Pilot Projects Program

The overall objective of the Pilot Project Program is to further solidify and enrich the pilot project program’s success achieved during Phase I and II of the COBRE by selecting talented mentees and highly experienced mentors with matching expertise and by providing a competent and effective administrative structure to guarantee good management, integration, and oversight of our pilot project program. This will be achieved by our team of COBRE director, program coordinators, senior mentors, core leaders, other steering committee members, and external advisory committee members. The success of their efforts will be assisted by our COBRE program administrator. This team of investigators and administrators provides a carefully designed framework to support and nurture our pilot project awardees and to ensure responsible conduct and scientific rigor and reproducibility of their research, as they are coached in their development as independent researchers. This supportive environment is created by providing the clear and rigorous selection process of awardees and mentors, by ensuring the formative and summative evaluation of the progress of the selected faculty, by instituting internal and external oversight of the pilot project program, and by the overt communication of the expectations placed upon both the awardees and mentors. Notably, the Phase III pilot project program will capitalize on the cutting-edge technologies provided by our scientific core. This shift in emphasis is designed to enhance the impact of the research and contribute considerably to the sustainability of our center. Thus, we will: (1) Provide administrative structure and technical resources to assure programmatic growth and success of the pilot projects awardees that are selected through a rigorous plan specifically developed for the Phase III COBRE. (2) Provide experienced mentors, mentoring and evaluation plans, and programmatic and external oversight to ensure the success of pilot project awardees in obtaining independent funding and in conducting scientifically rigorous and reproducible research. (3) Enhance local and national career development opportunities to facilitate and guide pilot project awardees in their growth as independent investigators, and at the same time enriching the research environment for all COBRE participants. These measures will solidify our center by training dedicated scientists and by establishing long-term, mutually beneficial interactions between researchers and the scientific core. These foci of contact will likely attract additional investigators because of our efforts to foster internal and external alliances through continuing mechanisms such as our seminar series, aging interest group meetings, and career development clubs that are designed to attract COBRE and non-COBRE investigators, keep them engaged, and to encourage collaborations.