PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT PILOT PROJECT CORE In the past decade, nearly 90% of states in the U.S. have passed legislation legalizing the use of cannabis for medical and/or recreational use. This has dramatically increased the access to CBD and high THC potency cannabis products, readily available in an expanding commercial market. This rapid expansion underscores the critical and urgent need for rigorous research to address many gaps in our scientific understanding of the impact and health effects of cannabis use across the lifespan. Many of the research gaps and unanswered questions about cannabis are early-stage scientific questions requiring preliminary pilot studies to inform the directions for future research and where larger studies are warranted. The Pilot Project Core (PPC) of the RM- CRC will function as an incubator of research innovation for the RM-CRC and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (UC-AMC) by establishing a rigorous and efficient process for competitive review, selection, and funding of innovative pilot cannabis research projects that are foundational to informing directions for future research in the form of new R01 grant submissions (Aims 1 & 3). The PPC will also prioritize support for junior faculty who are embarking on cannabis-related research careers, but who have not yet attained substantial funding. The PPC will place special emphasis on outreach and recruitment pipeline of early-career investigators from groups that are underrepresented in medicine with substantial institutional support from the University of Colorado School of Medicine. The RM-CRC and PPC will host an annual institution-wide Cannabis Research Day at AMC. This and other PPC dissemination and outreach efforts will encourage and attract both junior investigators and established investigators from a broad multiple subspecialties, who may not have previously engaged in cannabis research, to apply for RM-CRC pilot grant awards. The PPC will establish an environment that promotes the career development of new investigators and fosters innovation and interdisciplinary cannabis research to expand the diversity of the UC-AMC research portfolio and cannabis research community (Aim 2).