Pilot wrap-around support initiative: Enhanced support for internally funded CTSA pilot awards

TL;DR

This paper describes a new initiative to provide enhanced support for pilot research projects to improve their success and likelihood of securing future funding.

Contribution

The novel contribution is the implementation of a wrap-around support initiative with new mechanisms to assist pilot project researchers.

Findings

The initiative received 55 letters of intent and 23 full applications across two funding cycles.

Six projects were funded to start in 2024, with four more set to begin in 2025.

New support mechanisms included consultations, PI orientation, and collaboration planning.

Abstract

The Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) Pilot Wrap-Around Support Initiative, implemented in the 2023 pilot funding cycle, was designed to help research teams access comprehensive research support for their pilot projects throughout the entire funding cycle. The overall goal of the initiative is to support researchers to improve timely and successful completion of project aims with a high likelihood of receiving follow-on external funding to advance clinical and translational science. This initiative builds upon existing CTSI resources by adding new support mechanisms, including Core consultations during application development, a pilot project Principal Investigator (PI) orientation meeting, and team science collaboration planning for funded teams. In the 2023 and 2024 funding cycles, we received 55 letters of intent and 23 invited full applications. Pilot project PIs engaged in each of our new and existing support mechanisms to various degrees, resulting in six funded projects that started July 1, 2024 and four funded projects set to begin July 1, 2025. Plans for the initiative include supporting access to clinical research staff through a CTSI staffing program and overarching pilot project evaluation to guide future programmatic improvement.

Figures