About SWEHSC Pilot Projects

The Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center (SWEHSC) awards up to $40,000 for pilot projects involving research related to the mission of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Center.

Pilot projects are designed to:

• Provide short-term support projects aimed at exploring new areas of environmental health research and acquiring preliminary data necessary to pursue long-term extramural funding

• To support the development of new investigators and non-members who wish to redirect their research to include environmental health

• To test the most innovative ideas relevant to environmental health

Outcomes to date:

Since 1999, 40 pilot projects (selected from 114 applications) have been funded for a total of $1,116,440. From these pilot projects, recipients have received $12,663,311 in extramural funding with over $6,000,000 in pending applications. The return on investment over the past twelve years has ranged from 1:11 to as high as 1:16.

2010 Funding - In this round of funding, priority was given to projects involving translational research, defined as research that advances a scientific finding toward practical application in the areas of public health, medical treatment/management, or public policy. Collaborative efforts that foster integration of basic science, public health research including epidemiology and intervention studies, and patient-oriented clinical research among basic scientists, clinical researchers, and/or public health practitioners was also encouraged. Research to improve early detection, prevention, and/or therapy for environmentally – related disorders, or which utilizes well characterized patients and control subjects are examples of the types of research projects that were responsive to the solicitation.