Pilot Project Core

PILOT CORE PROJECT SUMMARY The Pilot Project Core of the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health (CTBH) aims to support novel pilot projects that offer considerable promise to have a large impact on the field, as part of the Center’s activities to support the development and evaluation of cutting-edge applications of technology to the treatment of substance use disorders. Since the initial funding period over the past 9 years, the Pilot Core awarded 32 innovative pilots (on a competitive basis based on blinded peer-review modeled after the NIH review process). The projects resulted from 14 Requests for Applications (1-2 per year) that included a combination of open investigator-initiated project solicitations and targeted Requests for Applications (RFAs) focused on collaborative projects bringing together teams with expertise from diverse research disciplines to address topics with key relevance to substance use including behavioral health, computer science, engineering, data science, and User Interface/User Experience (UI/UX) design. Among these awards, the Pilot Core has awarded 11 pilot grants to post-doctoral level trainees, 3 pilot grants to Instructor level researchers, and 5 pilot grants to Assistant Professor level junior faculty, supporting the CTBH mission to train future scientists in digital health approaches to substance use. To date the pilot grants have made significant contributions to the scientific literature, resulting in 25 peer reviewed publications, and over 20 funded research grants (18 of which were specifically related to substance use), including 2 NIH Ks, a CTN study, NIH R34, R42 and R01 grants, as well as PCORI, NIDILRR, SAMHSA, foundation and CDC grants. In this second renewal phase of the CTBH P30, the Pilot Core plans to support an average of 3-4 pilot projects per year to continue to fund the development of a “pipeline” of new areas of research that could then progress to more rigorous empirical testing via external funding mechanisms after the pilot phase. We plan to continue a targeted RFA process to seed innovation in areas consistent with the scientific aims of this P30. In this process, approximately 50% of the pilot funding opportunities will continue to be Investigator-initiated. And, about 50% of pilots will be supported in response to specific RFAs on timely and understudied issues that offer great promise to advance the field, including continued support of collaborations between technology and behavioral health experts and support of pilots in CTBH’s new priority areas. Consistent with our efforts to increase the diversity of the scientific community of researchers focused on substance use, we are also committed to increasing applications from underrepresented minority applicants. All awards will be made available on a competitive basis to support pilot projects by diverse research teams affiliated with CTBH. The Pilot Core Director will advise recipients of pilot project funds on optimal next steps in seeking extramural funding to support a line of research that builds on pilot study results.