Background: We are pleased to offer project funding for members of Duke AHEAD. This funding mechanism is intended to provide critical start up for pilot research or funding for innovative projects that will generate new evidence, new ideas, and/or new approaches for improving health professions education. Our purpose is to support the vision, creativity, ingenuity, and scholarly works of the educators and educational researchers in the Duke AHEAD community. We will prioritize support of projects that are innovative and illustrate the potential to positively transform the educational experience of learners and/or the learning environment in Duke Health.
All successful proposals will be innovative and/or interprofessional. Innovations may take the form of educational research. They may also allow for the creation, refinement, and/or assessment of “big ideas” in health professions education that can be risky to implement at full scale. Pilot evidence might then be used to support follow-on intramural and extramural proposals aimed at larger-scale implementation. The interprofessional attributes of the project should be represented both in the composition of the project leaders and the learners engaged by the work of the project. For this purpose (adapted from the WHO Framework for Action on Interprofessional Education & Collaborative Practice), “interprofessional” means two or more professions collaborating and learning about, from and with each other to enable effective teamwork and improve health outcomes. Thus, two nurses collaborating or two physicians collaborating – even if crossing disciplines -- is not interprofessional. Likewise, a proposal targeting learners within the same professional cohort – even if lead by collaborators with different professional affiliations – may not be competitive in this funding mechanism.
Please consult Duke AHEAD’s website for examples of funded projects or the co-chairs of the Research and Innovations subcommittee of the Duke AHEAD Steering Committee (Megan Von Isenburg megan.vonisenburg@duke.edu or Leonard White len.white@duke.edu).
Eligibility: Duke University School of Medicine and School of Nursing faculty who are Duke AHEAD members. Membership information can be found here. Trainees and learners may be included as collaborators. One faculty member must be designated as the Principal Investigator. The Principal Investigator must provide a letter of support from his/her/their department chair or other equivalent chief of service or supervisor who most directly oversees his/her/their career advancement.
Review Process & Important dates: Letters of Intent (LOI) are due by June 24th at 5:00 pm. Principle investigators of competitive letters of intent will be invited to come before the committee and present proposals orally in late August. Presenters will have 10 minutes to present the project with 5 minutes for Q&A with the committee. Recipients of Duke AHEAD grants will be notified beforehand and will be recognized at Duke AHEAD’s Health Professions Education Day, September 20, 2019. Funds will be available on December 1, 2019.
Evaluation: Reviews of letters of intent and evaluation of oral presentations will be performed by a subcommittee of the Duke AHEAD steering committee and prior grant recipients and evaluated according to alignment with the mission and goals of Duke AHEAD including:
- quality of innovation
- strength of professional development plan for educators
- rigor of assessment plan (outcomes)
- broader impacts (collateral benefits beyond study/project participants)
- potential sustainability of project
- potential for scholarship
- organization and quality of proposal
- dissemination plan
Our aim is to fund five projects at $5,000 each and one IPE-specific project at $25,000. Support will be limited to resources and services necessary for project implementation, with up to 25% of the total budget to allow for PI support if necessary. The grant review committee reserves the right to offer partial awards and/or redistribute funds based on the number of proposals awarded and the relevance of budgeted items.
The letter of intent should be submitted electronically. Please submit the final LOI here. A template of the submission can be found here; you may find it helpful to use as you submit the LOI electronically. The submission site will close at 5:01 pm on June 24th and no late submissions will be accepted. You will receive confirmation that your LOI was received. If you have not received confirmation within 24 hours, email dukeahead@dm.duke.edu. Applicants will be notified with feedback on or before July 13, 2019.