Pilot and Exploratory Studies Core Overview

The ASCENT Pilot and Exploratory Studies Core (Pilot) catalyzes growth in palliative care research by funding and supporting innovative pilot and exploratory studies that build foundational evidence to improve care for people living with serious illnesses and their caregivers across the lifespan. It also addresses gaps in national research infrastructure by fostering early-stage projects and developing investigators whose work will lead to high-impact, large-scale studies.

Core Goals

• Fund and support pilot and exploratory research      
  Administer the ASCENT Pilot and Exploratory Studies Award Program to initiate studies that advance palliative care science across all conditions and populations.
• Develop and facilitate mentoring of Pilot and Exploratory Studies awardees      
  Provide monitoring, feedback, and linkages to ASCENT Cores and resources to support early and mid-career researchers.
• Build a national palliative care research community
  Promote collaboration and engagement among investigators to strengthen the evidence base and accelerate innovation in palliative care research.