DST Spark Seed Grants 2023-2024

Request for Proposals

Purpose

These funds are directed towards enhancing the creativity and novel research and scholarship of Duke’s early/mid-career faculty and will help our faculty pursue new directions and ideas that would otherwise be difficult to fund from other sources.

Eligibility

Full-time Duke Tenure Track Assistant Professors who have been at Duke for a minimum of three (3) years and Associate Professors who have been promoted within the last five (5) years.

Budget

Budget submissions should be in line with the project's scope. Budgets for scientific projects - May request up to $150,000 with an award term of one year. No-cost extension requests of a second year are possible, but a third year will not be approved. Projects in the arts, humanities, and social sciences will be granted up to $15,000 (exceptions will be considered based on the project's scope).

Please note: This is an internal award that will not require an SPS record; No overhead 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.), equipment, travel, and/or consumables. Funding of collaborators outside of Duke will not be allowed.

Proposal Requirements

• Title of project, name of PI, appointment information (current department, school, faculty title), date and title of first Duke faculty appointment, five (5) keywords (will be used to identify proper reviewers)
• Up to two (2) pages describing the project and should include:
  • Justification of why this project is a departure from the faculty member’s current research.
  • 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 no larger than 8 ½" x 11"
  • At least one-half inch margins (1/2") – top, bottom, left, and right for all pages.
  • Font size is at least 11 pt in size and generally recommend Arial, Georgia, Helvetica, or Palatino Linotype.
• A short CV or biosketch of up to five (5) pages – should clearly include the date of the first tenure track faculty appointment and include all current sources of research/scholarship support.
• A one-page budget and budget justification.

Review Criteria

Applications will be reviewed by an internal committee, and will be judged on:

• Responsiveness to the RFA (ineligible applications will be returned unreviewed). The proposal should represent a new direction or new project for the faculty member.
• Creativity of the proposal.
• Potential impact of the proposal on the faculty member’s discipline.

Reporting Requirements

• One-page summary at the end of the award period
• Annual queries to award recipient will be made to ascertain whether any external funding, papers, books, performances, etc. have derived from this award.

Timeline

Submission Tips

• Click here to access MyResearchProposal and log in or choose “Create New User” to apply. Proposals must be submitted under the Principal Investigator’s name.
• Enter access code ‘DST’ then select Apply for the “DST Spark Seed Grants 2023-2024 - Early/Mid-Career Awards” and follow the funding opportunity instructions.
• A step-by-step user’s guide for applying via the MyResearchProposal platform is available online here.

Questions

For any questions regarding your proposal or MyResearchProposal, please contact Anita Grissom by email at anita.grissom@duke.edu or by phone at (919) 668-4774.