P and F Program

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PROJECT SUMMARY – PILOT & FEASIBILITY PROGRAM The Pilot & Feasibility Program (P&F) of the Chicago DRTC has funded more than 175 grants to more than 165 investigators since its inception in 1977. In the past 10 year reporting period, 46 applications were funded, including 27 from investigators located at affiliated institutions outside the University of Chicago. 34 of these 46 recipients (75%) received extramural funding as a result of P&F awards in the last 10 years, including 20 R01 awards, with a return on investment of nearly 10-fold. Thus, the P&F Program both assists investigators throughout the Chicago area in diabetes-related studies and also serves as a catalyst for obtaining new, independent funding from NIH and other extramural sources. The overall goal of the P&F Program is to provide initial support to newly established investigators and to bring the expertise of more established investigators from other fields into diabetes research. Proposals are sought each year from all Chicago-based institutions with diabetes research programs. All proposals are evaluated by an internal and two external reviewers. Priority scores and written reviews are then presented to the Steering Committee and funding decisions are made. A second year of funding is possible for those investigators who have made significant documented progress on their proposed research. All P&F grant recipients are required to attend and strongly encouraged to present their findings at the Annual Chicago Diabetes Day held at the University of Chicago or Diabetes & Obesity Research Day at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The vast majority of P&F grants recipients have remained in diabetes research. The Aims of the P&F Program are: 1. To fund P&F studies encompassing basic, translational, and clinical research into the causes of diabetes and its complications as well as potential new directions for the treatment of diabetes. 2. To support new investigators, established investigators new to the field of diabetes research or established diabetes researchers who wish to start a novel direction for their research. 3. To solicit P&F applications from researchers throughout the Chicagoland area, including the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, University of Illinois at Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology, Loyola University, Rosalind Franklin University and the Medical College of Wisconsin. Collaborative projects involving researchers at more than one University are specifically encouraged. The P&F program remains an integral part of promoting diabetes research throughout the greater Chicago area and has greatly enhanced the visibility of the DRTC program at participating institutions.