Duke Research for Collaboration Enhancement in Clinical & Translational Science (Re-ConneCTS) Award Program (2026 – 2028)

Applications for this funding program are currently OPEN

Register for the Information Session

The Duke Clinical & Translational Science Institute (CTSI) catalyzes science that improves health—for individuals and communities—in our region and across the nation. The institute invites proposals for innovative projects focused on improving scientific collaboration, with the goal of supporting more efficient, effective, and impactful translational research that shortens the time from scientific discovery to health impact. This funding opportunity is made possible through support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS).

Purpose

The Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) invites applications to the Research for Collaboration Enhancement in Clinical & Translational Science (Re-ConneCTS) Award Program, which supports research to improve the functioning and performance of collaborations within clinical and translational research. The program seeks practical, innovative, generalizable, and scalable approaches to strengthening collaboration across the translational research spectrum. The award will provide up to $125,000 per year in direct costs for a project period of up to two years.

Effective collaboration is essential to impactful clinical and translational research, yet persistent challenges—like misaligned incentives and timelines, power and resource asymmetries, unclear roles and governance, and barriers related to communication and trust—continue to create obstacles to  forming, operating, and sustaining productive teams, particularly for academic–community and cross-institutional partnerships, including those between academic medical centers and minority-serving institutions. Addressing these barriers is critical to accelerating the translation of discoveries into improved health outcomes.

By supporting research that systematically examines and strengthens collaborative processes, the Re-ConneCTS Award Program aligns with NCATS CTSA Program goals and advances Duke CTSI priorities to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and impact of translational research; accelerate translation; and build sustainable, high-functioning partnerships across disciplines, institutions, and communities.

We encourage applications that propose to design and evaluate evidence-based, rigorous interventions to enhance collaboration at any scale—within teams, across departments, between institutions, or with community partners. This funding supports projects that test innovative approaches or adapt and implement existing, proven strategies to improve collaboration in clinical and translational research.

Eligibility

Eligible Applicants

  • Eligible applicants include faculty and non-faculty investigators at Duke University, North Carolina Central University (NCCU), or Duke CTSA collaborator/partner organizations, with demonstrated capacity to lead independent research. 
  • Multiple PI (MPI) proposals are allowed. The distinct role and responsibilities of each PI must be made clear. One PI must be designated the contact PI.
  • Applicants must have a PI status per their organization’s policy.
  • Inter-institutional collaborations are strongly encouraged, with the understanding that investigators will share responsibility for the conduct and direction of the project.
  • More than one proposal may be submitted with an applicant acting as PI or co-PI.
  • PIs will be required to attest that all key personnel have a) contributed to the development of the application and b) given explicit permission for their inclusion.

Eligible Collaborators

Applications may include collaborators from any institution or organization, including but not limited to community-based organizations, healthcare systems, government partners, industry partners, and other academic institutions. Individuals are encouraged to be in contact with the program team with any questions regarding eligibility.

Expertise and Methodologies

Duke and NCCU’s complementary cross-campus expertise is a significant strength, and we strongly encourage cross-disciplinary teams that bring rigorous theory and methods to the design, implementation, and evaluation of collaboration-enhancing interventions in real-world clinical and translational research settings. Proposals may employ qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods designs and should articulate how selected methodologies are appropriate to the collaborative challenges being addressed and capable of producing actionable, generalizable insights.

In addition to clinical and translational researchers, we welcome applications from investigators whose primary expertise lies outside clinical and translational research, but whose disciplinary perspectives and methodological approaches are directly relevant to improving how translational work is conducted. Relevant areas of expertise include, but are not limited to, organizational and social psychology; management and organizational behavior; sociology and network science; communication; human factors and systems engineering; implementation science; behavioral economics and decision science; informatics and human–computer interaction; design research; public policy; and bioethics.

Scope and Priorities

Defining Collaboration

For purposes of this RFA, we define "collaboration" broadly to include teams, partnerships, networks, and other working relationships that advance translational research. Collaboration occurs at multiple scales:

  • Between individuals on a research team.
  • Between research teams working on related problems.
  • Across departments or schools within an institution.
  • Between institutions (including Duke and NCCU).
  • Between academic institutions and community partners.
  • Between researchers and clinical care providers.
  • Between research teams and administrative or operational units.
  • Between academic institutions and industry/government partners.

