Project Summary/Abstract - Pilot and Feasibility Grants Program The goal of the Michigan Center for Diabetes Translational Research (MCDTR) Pilot and Feasibility (P/F) Grants Program is to: • stimulate new early-stage investigators to enter the field of T2 to T4 translational research in diabetes and to foster productive collaboration, with a focus on research that will improve health equity • provide systematic outreach and formal mentorship to enhance the research career advancement and professional development of early-stage faculty who are currently underrepresented in diabetes translational research • to enable awardees to generate sufficient preliminary data to successfully apply for research funding from the NIH and other national granting agencies and publish their research results, and • to accelerate the pace of translation of interventions with proven efficacy into real-world settings to improve diabetes prevention, treatment, population health, and health equity. Each year, $50,000 awarded to the MCDTR by NIDDK is used to fund two P/F grants. NIH funds are supplemented with institutional funds as needed to support meritorious applications. The P/F Grants program facilitates the solicitation, external peer-review, internal review, and distribution of funds to awardees, and provides for monitoring of expenditures and tracking of P/F grants to assess resultant extramural funding and publications.