The Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Development Award provides grants to junior physician scientists to facilitate their transition to independent clinical research careers.
The transition to an independent research career is often more difficult for physician scientists than it is for other researchers, as these individuals must balance the demands of both seeing patients and conducting research. The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's Medical Research Program created the Clinical Scientist Development Awards to provide mentored research funding and research time protection to early-career physician-scientist faculty to enable their transition to independent and successful research careers.
In keeping with the wishes expressed in Doris Duke's will, experiments that use animals or primary tissues derived from animals will not be supported by this program.
Pre-proposals Due: Nov. 17, 2022
The CSDA is for individuals who have completed all clinical training (residency, fellowship, and any research years post-fellowship prior to faculty) and are at the Assistant Professor rank. Please see our FAQs for more information.The CSDA is a highly competitive award. Typically, 10% of all reviewed applications are funded. Competitive applicantsare expected to have research experience and contributions consistent with the rank of Assistant Professor as well as committed mentorship and institutional support. We understand that COVID-19 has negatively affected research productivity and will be mindful of this general impact when evaluating applications for this competition. To be eligible for this award, applicants must
•Have received an MD, DO, or foreign equivalent degree from an accredited institution.
•Have a valid, active US medical license at the time of application, but do not have to be US citizens.
•Work at a US academic institution that grants doctoral degrees and is able to receive an award as an organization with 501(c)(3) Internal Revenue Service status. Please see the information on page 4 and consult with your institutional grants office.
•Have a full-time faculty appointment at the Assistant Professor rank. Adjunct, affiliated, temporary, part-time or acting faculty positions are not eligible for this competition. Applicants that will become Associate Professor on or before the award start date of July 1, 2023 are not eligible for the award.
•Have been appointed to their first post-training, full-time Assistant Professor faculty position between December 1, 2018, and December 1, 2021 (i.e., have been at the appointment no more than 4 years but at least 1 year). Exceptions to the four-year requirement will be considered on a case-by-case basis for individuals who do not meet this criterion because of delays in career advancement due to COVID-19 and/or family or medical leave. For COVID-19-related delays, exceptions of up to 6 months will be considered.Check our FAQs for examples of situations for which DDCF may make an exception.DDCF approval of exemptions must be obtained prior to submitting a pre-proposal. Exemption requests must be made by October 14, 2022. Exemptions are not granted for applicants with less than one year at their academic position. Please check page 6 for further information on eligibility exemption requests.
The Clinical Scientist Development Awards consist of $150,000 annual direct costs plus $15,000 (10%) annual indirect costs for three years. The priority of the Clinical Scientist Development Awards program is to fund outstanding individuals with potential for clinical research careers, substantial institutional commitments to mentorship and career development, and whose projects will address highly significant research questions and lead to career advancement. The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation does not have funding priorities based on disease area or research type.