We similarly define "team" broadly to include not only investigators but also research staff, administrative partners, clinical providers, community partners, patients and participants, learners/trainees, and other stakeholders who contribute to the success of clinical and translational research.

Research Priorities

This RFA prioritizes applications that propose to develop, test, or implement interventions to improve the functioning and performance of collaborations. We seek research that will generate actionable findings that can be applied to improve how translational research is conducted at Duke, NCCU, in our community/region, and beyond.

Priority Hierarchy:

Priority Level

Research Type

Description

Highest

Intervention Testing

Early to middle stage feasibility, acceptability, and/or preliminary efficacy testing of collaboration-enhancing interventions using experimental or quasi-experimental designs

High

Intervention Design and Development

Rigorous evidence synthesis and stakeholder engagement (e.g., iterative design) to develop interventions, with clear pathway to subsequent testing

High

Intervention Adaptation and Implementation

Systematic adaptation, contextual tailoring, and/or implementation of existing evidence-based interventions to improve collaboration functioning and performance within translational research settings, with evaluation of feasibility, fidelity, and/or implementation outcomes

Lowest

Descriptive Research

Studies that seek only to describe collaboration challenges without proposing solutions

We strongly encourage joint applications that bring together investigators from Duke and North Carolina Central University (NCCU), and/or that include community partners as meaningful collaborators. Proposals should reflect authentic, bidirectional partnership as evidenced by shared problem definition, clear roles, equitable decision-making, and appropriate resourcing for partner contributions. Duke–NCCU and/or community-engaged teams are especially well-positioned to develop interventions that are both locally actionable and broadly generalizable across diverse translational research settings.

Examples of Responsive Research

The following examples illustrate the range of research that would be considered responsive to this RFA. This list is not exhaustive, and we encourage applicants to propose innovative approaches to collaboration challenges not listed here. Examples of Non-Responsive Research can be found in the Application Instructions.

Clinical–Research Partnerships

  • Team-based interventions to increase clinical provider engagement in research activities.
  • Evaluation of partnership models for integrating clinicians who do not primarily identify as researchers into clinical trial teams, with clear roles, expectations, and support structures.
  • Collaboration interventions to improve communication and coordination between clinical research coordinators and clinical care teams.

Community-Academic Partnerships

  • Partnership-building interventions that strengthen sustained community collaboration.
  • Evaluation of capacity-building partnerships that develop research infrastructure within community organizations while strengthening bidirectional academic–community collaboration
  • Development and testing of collaboration systems that enable reliable bidirectional communication between academic teams and community partners (e.g., shared dashboards, community-facing reporting, rapid feedback mechanisms).
  • Development and evaluation of multi-disciplinary team-based approaches to structuring respectful and balanced partnerships centering on community priorities (e.g., shared problem definition, co-leadership, and transparent resource allocation).

Data Science and Methodological Collaboration

  • Team-design studies comparing data science collaboration models (e.g., siloed vs. integrated analytic teams) and their impact on research quality, efficiency, and usability.
  • Development and evaluation of partnership tools/processes for matching investigators with the right methodological collaborators.
  • Cross-disciplinary collaboration interventions that improve communication and coordination among quantitative teams (biostatistics, informatics, computer science, epidemiology) using shared language, templates, and decision protocols.

Cross-Institutional / Cross-Organizational Collaboration

  • Collaboration interventions that address structural barriers to partnerships between academic medical centers and minority-serving institutions (including HBCUs), such as Duke–NCCU teams.
  • Development and evaluation of partnership coordination strategies for multi-institution teams operating across different missions, cultures, incentive structures, and resource constraints (e.g., joint operating agreements, cross-site norms, collaboration compacts).
  • Evaluation of academic–industry/government partnership models that strengthen collaboration while managing IP, timelines, compliance, and role clarity.
  • Multi-site team process improvements that streamline regulatory and administrative collaboration for inter-institutional studies.

