2026 - 2027 Request for Proposals
Purpose
These funds are directed toward supporting nascent collaborative, interdisciplinary projects, with a preference for projects that advance science and technology. The goals of this program are to enable faculty from multiple disciplines to initiate high-impact projects that could lead to additional external funding.
Eligibility
At least two Duke University faculty members serving as Co-PIs with primary faculty appointments in different schools (or divisions within Trinity). Collaborations that involve science are strongly encouraged. Faculty with primary appointments at Duke-NUS and Duke-Kunshan are not eligible.
Budget
Project teams may request up to $100,000 with the expectation that the funds will be spent by the “Funds to be Expended by Date.” Budgets are not required to request the full award amount and should be scaled to fit expected costs for the proposed project.
Please note: This is an internal award that will not require an SPS record; No overhead, F&A/or G&A should be included in the budget.
Applicable to School of Medicine (SOM) faculty only: SOM does not assess G&A on DST expenditures.
Allowable Costs
Funds may be used for salary/stipend and fringe of personnel (including PI, students, post-docs, project managers, technicians, participant compensation, etc.), tuition remission, equipment, travel, and/or consumables. Funding of collaborators outside of Duke will not be allowed.
Proposal Requirements
Applications must include the following components:
Applicant Information
- Title of project
- Name of PI and Co-PI(s)
- Appointment information (current department, school, faculty title)
- Five (5) keywords (will be used to identify proper reviewers).
Project Description
Up to two (2) pages describing:
- Where would future funding for the project come from.
- Justification of why this project would be difficult to fund from other sources.
- A plan to make substantial progress toward their aims within the one-year term.
Paper size should be 8 ½" x 11", at least one-half inch margins (1/2") – top, bottom, left, and right for all pages. The font size should be at least 11 pt. The fonts generally recommend are: Arial, Georgia, Helvetica, or Palatino Linotype
CV/ Biosketch
A short CV/ Biosketch of up to five (5) pages for each PI – should clearly include the date of the first tenure track faculty appointment and include all current sources of research/scholarship support.
Review Criteria
Applications will be reviewed by fellow Duke faculty members. Select applications will be reviewed by a committee of senior academic leaders. In both cases, faculty reviewers and members of the internal committee will not necessarily be from the applicant’s area of expertise and the proposal should be written for a general scientific audience.
- Responsiveness to the RFA
- Creativity of the proposal.
- Potential impact of the project, if successful.
- Potential for future funding.
Reporting Requirements
- At the end of the one-year award period, recipients will be required to submit an End of Year report which should include: project status, what has been accomplished, problems encountered, any changes made to project objectives, project expenditures. Additional, annual queries to award recipient will be made to ascertain whether any external funding, papers, books, etc. have derived from this award.
- A No Cost Extension (NCE) can be requested. NCEs are granted at the discretion of the Duke Office for Research & Innovation. NCE requests should be accompanied by a status report detailing: project status, what has been accomplished, problems encountered, any changes made to project objectives, and an outline of how funds will be spent during the NCE period
Timeline
| RFP Released | March 2, 2026 |
| RFP Deadline for Submission | April 3, 2026 |
| Anticipated Grant Notification | July 31, 2026 |
| Funds Made Available | September 1, 2026 |
| Funds To Be Expended By | October 1, 2027 |
Submissions
Submissions will close on April 3, 2026, at 11:59 PM.
Applicant Instructions
- To apply visit https://duke.is/DukeMRP, click on “Create New User” (or log in if you already have an account). Proposals must be submitted under the Principal Investigator’s name.
- A step-by-step user’s guide for applying via the MyResearchProposal software is available here.
- Access Code for the award is: ‘LAUNCH’
- For any questions concerning MyResearchProposal passwords or system issues, please contact: myresearchproposal@duke.edu.
- For all other questions, please contact vpri@duke.edu.
FAQs
At least two Duke Co-PIs with primary faculty appointments in different schools (or divisions within Trinity). Collaborations that involve science are strongly encouraged. Only main campus, SOM, and SON faculty are eligible to apply. Duke-NUS and Duke-Kunshan faculty are not eligible.
The two-page proposal maximum does not include references. The budget, CV, and two-page proposal must be formatted as specified in the RFP. You may include videos and hyperlinks in the proposal.
If there are only two faculty on a proposal, we require that each has a primary faculty appointment from a different school (or division within Trinity). If there are three or more faculty on a proposal, we require that a minimum of two schools are represented in the primary faculty appointments of the PIs.
This is an internal award and will not require an SPS record to support the submission.
No, indirects/overhead/ (G&A) should not be included in the total budget. The budget should include all direct costs necessary for the completing the aims of proposal.
Yes, tuition remission is an allowable expense in the budget.
Although this program does not have a faculty effort requirement, applicants should follow their school's guidance around minimum effort on sponsored projects and satisfy a standard of reasonability for their Other Support documentation.
All review committee members will be in the discipline, but may not be subject matter experts.
MyResearchProposal is a web-based tool used for streamlining the management of competitive grant application processes, nominations, and other data collection mechanisms used by CTSI, the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing, and other institutes and departments across Duke.