Lessons learned from ten years of the Mountain West Clinical and Translational Research Infrastructure Network: A case study from the research core

The Mountain West Clinical & Translational Research Infrastructure Network (MW CTR-IN), hosted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the National Institutes of Health, began as a partnership among 13 major U.S. public universities across 7 MW Institutional Development Award (IDeA) States, stretched across 1/3rd of the U.S. land mass and encompassed almost 1/3^rd of all IDeA States. The mission of the MW CTR-IN is to build and enhance infrastructure capacity to increase CTR in the MW region. This case study describes the Clinical Pilot Projects Program (CP3) processes and tools used to support this objective through its selection of applications to fund, supporting applicants and funded investigators, and providing guidance and oversight during the funding period. The MW CTR-IN has funded 152 single-investigator pilot projects, 7 multisite pilot projects, 13 developmental team grant projects, and 14 community-engaged projects. These projects have also led to over $92M in extramural grant funding, 308 presentations, and 1,124 peer-reviewed publications. The methodologies and expertise we gained can assist other CTR networks in developing efficient pilot project programs that have been evaluated and demonstrated to improve CTR initiatives, especially through the use of a custom portal.