Administrative and Operational Partnerships

  • Evaluation of collaboration interventions that improve how research teams partner with administrative units (finance, HR, contracts, procurement, IRB).
  • Cross-unit partnership redesign to reduce research startup times through coordinated team workflows.
  • Relationship- and communication-focused collaboration interventions to improve researcher–administrator partnerships.

Team Functioning and Management

  • Team practice implementation studies in clinical and translational settings (e.g., psychological safety practices, structured communication protocols, team charters, governance routines).
  • Team resilience interventions that reduce the impact of staff turnover on collaboration continuity (e.g., cross-training, documentation norms, role redundancy, onboarding playbooks).
  • People-management training for team leaders (e.g., PI-focused training to strengthen supervision, conflict navigation, feedback, and role alignment within research teams).
  • Early-stage team formation interventions to improve partnership launch and alignment (e.g., expectation-setting, decision rules, authorship/credit plans, and resource agreements).
  • Patient/participant partnership models that embed patients and participants as genuine collaborators on research teams (design, recruitment strategy, implementation, dissemination).
  • Collaborative dissemination interventions that improve how research teams communicate findings back to participant and community partners (e.g., co-created products, feedback sessions, plain-language toolkits).

Funding

  • The program will confer one award per funding cycle*.
  • Each award will provide up to $125,000 per year for up to two years in direct costs only.
  • Cost sharing is not allowed. Projects must be fully supported only with NIH funds awarded through the CTSA program (no other funding sources may be used to support these projects).
  • All salary requests are subject to the current NIH-mandated annual salary cap.
  • The project must be completed within the specified funding cycle. 
  • Requests for a no-cost extension will not be approved.
  • This award does not need to be routed through the Office of Research Administration (ORA).  However, we require you to include your grants team in the preparation of this proposal budget.

*Contingent upon approval from NCATS

Please note that for this award, NIH has notified us of the following: “NIH funds may not be used to support activities that are outside the revised scope of the award, including diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) research programs, vaccine hesitancy, health equity, COVID-19 (other than long COVID) research or related research training activities or programs. Any funds used to support activities outside the scope will result in a disallowance of costs, and funds will be recovered. This study is funded by the NIH and accordingly only biological sex is being collected and reported in research to align with agency directives.”

Key Dates

The program is accepting applications for one 24-month funding cycle. Please refer to the specific start dates below.  

Event Date
Release Date: March 2, 2026
Virtual Information Session (Register Here) March, 12, 2026, 11:00am – 12:00pm ET
Consultations:* March 3, 2026 – May 15, 2026
Full Application Deadline: June 1, 2026
Anticipated Award Notification: July 1, 2026
Run-in Period for NCATS Prior-approval:‡ July – August, 2026
Anticipated Start Date: September 1, 2026

*Applicants are required to consult with the Program Team prior to submitting a full proposal to ensure optimal responsiveness to the RFA.

‡Funding start date depends on securing required NCATS prior approval for projects involving human subjects.

RFA and Application Instructions

Duke CTSI uses the MyResearchProposal (MRP) online application portal to submit funding proposal applications. Follow instructions below to submit applications through the MyResearchProposal (MRP) online portal:

  • Visit https://duke.is/DukeMRP and select “Create New Account” (or log in if you already have an account). Proposals must be submitted under the Principal Investigator’s name.
  • A step-by-step user’s guide for applying via MyResearchProposal is available here.
  • Enter Access Code ‘CTSI,’ then select the funding mechanism you wish to apply for: Duke Re-ConneCTS Award (2026-2028).
  • Applications will be accepted beginning on May 1, 2026 through the MyResearchProposal online submission system.

For questions concerning MyResearchProposal passwords or system issues, please contact the system administrators at myresearchproposal@duke.edu.

Read the Full Request for Applications (RFA) and Application Instructions.

Additional Resources

Contact Information

For additional information on this funding opportunity please submit a Consultation Request or contact the Program Award Team at ctsifunding@duke.edu using subject line “Re-ConneCTS Award: [Contact PI Last Name]”.