The Office of Campus Research Development (OCRD), under the Office for Research and Innovation (OR&I), provides proposal development services to help Duke faculty and the broader research community submit high-quality proposals. OCRD services are free to Duke faculty and their supporting staff, postdocs and students.
OCRD also co-coordinates institutionally limited submissions with the Duke Office of Research Initiatives (DORI) and serves as the administrative liaison for the Duke-Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Collaboration.
OCRD Resources and Services
Proposal Toolkits
OCRD develops mechanisms-specific toolkits to help write proposals for a variety of funding opportunities. All toolkits can be accessed on myRESEARCHpath.
Multi-disciplinary and Multi-institutional Proposal Support
Support for complex, multi-project or multi-pillar proposals. Support includes customized toolkits for these opportunities, all services for one-on-one consultations, and mock site visit or reverse site visits for proposals that advance to this review stage. Contact sohini.sengupta@duke.edu directly for this type of support.
For Your Considerations (FYCs)
For Your Considerations (FYCs) are two-page white papers on general grant writing best practices or on writing about specific and complex concepts/sections that funding agencies are expecting applicants to demonstrate in their proposals. All FYCs can be accessed on myRESEARCHpath.
One-on-one Consultations
Consultations ranging from early-stage to late-stage proposal development support, always coordinating with grants administrators and other team members. Contact sohini.sengupta@duke.edu to schedule a consultation.
OCRD Programming
OCRD offers a series of 1-hour to 90-minute workshops and information sessions.
Workshops
Workshops address both the persuasive and technical aspects of grant writing. To be persuasive, one needs to understand, not only the funding agency but also the specific program or specific priority coming from the funding agency. These workshops are intended to help develop organized and high-quality proposals. As follow-ups to most of these workshops, OCRD provides grant writing toolkits to help with the writing process.
Information Sessions
Sessions provide broad overviews or introductions to specific funding agencies or funding opportunities that are either new or less commonly pursued by Duke researchers. OCRD holds 3-4 workshops or information sessions per semester.