# Pilot Projects Program

> **NIH NIH U54** · UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA · 2022 · $961,256

## Abstract

DACCOTA-Pilot Projects Program
Summary: The goal of the Pilot Projects Program is to provide seed funding for highly innovative
projects addressing the needs of the local communities. The greatest hurdle in meeting this goal is
the physical distance between our institutions, which minimizes the necessary familiarity of
interests, skills, and goals critical for successful collaborations to proceed. Our institutions must also
overcome cultural barriers that have resulted in historically limited insight into the research being
conducted at other regional institutions. We will address this deficiency through an innovative online
expertise and interest matching program to formalize interactions between our institutions and
investigators. We will assemble teams of clinician and non-clinician investigators to promote the
critical working relationship needed for a successful collaboration. Moreover, we propose three
unique types of pilot grants stemming from the matching database. The first will be an innovative
“ready-to-go” pilot award for more mature clinician/non-clinician teams. The second will be pilot
awards to clinicians/non-clinicians in response to specific solicitations generated through
community input gathered by our Community Engagement and Outreach Core. The third pilot
program is a feasibility award directed towards those clinician/non-clinician teams requiring
additional input from the Pilot Projects Program and Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research
Design Core to formalize research design, statistical plans, and methodological needs in
preparation for a larger pilot award. Using multiple funding mechanisms, we will foster collaborative
translational research on topics ranging from molecules (genes/proteins) to populations and
catalyze the translation of discoveries to treatments. Most importantly, all pilot awards will be
derived from yearly participation in the interest/expertise matching software to improve the
probability of success and provide a searchable database for tracking accomplishments and
changes within our regional research effort.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10493205
- **Project number:** 5U54GM128729-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA
- **Principal Investigator:** MARC D. BASSON
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $961,256
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10493205

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10493205, Pilot Projects Program (5U54GM128729-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10493205. Licensed CC0.

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