Can the short-term or pilot projects be used as training opportunities for developing investigators?
ANSWER. The purpose of the short-term project(s) is to support pilot or feasibility studies that can lead to a traditional research project(s) funded as part of the center grant. Pilot projects are used to answer very focused and specific questions that can be used to proceed with a major research project. We do not intend the pilot projects to represent training for developing scientists. They may be involved in the pilot research because there is much background work needed to develop a major research project. However, it is outside the scope of this RFA to use the pilot projects purely for training purposes.
