The Center supports an Environmental Health Research Pilot Projects Program to facilitate the collaboration of new investigators and innovative research ideas. Many of the Pilot Project grants provide support for junior investigators or are a catalyst for faculty to collaborate on interdisciplinary environmental health research projects.

The main objectives of the pilot project program are:

• to provide funding for small-scale studies that will establish the feasibility of a full-scale project for which major research support is sought,
• to provide funding for validation studies for procedures that may be adopted for full-scale research proposals, and
• to attract the interest of investigators at USC and UCLA who are not part of the Center.