About the K12 Program

The K12 program seeks to develop successful independent investigators in multi-disciplinary clinical and translational research.  

The K12 has three main components: 

  • Developing productive and beneficial mentoring relationships. 
  • Completing the core curriculum and career development program. 
  • Successfully conducting a clinical or translational research project. 

Mentoring 

The Duke CTSA K12 program embraces the concept that mentoring takes many forms and is approached from multiple perspectives.  Having multiple mentors, each of whom serves a different purpose, ensures that support and guidance are provided for many aspects of an individual’s career, including scientific mentoring, career navigation, and work-life/personal-life integration.  Each K12 Scholar is required to identify a primary scientific mentor and mentorship team that includes a quantitative mentor and at least one other mentor with relevant and complementary expertise.  Mentors can be selected from Duke and/or NCCU.  Additionally, K12 scholars will work with K12 leadership to identify supplemental faculty mentors as needed. 

Primary Scientific Mentor: Each K12 Scholar must have a primary scientific mentor.  Scholars are expected to meet with the primary scientific mentor very frequently (usually weekly).  The primary scientific mentor may be ANY faculty member with expertise to assist the applicant with his/her research and career development. 

The Program Directors of the K12 will also serve as active mentors for the K12 scholars and will meet regularly with scholars and the mentorship team throughout the funding period.  

Core Curriculum 

Each K12 scholar will complete a core curriculum tailored to their individual needs.  The curriculum will include training in clinical and translational research as well as career development activities.  Specifically, the core curriculum focuses on the following: 

  • Tailored Didactic Course Work 
  • Training in the Responsible Conduct of Research 
  • K12 Scholar Curriculum 
  • K12 Scholar Seminar Series 
  • Team Science Curriculum 
  • Population Health Research Curriculum 
  • Mentorship Training 
  • Duke SOM, NCCU, and external Career Development Training 
  • KAPPNext 

Tailored Didactic Course Work 

As appropriate, Scholars may participate in various degree and/or certificate granting training programs in clinical and translational research.  The programs include the following: 

K12 scholars may enroll in other programs that meet their individual needs or scholars may participate in more than one program if selected courses from multiple programs will best facilitate trainee success. With the help of K12 leadership, each scholar will design a didactic experience that meets their career interests. In addition to these degree granting programs, scholars will be required to identify local or national symposia, workshops, or other training programs they will attend to support their personal career goals. 

Training in Responsible Conduct of Research  

Required training in Responsible Conduct of Research includes: 

  • Duke Office of Scientific Integrity (DOSI): All scholars will be required to participate in the five-session workshop series in the Responsible Conduct of Research. This NIH RCR training requirement must be taken at every career stage and at least once every four years.  This training comprises an annual case-based didactic and workshop program, in which issues such as ethical concerns and underlying challenges in research, mentorship, conflicts of interest, and the application of AI in research integrity are discussed. It is a five-week program that meets once a week for 1 hour 45 minutes, first in a common lecture, followed by small group discussions.  Scholars must submit documentation of a completed equivalent course for approval. 

  • Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI): Scholars conducting human research will be required to complete six biomedical CITI modules. 

  • Any current institutional requirements 

KL2 Scholar Curriculum 

K12 Scholar Seminar Series 

This monthly seminar series covers a range of topics that go beyond the specific scientific needs of scholars, including: 

  • Professional development skills such as time management, leadership and communication skills, mentor-mentee relationships, work/life integration, and negotiation 

  • “Survival skills” such as library services, CTSA available resources, and biostatistical collaborations 

  • Grantsmanship skills including financial grants management and finding funding opportunities 

  • Peer collaboration and networking 

Team Science Curriculum 

K12 scholars will participate in a curriculum to prepare them to successfully employ fundamental team science approaches, enabling innovation and impact. This two-year curriculum comprises didactics and tailored experiential learning, which will be incorporated into the K12 Seminar Series. 

Population Health Research Curriculum 

K12 scholars will participate in a series of seminars that will equip them with the knowledge and skills to understand principles of population health research approaches and processes. 

Mentorship Training 

Mentoring is essential to being effective researchers, and K12 scholars will be trained to optimize their mentoring skills.  K12 scholars will participate in the mentorship training program provided by the Duke Office of Research Mentoring beginning in their second year of support. Scholars will also have opportunities to serve as mentors for trainees at both Duke and NCCU. 

Duke School of Medicine, NCCU, and external Career Development Training 

K12 Scholars will participate in various seminars provided by the Duke School of Medicine Office of Faculty Development such as Gopen Writing Seminar, Write Winning Grants, LEADER, and the Research Careers Ahead! Seminar series presented by the Duke Office of Physician Scientist Development (OPSD).  In addition, scholars may attend external career development programs such as the AAMC Career Development Seminar Series and general career development programs sponsored by professional societies or other groups. 

KAPPNext 

K12 scholars will participate in KAPPNext, a comprehensive grant preparation program administered by the K12 program to promote success with next-step NIH funding. KAPPNext will consist of several activities including a concept review, a mock study section, and grant preparation sessions with a senior mentor and scholar peers. 

Clinical and Translational Research 

The most crucial element of the K12 award is the actual performance of clinical or translational research. Each Scholar, with guidance from his/her mentor team, will develop and implement a research project that is appropriate in scope for the 3-year program and available funds. 

The primary research project is expected to be clinical and/or translational, rigorous, potentially impactful, and it is expected to lead to academic products; specifically, scientific presentations, peer-reviewed publications, and the preparation of a grant proposal that takes the investigator to the next step toward independence (e.g., an individual career development award such as K01, K08, K23; or R funding or equivalent). 

The K12 project can provide preliminary or pilot data that will form the foundation of the next grant, or, less frequently, can be a definitive hypothesis-testing on its own. The scope of the science will depend on the particular research question and the appropriate methods needed to address it. 

K12 scholars are expected to submit at least 2 original papers for peer-reviewed publications each year and to have submitted a meritorious application for the next stage of funding before completion of the K12 program.