Pilot and Feasibility Program

Project Summary/Abstract - MDRC Pilot and Feasibility Grants Program The purpose of the Michigan Diabetes Research Center (MDRC) Pilot and Feasibility (P/F) Grants Program is to stimulate new research in the areas of diabetes, its complications, and related endocrine and metabolic disorders. This research may be in areas of basic biomedical science or clinical research. This program provides a minimum of $250,000 per year for P/F grant awards; additional funding may be provided for highly-rated applications using funds provided by the University of Michigan (U-M). The MDRC P/F program will fund two types of awards: (1) standard one-year $50,000 P/F awards with a single PI, and (2) two-year, $100,000 Diabetes Interdisciplinary Studies Program (DISP) awards that seek to support and promote new collaborations between two or more U-M faculty members from distinct disciplines, to focus their combined research strengths on cutting-edge areas in diabetes research. Each year, the MDRC solicits applications for P/F and DISP grants from full-time instructional or research faculty at U-M. Those eligible include: 1) new investigators without past or current NIH research support who are beginning careers in diabetes research, 2) established investigators who have not previously worked in diabetes research but wish to focus their expertise on diabetes, and 3) established diabetes investigators who propose innovative research in diabetes that represents a clear departure from their ongoing research. Highest priority is given to new investigators. Applications are actively solicited from across U-M and are peer-reviewed by two or more extramural reviewers with expertise in the area of the application. Grant applications with the highest merit, as judged by this review process and the MDRC Grants Program Advisory Council, receive awards. The balance between standard P/F and DISP awards may vary from year to year, depending upon the relative strength of applications for each award type. The ultimate goal of the program is to enable awardees to generate sufficient preliminary data to support a successful application for major research funding from the NIH or another national granting agency. The MDRC P/F Grants Program attracts investigators from diverse U-M schools, departments, and institutes into diabetes-related research and fosters new, innovative, interdisciplinary, and collaborative diabetes research at U-M.