Pilot and Feasibility Program

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT - PILOT AND FEASIBILITY PROGRAM The goal of the Washington University (WU) Nutrition and Obesity Research Center (NORC) Pilot and Feasibility (P&F) Program is to promote and support academic research careers of promising early stage faculty members conducting nutrition and obesity research. The P&F Program accomplishes this goal by providing both funding for pilot and feasibility projects and mentoring throughout the conduct of those studies. Each application is judged by: i) the potential of the applicant to be a successful independent investigator, and ii) the potential of the proposed study to generate sufficient pilot data for a successful extramural grant application, and therefore, iii) the potential of the P&F award to support the career trajectory of the applicant. The P&F Program provides $120,000/year to fund four investigators ($30,000/year for each) or more investigators with smaller amounts of funding. Investigators can receive a second year of funding provided adequate progress was demonstrated during the first year to justify funding for a second year. The funds for the P&F Program are provided by the NORC grant ($70,000/year) and support from the Department of Medicine ($50,000/year). In the last 10 years, 67% of P&F awardees who completed their projects have received extramural funding: 77% from the NIH and 23% from scientific societies and foundations.