Duke / Duke-NUS Research Collaboration Pilot Projects

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Background

Duke University and Duke-NUS Medical School Singapore (Duke-NUS) are pleased to announce a call for proposals for collaborative research pilot projects between faculty based in Durham with those based in Singapore. 

The goal of this program is the development of international research teams that will advance basic, translational, and clinical research. This Request for Application (RFA) will support applications on the research theme "Comparing USA and Singapore Populations Using Novel Technologies and Strategies."

There are several important disease conditions that differ in incidence, clinical manifestation, prognosis and therapy response between Asian and non-Asian populations. Selected examples include various malignancies (e.g. liver, stomach, EGFR-mutated lung cancer), disease-associated symptoms and sub-symptoms (e.g. "lean" diabetes, diabetic end-stage kidney disease), patient outcomes despite overtly similar standards of clinical and therapeutic management (e.g. mental health). Besides differences in population genetics, Asian and non-Asian populations can also differ significantly in their exposure to infectious agents, environmental challenges (e.g. heat-stress and climate change), and dietary/nutritional intake, all of which can also modify clinical and disease trajectories. Importantly, insights explaining these differences may highlight new therapeutic and intervention strategies in both populations. We seek to leverage the 20-year international partnership between Duke and Duke-NUS to explore such "East-West" differences, leveraging the advanced capabilities of both campuses.

In this RFA, we are seeking applications that will undertake sophisticated analyses of clinical cohorts between Singapore and Durham, using novel technologies (e.g. genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, imaging) and analysis strategies (e.g. artificial intelligence, federated learning) to clarify the basis of these differences. Priority will be given to applications resulting in high-dimensionality, integrated and deidentified Duke/Duke-NUS data sets that can form the seeds of future grant applications and/or that could support future commercialization or industry collaborations in both countries, and ultimately accessed by the larger Duke/Duke-NUS community. Applications where cross-transfer of technologies and capabilities from one country to the other are explicitly stated will be preferred. Funding from this RFA should not be used to recruit and assemble new cohorts, but should focus on already existing cohorts, data sets, and biobanked samples.

For more information of this grant call, please refer to the 'Final RECA(Pilot) Grant Call 2025 (Feb 2025)' PDF.

Funding Details 

1. Up to USD $100,000 will be available to the Duke PI.

2. Up to SGD $100,000 will be available to the Duke-NUS PI.

Awards are for 2 years, though a single no-cost extension of an additional 6 months may be considered upon request.

Eligibility Criteria

1. For this award, Duke-NUS faculty are defined as based primarily in Singapore and holding Duke-NUS Tenure / Research / Educator / Practice Track appointments as Assistant Professor or above, including faculty in SingHealth who hold a Clinical or Adjunct appointment with Duke-NUS.

2. Duke faculty are defined as those who hold regular rank Duke appointment at the Assistant Professor level or above.
   

Submission

1. There is only one Letter of Intent (LOI) submission needed. Each LOI involves 1 Duke PI and 1 Duke-NUS PI. The PI (faculty) based in Singapore should coordinate with the faculty based in Duke Durham to ensure a single submission.

2. Interested faculty members are to complete the online application and upload the below files (in PDF format) via an online application form here (internet accessible link) by 18 April 2025, 11:59 PM EST.

3. • a one-page LOI file describing the nature of the proposed project

   • names of the Principal Investigators from Duke and Duke-NUS

   • Biographical Sketches# of the Principal Investigators from Duke and Duke-NUS

#Please note that Singapore-based PIs can use the attached CV template 'Biosketch (for Singapore-based PI)' instead of the file 'NIH biosketch-blank-format-rev-10-2021'. Please note that each biosketch should not exceed 4 pages.

3. Please refer to attached file 'Final RECA(Pilot) Grant Call 2025 (Feb 2025)' for more details.

4. Invitations to submit full proposals will be sent to those applicants judged to be most competitive.

5. Full proposals will be due 11 July 2025, 11:59PM EST and should include:

• Title page listing participating faculty and their respective roles in the project.

• Information regarding any previous Pilot Project Awards granted to either Co-PI.

• Abstract of 250 words or less describing the project.

• Project summary of 2000 words or less (not including citations), addressing the specific areas of focus.

• Citations

• Figures (up to 3)

• Biographical Sketches (no more than 4 pages each) for participating faculty. Please use the NIH Biographical Sketch Form or a similar form from a Singapore public funding agency. Kindly see files as attached.

• Duke PIs: Regulatory approval documents and/or status updates (IRB, IACUC, etc.) {Note: Duke IRB must include Duke-NUS Co-PI information to gain access to certain data-sharing platforms.}

• Budget for Duke component (maximum USD $100,000) to include:

• Budget for Duke-NUS component* (SGD $100,000) to include:

* Budget and Expenditures for Duke-NUS components should be in accordance with the Duke-NUS / SingHealth institution's prevailing financial and procurement guidelines, depending on whether the Duke-NUS PI's host institution is Duke-NUS or a SingHealth institution.