CEED Pilot Projects – 9 Award Announced

The CEED Pilot Project Program is a collaboration between the NIEHS Center and the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) at Rutgers University, designed to encourage interdisciplinary and new approaches to investigating environmental health questions. This year’s Request for Proposals was announced in February, on the eve of the July 1, 2013 merger between the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and Rutgers University, to form Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences.

This year’s priorities were interdisciplinary collaborations related to the microbiome and/or the interaction between the environment and obesity. The 19 proposals submitted included first-time applicants who were new to environmental health research or not affiliated with CEED, partnering across disciplines and schools within the two universities. The review team was challenged with the task of selecting less than half of the proposals, many of which included new approaches to incorporating microbiome concepts or metabolic effects of environmental exposures, or a combination of these elements. They made 9 Pilot Project Awards, including one Hurricane Sandy-related project.

Summary descriptions of the 9 projects, covering the following disciplines, can be see on the Pilot Program page.

• Plant Biology
• Exercise Science
• Biochemistry and Microbiology
• Nutritional Science
• Pharmacology/Toxicology
• Child Health
• Public Health
• Animal Sciences