during the training period, or a clear plan to open new kidney cancer trials and recruit patients while the fellowship operates. The opportunity also looks for institutional commitment to retaining trainees after training or integrating them into collaborating institutions, signaling that the goal is to build durable CRN capacity rather than provide a short, one-off experience.

A major required element is the kidney cancer-focused career development plan for the CRN trainees. Applications should describe the intended trainee profile, recruitment and selection criteria, whether candidates are already identified, and a structured curriculum spanning the period of performance. The curriculum is expected to combine hands-on mentored learning (such as shadowing mentors, observing clinician-patient interactions, participating in lab meetings when relevant, learning research techniques, and supervised patient-facing research activities) with self-learning and professional engagement (conferences, seminars, journal clubs, and didactics). The program is encouraged to include tangible professional milestones such as recognized certifications (for example, SOCRA or other clinical research professional credentials), plus progressive responsibility that helps trainees build independence in clinical trial conduct and possibly develop leadership skills in program management, team coordination, or protocol-related project design. Reviewers may also weigh whether the program builds practical competencies in communication, networking, budgeting/finance, regulatory compliance, and data management, reflecting the real-world demands placed on experienced CRNs.

From a funding and administrative standpoint, awards are issued as assistance agreements, meaning they will be either a grant or a cooperative agreement depending on how much substantial involvement the DOD anticipates during performance. If substantial involvement is expected (for example, collaboration or participation by the funder in elements of the project), the mechanism would be a cooperative agreement; if not, it would be a grant. For FY21, the anticipated direct cost cap for the full period of performance is $300,000. The program planned to allocate roughly $0.96 million total to fund about two awards. Key dates listed include a creation date of June 14, 2021, an original closing date of October 5, 2021, and an intent to make awards no later than September 30, 2022, with FY21 funds expected to remain available for use until September 30, 2027, consistent with federal fiscal rules.

Finally, the opportunity strongly encourages collaboration between military or Veterans institutions and non-military institutions to combine infrastructure, expertise, and access to patient populations in ways that can speed progress. It also flags the Metastatic Cancer Task Force recommendations as a resource for applicants developing ideas that could help accelerate clinical and translational advances for advanced or recurrent disease, as long as the proposal stays within the kidney cancer scope and the program priorities. Overall, the CRNDA is designed to produce two linked outcomes: a credible kidney cancer clinical research project with meaningful potential impact, and a sustainable pipeline of trained, credential-ready clinical research nurses who can raise the quality and capacity of kidney cancer clinical trials over time.

• 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 Jun 14, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Oct 05, 2021. (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.

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