ACORN Pilot Core

试点项目方案将是酒精长期可持续性的重要组成部分

The Pilot Projects Program will represent an essential component of the long-term sustainability of the Alcohol Center Of Research-Nebraska (ACORN). This program supports project investigators with funding up to $25,000 over an 18-month period. The program goal is to enable investigators to collect preliminary data to support submission of grant applications for independent, longer-term, larger projects related to alcohol research. The central hypothesis of this program is that pilot and/or feasibility projects funded from this Center will result in subsequent grant submissions to NIAAA or other funding agencies to advance alcohol research. The projects selected for support by this program must address a critical issue in alcohol research and clearly lead to future, more extensive study of the selected critical issue. In addition to the budgeted $50,000/year for pilot projects contained in this NIAAA application, matching funding from the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Vice Chancellor for Research ($50,000/year), will allowed ACORN to double the number of pilot projects over the same 5-year period. The aims of this program proposal are to: (1) Select and fund at least four 18-month pilot/feasibility projects each year; (2) Evaluate the results of each pilot/feasibility project; and (3) Monitor the effectiveness of converting pilot/feasibility projects into funded grants. A commitment of $50,000 per year from the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Vice Chancellor for Research will allow ACORN to fund at least 2 additional pilot projects per year. The pilot/feasibility projects will be selected for funding based on review by investigators knowledgeable about specific areas of alcohol research. The selected projects will be evaluated based on periodic required reports and monitoring of subsequent funded research grants based on the results of the pilot/feasibility projects. We expect that most of the selected pilot and feasibility studies will lead to applications for subsequent research projects building on the pilot/feasibility data.