The Defense Health Agency, through the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs Rare Cancers Research Program, is accepting applications for the FY26 Rare Cancers Research Program Concept Award (HT942526RCRPCA).
Funding: CDMRP expects to allot approximately $2.52 million for about 18 awards, with a total-cost cap of $140,000 per award and a maximum period of performance of two years.
Timing: the required pre-application Letter of Intent is due September 16, 2026 at 5:00 PM Eastern Time. The full application is due September 30, 2026 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
Eligibility: eligible organizations include domestic and foreign, for-profit and nonprofit, public and private entities. The Principal Investigator must be an independent investigator at or above the postdoctoral fellow level, or equivalent, and affiliated with an eligible organization. Cost sharing is not required.
Program fit: applications must present a highly innovative, untested and potentially groundbreaking concept in a rare cancer. Focus areas include biology, preclinical research models, therapy, and artificial intelligence or machine learning models used in discovery, preclinical studies, and clinical-trial readiness. Clinical trials themselves are not allowed under this mechanism.
Atlas assessment: provisional N9+ Fit Score 42/100 and Atlas Opportunity Score 64/100. N9+ is not a natural stand-alone fit because this is a research-concept award and clinical trials are prohibited. A legitimate role could exist only within a defensible rare-cancer research or AI/ML concept where remote-examination, physiologic, or connected-health data materially advances the research objective. Dr. Miltie should not be treated as a TRUE direct applicant unless an eligible PI and a credible novel rare-cancer research concept are independently verified.
Before any applicant outreach, Atlas must confirm the opportunity remains open, legal eligibility, recipient identity, national deduplication, prior-contact history, and Email Opt-Out status.