Pilot Project Program
Each year, we invite investigators to submit proposals for pilot funding to support research projects focused on aging lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations.
We seek cutting-edge research to illuminate how biological, psychosocial, and environmental factors intersect throughout the life course to generate disparities in health and well-being at older ages in lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations.
Proposals will be given priority that address:
- Biosocial Processes. Network Core activities examine the impact of social factors and contexts that vary across sexual orientation groups as they intersect with genomic, epigenetic, and biological factors that shape mental, physical, and cognitive health trajectories in aging populations.
- Family and Social Engagement. Network Core activities examine how family, relationships, social engagement, caregiving, and living arrangements uniquely influence the experience and pace of aging among sexual orientation groups.
- Socioeconomic and Institutional Contexts. Network Core activities examine how socioeconomic and institutional contexts (e.g., schools, neighborhoods, workplaces, geopolitical contexts) throughout life confer unique risks or advantages for the health and well-being of aging populations across sexual orientation groups.
Pilot projects should be designed to support the development of a larger research project that will be submitted under an NIA grant mechanism (K01, R03, R01, R21). Pilot projects are not intended to support work to complete a study or as an addendum to an existing project. NIA considers the success rate of grants submitted from the pilot projects when making decisions about funding future CAPS pilot projects.
Current Pilot Project Awards
2026-2028
Life Course Patterns of Community Involvement and Risk of Mild Cognitive Impairment among Midlife and Older Adults
Harry Barbee, Assistant Professor, Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins University
This project examines whether community involvement across the life course protects against mild cognitive impairment risk among midlife and older sexual minority adults. Using three waves of the Social Networks, Aging, and Policy Study (SNAPS), a longitudinal panel of sexual minority adults ages 50-76 living in the U.S. South, the project applies life course methods to identify distinct patterns of participation in organizations, civic life, and political activity from adolescence through later life, and tests whether these patterns, their timing, and their trajectories are associated with mild cognitive impairment risk. Findings could inform community programming and dementia prevention strategies for sexual minority older adults and provide preliminary data for a future NIA R21/R01 application.
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Polypharmacy and Substance Use Risks In Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Older Adults
Nicole Lampe, Assistant Professor, Department of Behavioral Health Science & Practice, University of South Florida
The pilot project will identify risk and protective factors driving polypharmacy, alcohol, and substance use disparities among gay, lesbian, and bisexual older adults. Results from this project will establish an evidence-based need for a future NIA R01 that examines how polypharmacy and substance-use pathways contribute to Alzheimer's disease and related dementias risk factors in this population.
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2025-2027
Marital Stress and Alcohol Use among Same- and Different-Sex Couples
Amanda Pollitt, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Sciences, Northern Arizona University
Sexual and gender minorities are three times more likely than heterosexuals to consume alcohol and are more likely to drink heavily, which contributes to health disadvantages for sexual minority older adults. Marital strain is strongly associated with alcohol use across the lifespan, and alcohol can adversely affect health and cognition. Since marriage has only recently been widely available to same-sex couples, little is known about how marital stress and alcohol use unfold in tandem for same-sex couples or how this compares to different-sex couples. Approach: Data from the Health and Relationships Project, which includes three waves of dyadic daily data, will be used to examine how marital stress from one spouse influences the other spouse’s alcohol use on a day-to-day basis among same- and different-sex couples and how these daily dynamics change over a 10-year period in mid- to later adulthood.
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State Legislation and Policies and Cognitive Decline
Lawrence Stacey, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Vanderbilt University
This project will examine how a wide range of anti- and protective-LGBT state legislation and state policies are associated with cognitive decline in the United States. Using data from the Human Rights Campaign and Movement Advancement Project to track the evolution of LGBT legislation and policies at the state level and data from the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), I will investigate how such policies are associated with confusion or memory loss, day-to-day activities, and needed assistance in midlife and later life for a probability-based sample of Americans, and whether such associations vary for LGBT and non-LGBT populations.
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