The NIH-funded Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center (SCEHSC, scehsc.usc.edu), based at the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, is pleased to announce its 2021 Pilot Projects Program, supporting one-year research projects that aim to promote the understanding of environmental exposures and human disease.
The goal of the program is to provide investigators with an opportunity to collect preliminary data and/or validate the utility of specific methods or techniques to establish the feasibility of larger-scale research projects and ultimately seek external (especially NIEHS) funding.
The SCEHSC is seeking investigator-initiated applications from all environmental health research areas. Topics of special interest include:
- New Approaches for Exposure Assessment
- New Approaches for Environmental Disaster Response Research
- Environment, Neurodevelopment, and Neurological Diseases
- Novel Approaches in Environmental Disparities Assessment
- Climate Change, Adaptation and Environmental Health: The SCEHSC intends to fund at least one pilot project in this area
- Cancer and the Environment
- Complex Mixtures in Environmental Health
- Environmental Contributions to Obesity & Metabolic Dysfunction
- Application of Omics’ Technologies to Environmental Health Research
- Human Microbiome and the Environment
- Community-Based Participatory Research
Eligibility
Individuals with a full-time faculty appointment in any department or school at USC are eligible to apply. Applicants are encouraged to pursue multidisciplinary collaborations, including with investigators at other institutions affiliated with the Center.
Career Development Funds
Postdoctoral researchers at USC with a full-time faculty sponsor may submit proposals for up to $10,000 in direct costs, subject to the same application requirements and deadlines.
Key Program Dates
| Request for Applications – January 12, 2021 | |
| Letter of Intent & Specific Aims Deadline – January 25, 2021 at 5pm PT | |
| Invitation to Submit Full Application – January 28, 2021 | |
| Full Application Deadline – February 22, 2021 at 5pm PT | |
| Notification of Award – April 2021 | |
| Anticipated Award Start Date – May 1, 2021 |
Full proposal guidelines are available at the SCEHSC website: scehsc.usc.edu/2021-pilots
For questions or more information, please contact Vivian Lee (viv.lee@usc.edu).
