Expanded Pilot and Feasibility Award Program

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REGIONAL PILOT AND FEASIBILITY AWARD PROGRAM: PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT This application seeks to develop a Regional Pilot and Feasibility (P&F) Award Program to promote research and collaborative investigations at institutions neighboring the SDRC. Stanford University is located in northern California and neighbors other elite research institutions with significant research focused on diabetes. This includes the nearby campuses of the University of California (UC) at Berkeley and UC Davis. This Regional P&F program will support proposals for diabetes-related research from principal investigators at UC Davis and UC Berkeley. This Regional program builds on the outstanding development and outcomes of the SDRC P&F Award Program over the past 5 years, and is motivated by evidence of stellar research bases at UC Berkeley and UC Davis with strong interests in developing ties to the SDRC and fostering diabetes research at their institutions. The SDRC has developed strong scientific and training connections to these neighboring research institutions. Thus, creation of a Regional P&F program that includes our UC colleagues is a natural extension of the SDRC mission to support outstanding and innovative diabetes research by a cadre of superb scientists, who lack their own DRC. The aims of the Regional P&F Award Program are: 1: To solicit, review, and fund a northern California Regional P&F award program that includes diabetes researchers at UC Davis and UC Berkeley. The Regional P&F program will support research proposals from UC Davis and Berkeley early career investigators, investigators who are new to the diabetes research field, and established diabetes researchers with ideas for novel and exciting research directions that have outstanding potential to open areas of diabetes-related research in diverse scientific disciplines. In addition, interdisciplinary and inter-institutional proposals will be encouraged, though proposals by PI’s at UC Berkeley or Davis can involve collaborations with investigators from any other appropriate research institution. These grants will be provided to outstanding investigators at UC Davis and Berkeley, whose research has a high probability of benefiting from use of SDRC core facilities, and could generate data necessary to transition to additional extramural peer-reviewed funding mechanisms. The successful execution of an initial Regional P&F award cycle in 2020-21 demonstrates the rationale and feasibility of this expansion. 2: To provide mentorship and career development for recipients of Regional P&F grants. The SDRC seeks to provide intellectual support and career development during the project period. This activity aims to foster the P&F grantee’s scientific expertise and integrate scientific and professional outcomes into the larger sphere of SDRC and national or international diabetes research. This includes building relationships that enhance further collaboration between P&F award applicants or awardees and other members of the SDRC. Fostering career development through the Regional P&F award program should increase the broader impacts of the SDRC on diabetes research, including diversity among those leading or performing diabetes research.