Duke Spark is a Duke-wide initiative where technical and clinical experts work together to develop, evaluate, and implement algorithms for medical imaging. The Spark initiative is supported by Duke AI Health in enable the discovery, development, and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) at Duke and beyond. A key component to achieving this goal is to foster high-impact, rigorous, and competitive proposals for scientific awards.

The Medical Imaging and AI Proposal Studios will provide a structured opportunity for investigators to engage with Duke’s top data science expertise and thought leadership, and to receive review and feedback of the scientific components of their proposals. After seeing a strong positive response to the Proposal Studio concept in previous years, we plan to continue building on this success with the overarching goal of fostering high-impact, rigorous, and competitive grant proposals.

Who Should Participate?

Clinical and non-clinical faculty from any department at Duke are invited to apply.

Our goal is to foster health data science across Duke. We welcome participation from non-School of Medicine investigators. We also hope to see participation by a mix of investigators representing various levels of experience. We especially encourage investigators who are at the assistant professor/early associate professor level.

What Types of Proposals?

We are interested in research that is aligned with the mission of Spark and AI Health at the intersection of artificial intelligence and computer vision with medical imaging. Topics of interest include:

• Use of existing data and/or merging sources for medical image analysis
• Developing/applying advanced machine learning methods to medical imaging data
• Research on improvements within health systems, in relation to use of radiological images

National Institutes of Health R01 (Research Project Grant) or R21 (Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant) and proposals are examples of the types of applications that may be especially well-aligned with this initiative.

We would particularly like to support research teams who have results from small, internal data science projects (such as department-sponsored analyses) that are ready to bridge into larger cohorts and populations.

What Are the Proposal Studios?

After a cohort of applications are accepted, each project will have the opportunity for written feedback and/or a scientific design workshop session to substantively engage with the specific aims and research strategy, especially significance, innovation, and approach. This engagement will be held October – December 2025.

We also expect that engagement will be tailored to each proposal and may include facilitating introductions to potential collaborators and helping applicants connect with other resources for proposal development at Duke.

There is no charge to the investigator for participation in the Proposal Studios, but participants will be asked to confidentially share information about their proposal scores and outcome metrics so that the program can be strengthened over time.

You do not need to have a full research team to apply. We expect that the proposal studios can help “match-make,” including making introductions between potential clinical and quantitative collaborators.

How to Apply

Applications will consist of approximately 2 pages: 1 page as a scientific overview (draft summary and specific aims) and 1 page as a project overview (including team members, identified proposal opportunities, and specific requests).

To submit your application, please visit: https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6DWJggThQeXet0i

The deadline for submitting applications is 10:00 PM Eastern time on Monday, September 8, 2025.

Event Team

• Maciej Mazurowski, PhD – Program Leader
• Benjamin Goldstein, PhD – Program Co-Leader
• Jessica Johnstone – Event Planner

2025 Awardees

The 2025 Medical Imaging & AI Proposal Studios selected three outstanding proposals from new investigators for intensive scientific feedback and design support. During November studio sessions, investigators collaborated with some of Duke’s leading data-science experts to strengthen their proposals for upcoming high-impact funding opportunities. This effort reflects our broader commitment to accelerating innovative research at Duke through expert mentorship, interdisciplinary collaboration, and strategic proposal development.