Program Development and Pilot Core

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Program Development and Pilot Core (PD): Abstract The overall goal of the Program Development and Pilot Core (PD) is to promote innovative research to offer new insights critical to furthering the health and well-being of an aging and diverse US population. The Program Development and Pilot Core (PD) will be charged with guiding and nurturing the development of the Center’s research program and pilot project portfolio relevant to the Center’s three thematic research areas: 1) Life-course precursors of advantage and disadvantage at older ages, 2) Family demography, social engagement, and social isolation, and 3) Place, aging, and health. The PD Core has 3 Specific Aims: 1) Foster the development of innovative pilot project ideas and proposals, 2) Provide programs and activities to ensure pilot project productivity and success, and 3) Ramp up inventive pilot project results to develop larger projects that advance the field. Activities to foster innovative pilot ideas and high caliber pilot proposals include large conferences focused on issues at the forefront of NIA research priorities; focused workshops concentrating on conceptual innovations, state-of-the-art methods, and novel and rich data sources; and pilot proposal development sessions. Pilot projects will focus on research questions central to NIA strategic priorities and CAPS research themes to illuminate how exposures and experiences throughout life influence diversity in aging and health. Activities to ensure pilot success include benchmark monitoring and response plans, administrative and research services to support pilot research, and assignment of a faculty mentor to early-career investigators. Pilot projects will be selected based on their potential to advance scholarship on aging and lead to a larger project and NIA grant submissions. The transition from pilot to larger research projects and the preparation of grant submissions based on pilot results will be supported by a Grant Writing Bootcamp to train new investigators in grantsmanship and by mock NIA-review sessions via the Workshop that Grant program for both established and new investigators. The PD Core will work closely with the AR Core to develop and deliver programs and activities to ensure pilot project development and success, including high-impact publications and NIA grant submissions for larger studies based on pilot projects. The ability to achieve these goals is greatly enhanced by the shared resources and vibrant community of population scientists associated with UT Austin’s nationally- recognized Population Research Center (PRC); the PRC has extensive experience in managing pilot programs and activities, as well as in the preparation and submission of large research project proposals.