The mission of the Pilot and Feasibility Program (P&F) of the Penn DRC is foster the development of new investigators and to provide seed-support for innovative high-risk diabetes-related projects, with an increasing emphasis on clinical and translational science. Over the past 2 funding periods (10 years), the Pilot and Feasibility Program has been highly successful in this regard. 39 investigators received P&F Awards and, of these, 34 (87%) have garnered NIH support, the majority as R01s directly related to their Pilot Awards. During the previous funding period 30 grants were awarded from among 115 applications submitted by investigators representing 22 Departments spanning multiple Schools and Institutes on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania and other Philadelphia institutions. Of the funded grants, nearly 80% were to new investigators and more than 25% were dedicated to clinical and translational projects. During the next funding period we propose to continue the core mission of the Pilot and Feasibility Program. Given the past successes of the program, the increased cost of performing research in the setting of a more competitive general funding environment, and the clear need based on the escalating numbers of applications from new and established investigators both within and outside of the diabetes research community, we feel that this program continues to be well justified. We also propose to administer one additional Pilot and Feasibility Award dedicated to the use of the exciting new Regional Metabolomics Core at Princeton University that is proposed in this application and consistent with the P&F mission.
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