To: The members of the Diabetes Center DERC, and other interested UCSF faculty
From: Douglas Hanahan, DERC P&F Program Director
RFA: We are soliciting proposals for Pilot and Feasibility Grants to be funded under the auspices of the Diabetes Center's DERC Core Grant.

Parameters:
$25 or 50K per year for 1 or 2 years for individual or multi-investigator proposals*.
The basic module is $25,000 per year, and an additional module may be awarded for individual investigator proposals that justify both need and merit.
*We are very interested in fostering new collaborative initiatives ("mini-PO1's") between DC faculty and others in the UCSF community whose expertise could contribute to progress in research on types I and II diabetes. Additional funds may be made available for exceptional multi-investigator proposals.

Application Deadline: April 1, 2006.
Funding: To commence following review, but no later than June 1, 2006
Submission: Applications should be submitted electronically to Lily Yu

Format: The P&F proposal should be no more than5 pages(font = Arial 11), including the following sections:
A. Specific aims
B. Background and significance (brief)
C. Preliminary results
D. Experimental plan (brief)
E. Implications for Diabetes and prospects for independent funding
F. Basis and rationale for collaborative efforts among individuals
Above and beyond the scientific proposal (and its 5 page limit), please submit the standard NIH budget and budget justification pages, clearly explaining your specific request.
Those proposals selected for funding will need to build out their proposal into a complete PHS398 format, but still with the 5 page limit for sections A-F (i.e. no new writing is expected).

Eligibility: P&F Awards are intended to:
(1) support new investigators without current or past NIH research support as a principal investigator;
(2) allow exploration of possible innovative new leads or new directions for established investigators in diabetes; or
(3) stimulate investigators from other areas to lend their expertise to research in diabetes.
(4) bring together multiple groups with complementary research interests to tackle a problem or research area in diabetes
*Pilot and feasibility funds are not intended to support or supplement ongoing funded research of an investigator.