Pilot Project Program

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ABSTRACT – PILOT PROJECT PROGRAM The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Environmental Research and Translation for Health (EaRTH) Center offers the unique opportunity to support and grow an environmental health community at a premier multidisciplinary biomedical research institution with nearly 5,000 faculty members with expertise spanning basic, translational, clinical, and population arenas. Despite being the top NIH-funded public university, only 0.7% of NIH funding at UCSF currently comes from NIEHS. The EaRTH Center Pilot Project Program provides a mechanism to increase the amount of environmental health research at UCSF by tapping into the existing broad research base. By providing seed funds for exploratory studies, EaRTH Pilot Project awards will lower hurdles to initiating novel directions in environmental research and grow the pipeline of researchers and clinicians in environmental health. We will support the mission of the EaRTH Center by enabling cutting edge, exploratory research in areas directly related to environmental health. This goal is promoted by supporting basic, translational, epidemiological and clinical research projects through Core facilities as well as providing interaction with a community of researchers through the EaRTH Center. A Research Pilot Award will allow new or established faculty to rapidly transfer skills and developments from other research areas to the arena of environmental health research. A Mentored Scientist Award specifically for early-stage investigators will support innovative research projects and provide career and mentoring in environmental health research. A Mentored Clinician Award, administered jointly with the Community Engagement Core (CEC), for clinicians will provide dedicated time for a clinician to gain experience in environmental health. The Pilot Project Program will stimulate research that fills gaps in the area of environmental health in development and preconception at UCSF. To streamline the application process and to capture the largest number of high quality applications with innovative projects proposed from researchers outside of environmental health, we will conduct the RFA through the broadly used UCSF Resource Allocation Program (RAP). Evaluation metrics will be applied to the pilot projects to assess and promote success of projects and the overall program. The UCSF EaRTH Center engagement with the entire UCSF scientific community will enable discussions of the application of interdisciplinary approaches to environmental health research. This ensures our pilot grant recipients have full access to local expertise, which assists their entry into, and staying power in, environmental health-related areas.