The Defense Health Agency’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs has opened HT942526OCRPOCAECI, FY26 Ovarian Cancer Academy – Early-Career Investigator Award. The award supports early-career investigators pursuing ovarian-cancer research while participating in the Ovarian Cancer Academy’s intensive mentoring, collaboration, networking, and career-development structure.
Required pre-application deadline: September 15, 2026 at 5:00 PM Eastern Time. Full application deadline: October 1, 2026 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time. Application submission is a two-step process requiring a pre-application through eBRAP followed by a full application; extramural full applications are submitted through Grants.gov.
Funding: CDMRP expects to allot approximately $4.5 million for about four awards, with a total-cost cap of $1.125 million per award and a maximum four-year period of performance. Cost sharing is not an eligibility requirement.
Eligibility: Eligible organizations include domestic and foreign, for-profit and nonprofit, public and private organizations. The PI must be a qualifying Early-Career Investigator within five years of the last postdoctoral research position, clinical fellowship, or equivalent as of the full-application deadline, may not still be in such a training position, and must provide the required Statement of Eligibility. The ECI must have approximately 50% institutional protected time for ovarian-cancer research and Academy activities and must commit at least 25% effort to this award for the first two years. The required Designated Mentor must be an independent, established ovarian-cancer researcher with past and present research funding and a strong publication and mentoring record.
Research scope: The project may involve basic, translational, and/or clinical research, but clinical trials are not allowed under this mechanism. Preliminary data are required. The Academy structure also requires recurring participation and mentor engagement.
Atlas fit: Broad organizational eligibility does not overcome the narrow ECI, protected-time, mentor, ovarian-cancer research, and same-day pre-application requirements. This is not classified as a submission-ready Dr. Miltie direct pursuit on current evidence. Preferred posture: Partner-Led / Qualified Ovarian Cancer Early-Career Investigator. Because the mandatory pre-application is due today, do not initiate new applicant outreach inside the cutoff; only already-ready eligible teams with a timely pre-application can continue to the full application.