Funding Opportunities

FastTrack Medical Device Development RFA

FastTrack, a collaborative medical device engineering resource in the Duke Pratt School of Engineering, in conjunction with Duke MEDx, announces a competitive funding opportunity for the development and translation of medical device ideas.

Selected projects will receive

  • Full prototyping and engineering development services
  • Project management and market analysis
  • IP and Regulatory (FDA) guidance in collaboration with OLV and ORAQ
  • Support for finding industry partnerships for manufacturing and commercializing

Application and Selection Processes

Submit your idea via the online submission form below. This form leads the applicant through a series of questions – the applicant must complete all questions. Attach drawings, documents or presentations if these help describe your idea. The FastTrack engineers will meet with applicants to discuss the idea and explain the subsequent steps. The review criteria include readiness and motivation of the inventor/team, capability match with the Fast Track program, market validation of the idea, intellectual property and competition assessments. 

Decisions will be made by an Innovation Committee comprised of representatives of the Office of Licensing and Ventures, the Office of Regulatory Affairs and Quality, engineers and clinicians. All proposals will remain confidential to the Fast Track team and the Innovation Committee.

  • The idea submission deadline is January 31, 2020.
  • There will be an in-person consultation with applicants in February and March
  • The Innovation Consortium will review, score and provide feedback and guidance for next steps
  • Shortlisted projects will be invited to pitch to the Innovation Consortium before the end of April
  • Applicants will be notified of the outcome in April

Submit Idea

Eligibility

Applicants must be a current Duke Faculty member, staff (e.g. Resident, Fellow, Researcher), or student. 

The technology to be developed must be a Class I or II medical device.

For questions or help with the form or process, please contact Fast-Track@Duke.edu. 

MEDx Biomechanics of Injury or Injury Repair RFA

MEDx is pleased to announce a call for proposals for interdisciplinary research in biomechanics of injury and injury repair. Applicants research should address one of the following:

  • the biomechanics of injury
  • the cellular or tissue response to injury or injury repair
  • the development of biomechanical methods to evaluate cellular or tissue injury or regeneration
  • injury treatments that involve a biomechanical modality
  • biomechanical approaches that aid in the clinical evaluation of injury or recovery from injury

The proposals may address basic biomedical questions or may be translational, but each application must represent a collaboration between a regular rank faculty member in the Pratt School of Engineering and a regular rank faculty member in the School of Medicine. 

Grant applications should request up to $50,000 in direct costs. Indirect costs are not covered by this grant mechanism. The term of the award will be one year. The intent of the award is to position investigators to obtain external funding.

Eligibility

Applicants must be regular rank faculty.  

Criteria

Applications will be evaluated for significance, scientific merit, and approach. The strength of the team approach will also be considered, as will the potential to obtain follow-on grant funding. Other desirable outcomes are commercial partnerships, a licensing event or company formation and angel investment. The appropriateness of the budget will also be assessed. 

Timeline  

Proposals are due on February 3, 2020 with funding decisions made in March 2020. 

Instructions for Proposal Preparation and Submission

Submit Proposal

Notify MEDx of your intention to submit an application by sending an email to Donna Crenshaw (donna.crenshaw@duke.edu). 

MEDx Colloquia Series

MEDx is pleased to offer support for interdisciplinary colloquia that bring together physicians, engineers, computer scientists, data analysts, and basic and/or clinical researchers with a common desire to combine the elements of medicine and engineering to solve complex problems and inspire innovation. 

The typical award is $2,500 to support each successful proposal. If larger amounts can be well justified, awards of up to $5,000 may be considered. Funds can be used to cover food, meeting venues, external speakers or other meeting costs. Awardees should expend funds within one calendar year.

Requirements

Proposals must be submitted by teams consisting of at least two faculty members — at least one with an appointment in a School of Medicine department and one in a Pratt department. The appointments will preferably be primary appointments. Faculty from other disciplines and schools may join SoM-Pratt teams.

Meetings may have any format (small monthly dinner meetings, larger quarterly meetings, single symposium, etc.), but should be designed to bring together faculty members (and possibly trainees) with diverse perspectives.

Proposals that articulate a plan to sustain interactions – beyond the initial colloquium supported by MEDx – and/or prepare joint grant applications to a Duke or external funding mechanism will be given more weight. 

Deadlines

Applications must be received on or before February 10, 2020. Funding decisions will be made in late February.

Submit a Proposal

The one-page description of the proposed colloquium must include

  • Goals
  • Potential participants
  • Format of the meeting(s)
  • Proposed timeline for meeting(s)
  • Plan for advertising
  • Budget
  • A plan to sustain interactions and/or prepare joint funding applications

Submit Proposal

View Kaganov funding opportunities

View archived funding opportunities