# Pilot Project Program

> **NIH NIH P30** · ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI · 2020 · $636,789

## Abstract

Project Summary 
The Pilot Projects core of the Mount Sinai P30 Core Center provides funding for “start-up” research projects 
targeting important and complex environmental health issues, particularly those that fit our transdisciplinary 
theme and will likely lead to NIH funding. Our Pilot Projects Core is supplemented with $100,000 of institutional 
funding annually, allowing us to increase the level of support we provide above that directly provided by this 
P30 grant. All applications are peer reviewed using NIH review criteria and scoring. Pilot grants are prioritized if 
1) they are likely to lead to a larger extramural grant, 2) if they fit one of the themes of our 3 research groups, 
3) if the PI is an Assistant Professor, 4) if the PI is a multi-PI grant with a postdoctoral fellow who pledges to 
use it for a K grant application and 5) if the pilot is a Community Based Participatory Research Project (CBPR). 
In the first 3 years, we distributed 19 pilot grants totaling ~$650,000 dollars, which should be placed in the 
context of our center having only between ~$530K-710K of direct costs to spend annually, demonstrating the 
high priority we placed on this program. In return, 4 pilots have already led to funded NIH applications totaling 
~$19,000,000 in total direct costs (See Table e in “other attachments”). The first 12 pilot grants awarded 
have already led to 10 NIH grant applications (8 assigned to NIEHS) with 4 funded. All 10 NIH applications 
arose from grants funded in years 1-2, as year 3 is too recent to evaluate. Our Pilot Projects Program has not 
only fueled a large number of new NIH grant applications, they have increased facility core usage and have 
been a strong vehicle for career development. Our program to support junior investigators applying for P30 
pilot grants has been remarkably successful with 14 of 19 funded pilot grants going to Assistant Professors. 
Our Center's 3 Research groups (1. multiple exposures/mixtures, 2. social environment-chemical interactions 
and 3. sex specific effects) are designed to be transdisciplinary so that we can tackle the complex issues 
embedded in the NIEHS strategic vision. This has fueled a large number of new transdisciplinary pilot grant 
collaborations among Center faculty. Center members from multiple departments have been PIs including 
Genetics- (Dudley, Pandey), Neuroscience (Morishita), Pediatrics (Chu, Satlin), Endocrinology (Homann), 
Pulmonology (Lee), Biostatistics(Benn) and Psychiatry (Reichenberg). Most had never conducted 
environmental health research previously before receiving a P30 Pilot grant. Our CBPR funding set aside, 
implemented in year 2, has already yielded two funded pilots and generated 5 CBPR applications. This Pilot 
Project Core has created the support that helped catalyze our remarkable growth over the first 3 years of our 
center. We have clearly demonstrated our ability to leverage these grants for future NIH applications. Going 
forward, we will...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9904644
- **Project number:** 5P30ES023515-07
- **Recipient organization:** ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI
- **Principal Investigator:** Robert O Wright
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $636,789
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9904644

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9904644, Pilot Project Program (5P30ES023515-07). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9904644. Licensed CC0.

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