Pilot Project Program

ABSTRACT (Pilot Project Program) The Pilot Project Program (PPP) contributes to the mission of the Michigan Center on Lifestage Environmental Exposures and Disease (M-LEEaD) by supporting pilot projects that encourage innovation, creativity, and multidisciplinary collaborations, especially among basic scientists, clinical researchers, and community and regulatory stakeholders. The Pilot Project Program is an important mechanism for attracting new individuals to our Center and for providing support to generate preliminary data to compete for external funding. The aims of the Pilot Project Program are to: 1) attract established investigators new to our Center who can provide new insights and approaches to questions regarding the relationships between lifestage environmental exposures and disease; 2) encourage innovation, creativity, and multidisciplinary collaborations, especially between basic scientists, clinical researchers, and community and regulatory stakeholders; 3) facilitate our Center members' ability to respond quickly and effectively to new and quick-turnaround research opportunities, especially those from NIEHS; and 4) provide important support for early-stage investigators to generate preliminary data for developing independent research projects and compete for independent funding. This approach was successful in the previous funding periods as evidenced by the number of junior faculty supported, the new collaborations that were formed, the participation of scientists new to environmental health research that participated in Center activities as a result of the Pilot Project Program, the number of external grant applications submitted, the number of resulting publications, and career advancement, all as summarized in the Research Strategy. Important advances in the administration of the Pilot Project Program during the last cycle include: 1) the further advancement and refinement of a reviewer consortium with other P30 centers to help improve objectivity of the reviews as well as avoid conflicts of interest that can result from reviews by others in the same institution; 2) a modified scoring system and additional pilot funds to enhance community engagement; and 3) a rapid response mechanism for funding exploratory work in high priority areas with a very short turnaround time. In the next cycle of the Pilot Project Program, we will build on the momentum generated in the current funding period by continuing the wide distribution of the Request for Applications throughout the School of Public Health and the Medical School, continuing the reviewer consortium and continuing to promote the use of our Core facilities. We will also continue our practice of including a CEC member on the review committee responsible for ranking of the proposals to assure their input. Together, these practices will continue the groundbreaking research developed in the initial cycles of the Pilot Project Program to advance a comprehensive and integrated environmental health paradigm.