IMPORTANT: Applying for a PCF TACTICAL Award (Therapy ACceleration To Intercept CAncer Lethality) involves a 3-stage process. PCF requires a Letter of Intent (LOI), followed by full application submission upon our invitation. Following peer review, top applicants will undergo a Zoom-based interview. See RFA for details.
The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) is pleased to announce a Request for LOIs for PCF TACTICAL Awards from qualified teams of academic scientists that will specifically address the development of 21st Century therapies for lethal forms of prostate cancer. These awards will be funded depending on the level of innovation in applications received. PCF seeks high-risk, currently unfunded projects from academic institutions around the world. PCF will fund 2-3 of these three-year awards for $5 – $10 Million U.S.D. per award.
For more information, please view the brief video Chuck Ryan and I produced to describe this funding mechanism: Watch video
PCF TACTICAL Awards:
- Support large-scale research projects concerning metastatic, lethal prostate cancer over a duration of three years.
- Institutional indirect costs of up to 10% will be allowed and should be included as part of the total research budget.
- Clinical trial costs are not allowed; however, correlative research to support high impact clinical trials for advanced prostate cancer is encouraged. IRB submission and preferably approval is desired at time of application.
PCF TACTICAL Team:
- Teams must be composed of at least five (5) investigators, including two young investigators (see requirements below), capable of providing unique scientific expertise to the solution of this significant problem in prostate cancer research.
- Teams that name a young investigator as part of senior leadership will be favored.
- Team members must represent a minimum of four (4) non-profit academic research institutions.
- Cross-disciplinary teams that are diverse and inclusive will be favored.
- Must embed at least two young investigators as integral contributors to the team. The young investigators may hold the title of Postdoctoral Fellow, Instructor, Research Associate, Assistant Professor, or equivalent and should be within six- years following completion of a professional degree (MD, DO, PhD, MD-PhD, DSc, ScD, DDM, DDS, DMD, MBBS, or equivalent) or subsequent mentored academic or clinical training program. They each should not have been granted commitments for more than $500,000 in direct research funding from all sources including institutional funds at the time of this application.
- Investigators from for-profit companies and government-sponsored institutions are ineligible.
The general areas of interest include, but are not limited to the following topics:
- Targeting currently undruggable driver transcription factors
- New mechanisms for inducing cancer cell death including gene and cell therapies
- Quenching the metabolic firestorm of cancer
- Integrating understanding of therapeutic resistance into up-front treatments
- Rigorous characterization of host/lifestyle determinants affecting cancer progression
- Therapy discovery that includes diverse and underserved patient populations is encouraged
- Proposals focused on problems that address prostate cancer lethality with application to other malignancies will be reviewed favorably
Detailed instructions on completing the LOI form can be found on page 2 of the RFA.
The deadline for submitting the LOI form by email to applications@pcf.org is
Monday, June 20, 2022.
Please direct questions to applications@pcf.org.