Abstract The Pilot and Feasibility grant program of the Yale DRC is managed through the Pilot and Feasibility Core. The functions of the Core are to solicit applications from investigators in the Yale School of Medicine and throughout Yale University, to carry out peer review of the applications, and to select meritorious projects for support. Grants are awarded for up to 2 years depending on progress that is made in the first year of funding and plans for the 2nd year. The Core has been directed by Kevan Herold, MD. Sonia Caprio, MD will join as the Co-Director. The Co-Directors work with an oversight committee that makes final funding selections of grants for support. Since the inception of the Yale DRC in 1993, interest and applications to the program has been very high: In the past two funding cycles, 46 applications were supported that had received a median priority score on review of 2.33. The majority of the applications are from new investigators followed by established investigators who are new to diabetes. Thus the program continues to be an important tool for building the research base for diabetes investigation at Yale. Current key personnel in the DRC began their careers with P+F awards from the Yale DRC. Many of the awardees have used the P+F award to obtain preliminary data to apply for external grant support. In the past 2 funding cycles there have been over 20 new external grants made to P+F investigators and the estimated return on investment of the P+F program is 15-fold. The studies supported by the P+F program have resulted in more than 40 peer -reviewed publications during the last two funding cycles. The P+F program has also been a mechanism for initiation of new collaborations often between basic and translational scientists. Examples of these collaborations include studies of innate immune pathways that are associated with hepatic insulin resistance cellular mechanisms of glucose metabolism in adipocytes, and brain metabolism. In summary, the P+F core plays a vital role in new discoveries, attracting new investigators to the diabetes field, and recruiting established investigators who are new to diabetes or are developing a new area of diabetes-related research. In the future, we plan to extend the impact of the P+F program by co-supporting P+F awards with the Liver Center, Yale Center for Clinical Investigation and the Pepper Center for Aging.