D

Project Summary (Core D: Pilot Project Core) The purpose of the Pilot Project Core is to fund pilot projects that are likely to produce new collaborations, publications, and grants. We will consider the project and the applicant and will seek to fund all career stages, genders, under-represented minorities, people with disabilities and people from disadvantaged

backgrounds. Pilot projects will not be used to supplement or prolong ongoing research, nor will they serve as bridge funds for the maintenance of ongoing research. While this P30 application is a new grant, we hope to build on our experience from our previously funded P50 center, which also had a pilot project core. The Pilot Project Core will offer 1- and 2-year grants

that will include money (up to $25,000 per year), heterogeneous stock (HS) rats, RATTACA rats (RAT Trait Ascertainment using Common Alleles), which are HS rats selected based on genetically predicted phenotypes as described in Core B, genotyping or analysis services or any combination thereof. We anticipate various

types of grants, for example: 1) projects to follow-up on studies that target specific genes identified by genome-wide association studies (GWAS), for example by using mutant rats, viral vectors, or pharmacological agents, 2) projects to collect preliminary phenotype data using HS rats, 3) project that develop new statistical,

bioinformatic or machine learning methodologies that can be used to better analyze data that have already been generated by our center, 4) projects that use the genotyping or analysis services provided by Core C, and 5) we will also consider awards that use complementary approaches provided that they are related to the

center’s work. For example, our P50 funded a project that examined genes identified in HS rats using a mutant c. elegans screen. In all cases, the goal of these grants will be to strategically enhance the impact of the center and to engage the broader scientific community. Grants will allow initiation of activities that, if successful, will

become self-sustaining. We describe how pilot project applications will be solicited, evaluated, and how we will use those evaluations, in conjunction with other programmatic considerations, to make funding decisions. We also present examples of grants that we might fund in year 1, and we describe how we will ensure that all pilot

projects will comply with all applicable federal regulations.