ClosedResearch announcementOpportunity HT942525RCRPIDA

DoD Rare Cancers, Idea Development Award

Defense Health Agency Contracting Activity - DHACA · Department of Defense

At a glance

DoD Rare Cancers, Idea Development Award is a closed federal grant opportunity from the Defense Health Agency Contracting Activity - DHACA (Department of Defense). The application deadline was October 6, 2025. Total estimated funding is $6.86M across about 14 awards. The notice is unrestricted by applicant type, subject to any clarifications in the notice. Cost sharing is not required. It is funded under Assistance Listing 12.420 (Military Medical Research and Development).

Summary assembled from the official notice's fields. The official notice governs.

Key facts

May 1, 2025Posted
Oct 6, 2025Application deadline

Posted: May 1, 2025
Close date: Oct 6, 2025
Award floor: Not specified
Award ceiling: Not specified
Est. total funding: $6,860,000
Implied average award: $490,000 calculated
Expected awards: 14
Cost sharing: Not required
Funding instrument: Grant
Opportunity category: Discretionary

Typical awards for this program (SAM.gov listing for ALN 12.420, not this notice): This Assistance Listing supports approximately 30 or more programs each year. Overall, awards are expected to range from $100,000 to $20M (consortium) depending on the funding priorities, anticipated number of awards, and project activity/scope within each program for an award period, on average, of 3 to 4 years. The maximum award amount, if any, is specified in each Program Announcement or Broad Agency Announcement.

Implied average = estimated total funding ÷ expected number of awards, calculated by GrantsJunction. Actual awards vary.

Who can apply

Unrestricted (any entity type)

Can your organization apply?

A quick check against the listed applicant types — other requirements in the notice still apply.

Based on the published notice. Review the official notice for complete eligibility requirements.

What it funds

Official synopsis as published by the agency, formatted for readability.

Summary: The fiscal year 2025 (FY25) Rare Cancers Research Program (RCRP) Idea Development Award (IDA) promotes new ideas that are still in the early stages of development and have the potential to yield impactful data and new avenues of investigation.

Distinctive Features:

· Applications are encouraged to include an exploratory aim or sub-aim to support any necessary discovery-driven research.

· Preliminary data with disease-specific rationale are required. However, these data do not necessarily need to be derived from studies of the proposed rare cancer type(s)/subtype(s) under study.

· Research should have high potential impact on rare cancers and the patient community.

Funding Details: (New for FY25) Funding limits are now listed as total cost limits, which is the combination of both direct and indirect costs.

Full announcement & documents

The full announcement has the complete rules — page limits, required attachments, evaluation criteria and any letter-of-intent dates. Files download directly from Grants.gov.

FY25 RCRP IDA Program AnnouncementFull Announcement · HT942525RCRPIDA_GG.pdfPDF · 602 KB

Assistance Listing

What is an ALN?

12.420Military Medical Research and DevelopmentProgram →

Reported obligations under ALN 12.420

Historical data · not a prediction

FY24

$1.48B

FY25

$1.2B

FY26

— est.

Source: SAM.gov Assistance Listing 12.420. Program-wide totals, not awards from this specific opportunity.

Agency contact (as published)

Jamie Shortall Grant Officer
help@eBRAP.org
301-619-2393

Quick answers

Who is eligible to apply for “DoD Rare Cancers, Idea Development Award”?

The notice lists eligibility as unrestricted — open to any type of entity — subject to clarifications in the notice's additional eligibility information.

How much funding is available through “DoD Rare Cancers, Idea Development Award”?

Per the notice, total estimated program funding is $6,860,000 and the agency expects to make about 14 awards.

How do I apply for “DoD Rare Cancers, Idea Development Award”?

Applications are submitted through the official source, not through GrantsJunction. Open the official notice on Grants.gov (opportunity HT942525RCRPIDA), and review the full announcement and application package. Organizations applying through Grants.gov generally need an active SAM.gov registration and a Grants.gov account, which can take several weeks to set up.

Matched on shared Assistance Listings, agency, categories and eligible applicant types.

Closes in 5 daysResearchALN 12.420