DoD Peer Reviewed Cancer Convergent Science Cancer Consortium Award

The FY24 PRCRP CSCCA supports a transdisciplinary collaboration of scientists, clinicians, and consumer advocates, working to illuminate and address urgent and complex issues of importance in cancer research. This mechanism seeks to promote novel approaches to ending cancer through convergent science cancer research. Convergent science as defined by the National Science Foundation (https://www.nsf.gov/od/oia/convergence/index.jsp) “is a means of solving vexing research problems, in particular, complex problems focusing on societal needs. It entails integrating knowledge, methods, and expertise from different disciplines and forming novel frameworks to catalyze scientific discovery and innovation.” Convergent science taps into a variety of disciplines to answer the issues in cancer (i.e., prevention, diagnosis/detection, treatment, quality of life, disparities) including but not limited to biomedical sciences, data science, engineering, psychology, and chemistry. Convergent science breaks down the barriers of cancer research and builds a whole answer with tools from different areas of expertise.

The CSCCA application must identify one of the FY24 Overarching Challenges as a unifying Focal Point for the consortium, and a minimum of three research projects addressing the Focal Point. Additionally, applicants must clearly define how their application investigates at least three different FY24 PRCRP Topic Areas. For example, brain cancer, neuroblastoma, and pediatric brain tumors are three of the FY24 PRCRP Topic Areas and would be acceptable. Three different types of pediatric brain tumors (i.e., pediatric medulloblastomas, diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, and pediatric astrocytomas) are not considered three different FY24 PRCRP Topic Areas and would not be acceptable. The proposed Convergent Science consortium should demonstrate the potential to catalyze scientific discovery and innovation, significantly advance cancer research, and have a profound positive impact on the lives of cancer patients or those at risk for cancer including Service Members, their Families, other military beneficiaries, and the American public.

Consumer advocates should be integrated into and play an active role in the leadership and decision-making for the consortium. An individual advocate can only serve as an advisor and team member at one Research Site. The advocates must be cancer patients or a caretaker of patients from the FY24 PRCRP Topic Areas, be active in a cancer advocacy organization, and possess a high level of familiarity with current issues in cancer research. The advocates’ role should be independent of their employment with a participating institution.