Pilot Projects Program

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There is an urgent need to increase diversity in research in order to improve health care for underserved groups. Hispanics, women and unrepresented minorities (URM) early stage and new investigators are at a disadvantage in obtaining funding from the National Institutes of Health. The Pilot Project Program (PPP) Core of the Hispanic Alliance for Clinical and Translational Research (Alliance) is a critical component to this Institutional Development Award in Clinical and Translational Research (IDeA-CTR) application. The long- term goal of the PPP is to increase the number of URM scientists in clinical and translational research dedicated to the study of health conditions affecting a Hispanic population. The objective of the PPP is to increase the cadre of URM independent investigators in clinical and translational research addressing health conditions prevalently affecting the medically underserved Hispanic population Puerto of Rico with an emphasis on community engagement. This will be accomplished through sustained collaboration and coordination of clinical and translational research activities as proposed in the following aims: 1) advance the development of innovative and interdisciplinary collaborative clinical and translational research on health conditions affecting the Hispanic population through the support of junior faculty (early stage and new investigators) and established investigators via pilot projects; 2) promote community engagement translational research pilot projects for the studies of community health; and 3) foster the development of competitive researchers in clinical and translational research by designing in collaboration with the Professional Development Core (PDC) a tailor-made career development plan for providing the needed skills and preliminary data. Reflecting on the accomplishments of the current PPP, the activities of the Alliance's PPP build on our success's while seeking to address those challenges identified. As a result, the PPP will: 1. Fund 6 pilot projects per year and with adequate justification expand funding up to 2 years; 2. Coordinate Pilot monitoring with other Alliance cores (e.g., PDC, Community Engagement and Outreach Core [CoE], Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design, and Tracking and Evaluation Core) to assure compliance with the requirements of publications and grant submission; 3. Conduct mock study sessions where the investigator can be a silent observant of the review process; 4. Participate in the Alliance's Annual Scientific Meeting where a productivity award will be given to Pilot Project awardees; 5. Schedule meetings with mentors to discuss mentoring styles and problems mentors/mentees may be experiencing; 6. Collaborate with CoE in disseminating scientific information to the community in the activity titled “Town Hall Meeting with a Scientist: Science & Health” and 7. Establish an interdisciplinary and interinstitutional working group to assure diversity in the investigators, collaborations, and research topics supported. The Alliance PPP Core will increase the cadre of URM independent investigators and will foster further research on health conditions of the Hispanic population leading to improved wellbeing.