# Pilot and Feasibility Core

> **NIH NIH P30** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2022 · $246,078

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The Pilot & Feasibility (P&F) Program of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard (NORC-H) provides
grants of up to $30,000 to investigators in nutrition and obesity who require pilot or feasibility data to test early
hypotheses and/or prove feasibility for larger grant applications. The goals of the program are to promote
novel, cutting-edge research, to support and retain early career investigators, to engage a wide spectrum of
nutrition/obesity researchers with the NORC-H, to promote the success of recipients, and to facilitate the
integration of recipients into the larger NORC-H community. At least four new awards are given each year, and
renewals are awarded on a competitive basis for projects that have shown particularly good progress and
potential. The P&F budget is supplemented with philanthropy and other budgetary sources whenever possible,
resulting in an average of $175,900 awarded per year between 2017-2021. The program prioritizes support of
early career investigators, who represented 84% of recipients between 2012-2021, and also supports
exemplary proposals from established investigators new to the fields of nutrition or obesity or from established
investigators within the field pursuing new research directions. The NORC-H is highly invested in P&F
recipients’ success and provides multiple resources including a dedicated mentoring program, vouchers for
use of Core services, biostatistical support from Dr. Lee (NORC-H biostatistician), and the opportunity to
network and present their work at an Annual P&F Symposium. The NORC-H Administrative Core works with
Dr. Stanley, the P&F Director, to administer the program, ensuring that applicants have appropriate animal or
human subjects approvals and tracking outcomes for awards and recipients over time to judge program
success. Over the past 2 cycles (2012-2021), P&F recipients have been highly successful in leveraging the
P&F funding into publications and further grant support. From 2012-2021, 62 awards totaling 1.5 million dollars
were given; these have been leveraged into 37.5 million dollars of subsequent NIH funding, including 5 K-level
career development grants and 13 R01s. The 62 awards have also resulted in 140 subsequent related
publications, 16 of which are in high impact journals (impact factor >10). Numerous recipients have received
academic promotions and have become successful independent investigators, and 90% of recipients from
2012-2021 are still working in the fields of nutrition and obesity. Program successes over the past grant cycle
include (1) dedicated efforts to increase applications from scientists underrepresented in medicine and to
increase the success rate of those awards, (2) increased applications per cycle to ensure a highly competitive
process funding the most promising science, and (3) development of a dedicated mentoring program for
recipients. In the upcoming cycle, the program will provide additional resources and educati...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10499407
- **Project number:** 2P30DK040561-26
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Takara Leah Stanley
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $246,078
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 1997-09-01 → 2027-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10499407

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10499407, Pilot and Feasibility Core (2P30DK040561-26). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10499407. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*