As a national leader in driving high-impact discoveries in medicine, the Department of Medicine (DOM) has built a research infrastructure that enhances faculty development, mentoring, and funding programs that strengthen the next generation of outstanding investigators.
The DOM Research Office provides many resources and opportunities for research scientists at all career levels, including two broad departmental research communities: the Fellow Research Academy (FRA) and the Career Development Award (CDA) Community.
Fellows
The FRA complements each research fellow’s existing mentor team by providing additional training and a sense of community with other research fellows across the department. Three interrelated components make up the FRA: longitudinal grant development workshops, career development workshops and networking within DOM.
Fellows develop grant proposals and participate in a fellow-focused grant incubator program led by the DOM Research Development Council team. Workshops are led by DOM researchers and address high-yield topics to support career development.
Early Stage Junior Faculty
The Duke DOM Career Development Award (CDA) Community is a longitudinal support program for early-career faculty who are actively pursuing or currently have NIH K awards or other externally-funded CDAs.
The CDA Community provides a venue for participants to connect with their peers for formal and informal sharing of knowledge and experiences, facilitating the emergence of grant incubators and professional social connections. Participants have the opportunity to connect with career stage-appropriate coaches with external CDAs or R-level awards.
All Faculty
The DOM Research Council offers Concept Reviews, or high-level reviews of investigators' research proposals by faculty experts in their fields. Dr. Matt Crowley, associate director for clinical research, coordinates these sessions.
DOM researchers have the opportunity to meet with Irina Mokrova, PhD, senior research development associate, and Maren Olsen, PhD, associate professor in biostatistics and bioinformatics, for individual grant writing support.
Mokrova was recruited by Duke in 2019 to help develop a larger channel of Dr. Olsen connects researchers with biostats resources and advises on biostats questions. Mokrova is a grant-writing coach, career development coach, and a research methodologist for early stage investigators who want one-on-one support.
All School of Medicine faculty researchers can also take advantage each year of free summer workshops, offered in collaboration with the Duke Office of Research Initiatives, on writing winning NIH grant and career development proposals.