Physician-Scientist Strong Start Program

The goal of this program is to nurture the careers of junior faculty who are physician-scientists at Duke conducting discovery science, including wet-lab research, computational approaches, and multi-omics investigations. By offering substantive mentoring and financial resources, this award supports junior physician-scientist faculty during a critical period of their career, the transition to research independence.

This award program is intentionally designed to integrate and complement Duke initiatives that train physician-scientists at even earlier points in their career, such as the Medical Scientist Training Program (MD-PhD students) and the R38 Stimulating Access to Research during Residency Program (StARR, clinical residents and equivalent R25 program focusing on intensive research during residency training). In this way, the “Strong Start” Award Program will ensure that Duke University School of Medicine remains a leader in the training of outstanding physician-scientists, a group uniquely committed to the advancement of medical sciences in our own community and across the nation.

As of 2024, the Strong Start program has provided $7.4 million to 41 Duke physician-scientists, and the scholars collectively received 135 awards after starting the Strong Start program, which have combined for $61.8 million.