The CURES Pilot Project Program (PPP) is intended to provide both initial support to early stage and new investigators to enable them to establish their environmental health research programs and supplemental support to established investigators to enable them to pursue innovative new ideas that broaden or depart from their existing research programs. The PPP also serves to encourage investigators in different disciplines to apply their research expertise to environmental health problems, thereby broadening the knowledge and skill base of CURES. Additional goals of the PPP are to provide an effective mechanism for attracting new members to CURES and to promote career enhancement, especially of early stage and new investigators. The PPP is an essential component of the CURES process for building its capacity to enhance our understanding of the adverse health effects from chemical and nonchemical urban environmental exposures; develop the next generation of environmental health researchers who are facile with transdisciplinary, translational team science; and interact with the community so as to leverage our research to improve the health of the people of Detroit. The specific aims of the PPP are: 1) Administer the PPP by a) planning each year’s funding opportunity, advertising the availability of pilot grants, providing guidance to potential applicants, and coordinating the submission and review of applications, b) awarding 3-7 new pilot grants each year of the funding cycle, with each award for $60,000 over a 1.5-year period, c) monitoring pilot projects during the pre- award, award-time, and post-award phases, and d) tracking success of the PPP by recording all efforts to secure extramural funding, all publications and presentations of research findings resulting from the pilot project, successful career advancement of pilot project recipients, and evidence of scientific impact of the projects, as well as their impact on the community and on research translation. 2) In collaboration with the Career Enhancement Program, use the PPP as a mechanism to support the career enhancement of early- stage and new investigators. 3) In collaboration with the Community Engagement Core (CEC) and its Community Advisory Board (CAB), provide a mechanism for community engagement by a) seeking input from CAB members about their environmental health concerns before developing annual requests for applications, b) providing our CAB with a say in determining which pilot projects are funded by having CAB members review LOIs to assess how well prospective projects address environmental health issues of concern to the community, c) increasing our CAB’s capacity to review, as well as their knowledge about the EHS research that is conducted by CURES, by including new “shadow reviewers” in each year’s LOI review process and providing tutorials on how to review research proposals, and d) requiring pilot project recipients to present their research at CEC-sponsored events, suc...