Pilot and Feasibility Core

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Pilot & Feasibility (P&F) Program of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard (NORC-H) provides grants of up to $30,000 to investigators in nutrition and obesity who require pilot or feasibility data to test early hypotheses and/or prove feasibility for larger grant applications. The goals of the program are to promote novel, cutting-edge research, to support and retain early career investigators, to engage a wide spectrum of nutrition/obesity researchers with the NORC-H, to promote the success of recipients, and to facilitate the integration of recipients into the larger NORC-H community. At least four new awards are given each year, and renewals are awarded on a competitive basis for projects that have shown particularly good progress and potential. The P&F budget is supplemented with philanthropy and other budgetary sources whenever possible, resulting in an average of $175,900 awarded per year between 2017-2021. The program prioritizes support of early career investigators, who represented 84% of recipients between 2012-2021, and also supports exemplary proposals from established investigators new to the fields of nutrition or obesity or from established investigators within the field pursuing new research directions. The NORC-H is highly invested in P&F recipients’ success and provides multiple resources including a dedicated mentoring program, vouchers for use of Core services, biostatistical support from Dr. Lee (NORC-H biostatistician), and the opportunity to network and present their work at an Annual P&F Symposium. The NORC-H Administrative Core works with Dr. Stanley, the P&F Director, to administer the program, ensuring that applicants have appropriate animal or human subjects approvals and tracking outcomes for awards and recipients over time to judge program success. Over the past 2 cycles (2012-2021), P&F recipients have been highly successful in leveraging the P&F funding into publications and further grant support. From 2012-2021, 62 awards totaling 1.5 million dollars were given; these have been leveraged into 37.5 million dollars of subsequent NIH funding, including 5 K-level career development grants and 13 R01s. The 62 awards have also resulted in 140 subsequent related publications, 16 of which are in high impact journals (impact factor >10). Numerous recipients have received academic promotions and have become successful independent investigators, and 90% of recipients from 2012-2021 are still working in the fields of nutrition and obesity. Program successes over the past grant cycle include (1) dedicated efforts to increase applications from scientists underrepresented in medicine and to increase the success rate of those awards, (2) increased applications per cycle to ensure a highly competitive process funding the most promising science, and (3) development of a dedicated mentoring program for recipients. In the upcoming cycle, the program will provide additional resources and education for applicants, grow the successful mentorship program, and continue to further the careers of early career scientists.