PROJECT SUMMARY – PILOT PROJECTS PROGRAM A major purpose of a Phase 3 COBRE Center is to provide a program for identifying and supporting scientifically worthy pilot projects that will utilize existing COBRE Core Labs and generate preliminary results in support of new research grant proposals and applications. The CMADP Pilot Projects Program (PPP) will continue its successful program from Phases 1 & 2. This will be accomplished by broadly advertising new Pilot Project competitions, obtaining independent internal and/or external reviews of all applications, and consulting with the EAC to identify new projects to support. The PPP will interact with other components of the Administrative Core to provide career and research guidance for junior faculty by providing grant writing workshop opportunities through the KU Office of Research Development, individual mentoring by senior faculty, and monitoring of scientific progress and career development through monthly CMADP group meetings and interactions with the External Advisory Committee. The individual COBRE Pilot Projects will, by definition, interact strongly with one or more of our three COBRE Core Labs.