The Concept Award supports the exploration of a highly innovative new concept or untested theory that addresses an important problem relevant to lung cancer. The Concept Award is not intended to support an incremental progression of an already established research project but, instead, allows Principal Investigators (PIs) the opportunity to pursue serendipitous observations. This award mechanism supports high-risk studies that have the potential to reveal entirely new avenues for investigation. Applications must describe how the new idea will enhance the existing knowledge of lung cancer or develop an innovative and novel course of investigation. Submissions from and partnerships with investigators at military treatment facilities, military labs, and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers and research laboratories are strongly encouraged. Research completed through a Concept Award may generate sufficient preliminary data to enable the PI to prepare an application for future research. Presentation of preliminary data is not consistent with the intent of the Concept Award mechanism and is discouraged. However, logical reasoning and a sound scientific rationale for the proposed research must be demonstrated. Military Relevance: The LCRP seeks to support research that is relevant to the health care needs of military Service members, Veterans, and their families. Military relevance will be considered in determining relevance to the mission of the DHP and FY15 LCRP during programmatic review. Investigators are strongly encouraged to consider the following characteristics as examples of how a project may demonstrate military relevance: â₏¢ Use of military or Veteran populations or data in the proposed research â₏¢ Collaboration with Department of Defense (DoD) or VA investigators â₏¢ Involvement of military consultants (Army, Air Force) or specialty leaders (Navy, Marine Corps) to the Surgeons General in a relevant specialty area â₏¢ Explanation of how the project addresses an aspect of lung cancer that has direct relevance to military Service members, Veterans, or other military health system beneficiaries