The Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity (Cook Center) and the Duke Center for Community-Engaged Scholarship (DCCES) are accepting community-engaged research proposals to engage with the topic of Housing and Economic Well-Being in Durham, NC and the surrounding region. The deadline for submissions is April 3, 2026. We anticipate issuing up to 3 awards of up to $50,000 each for pilot research projects and/or up to 5 planning grants of up to $10,000 each for emerging projects. The actual number of awards in each category will depend on the nature of submissions and total funds available.

interest webinar

The partners to this RFP will offer a webinar on March 12 at 4pm for faculty and community interested in applying for this opportunity. The webinar will also be an opportunity for community partners and faculty to meet and consider possible partnership on planning grant proposals. Register here to attend the webinar.

 

Background and Themes

The Duke Center for Community-Engaged Scholarship is an interdisciplinary hub that facilitates collaborative research between community partners and Duke faculty, staff and students to address pressing societal challenges. A critical component of the mission of the Center is to encourage research in alignment with Duke’s Strategic Community Impact Plan, which reflects the input of over 650 community members and organizations and outlines goals for purposeful partnerships with Duke’s neighbors. 

One key priority of the SCIP is housing affordability and infrastructure in our region. Since 1996, the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership network of 14 communities has gathered and collaborated regularly to collectively address pressing needs and challenges. Duke has also partnered with local governments, financial institutions, nonprofits, and others to support local housing infrastructure and affordability. 

As the region grows and attracts new residents, the imperative to ensure a good quality of life for all residents requires addressing broader challenges, such as economic mobility, access to housing, transportation infrastructure, and environmental sustainability, that ensure equitable access to opportunities. In response to priority concerns expressed by the community, key areas of focus within Duke’s current housing goals include: access to affordable housing, supporting Duke employees in pursuing homeownership, assisting Durham residents with planning for property maintenance and homeownership costs, developing transitional and supportive housing for at-risk or unsheltered individuals, and improving access to public transportation and technology for lower-wealth communities.

One important recent step has been for the Office of Duke Community Affairs to establish an Affordable Housing Strategic Council, which connects affordable housing organizations with Duke to implement strategies that create equitable and innovative solutions to increase building or land inventory and access to affordable housing in Durham. The Council has focused on three key priorities: accessing more land; identifying priorities for social and capital investments; and closing the wealth gap.

The work of the Strategic Housing Council is one of a number of local initiatives that have established focal areas for action around affordable housing in Durham. The local community’s interest in housing affordability and infrastructure is reflected in the 2019 passage of a $95 million voter-approved housing bond, known as the “Forever Home, Durham” Initiative, which was subsequently supported by additional local investment and federal funding, including through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). After learning of needs for a more cross-agency and collaborative strategy, in 2024, Durham created a Housing Initiative Task Force with representatives from the city, county, school board, and various housing and community leaders. The task force published a report in September 2025 with recommendations in several key areas: pre-housing/homelessness; supportive services; housing subsidy gaps; workforce housing; land use; tenant subsidies; and deployment of the community housing trust fund. The Durham Chamber Foundation also contracted to create a new Housing Data Platform for the area. Recognizing widespread concerns about a significant housing inventory gap, the NC Chamber of Commerce published a statewide Housing Supply Gap Analysis during the same period.

Most recently, the city and county of Durham have partnered with Community Solutions’ “Built for Zero” initiative to launch a new strategic planning process to reimagine Durham’s response to homelessness. Launched in July 2025, listening sessions are currently underway for the first phase of input and feedback in this planning process.

Durham’s Community Health Assessments in 2017, 2020 and 2023 also identified affordable housing as a top priority; subsequently, the Health and Housing Committee of Partnership for a Healthy Durham completed a Community Health Improvement Plan. The committee set three main goals: improving access to safe and adequate housing (free from interior hazards) that support health and well-being; developing health-promoting housing policies and procedures; and strengthening the local network of those providing housing resources.

Request for Proposals

DCCES and the Cook Center seek to support community-engaged research projects. By this, we mean research collaboration between university-based researchers and the community to address issues affecting community well-being. These collaborations involve the mutually beneficial exchange, creation, and mobilization of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity. We expect that proposals for this opportunity will reflect best practices in community-engaged research and will focus on housing challenges within the Triangle region.  We remain mindful, however, of the geographic interconnectedness of housing policy issues, and welcome proposals that explore the local, statewide, national, and international dimensions of housing challenges in the Carolinas. 

We are soliciting two types of proposals:

  1. Pilot study awards of up to $50,000. For these proposals, the partnering entities must have an existing working relationship.
  2. Planning grants of up to $10,000 through which new or existing partners can plan future research.

While these grants are to partnered teams, for grant stewardship purposes, proposals must come from and be administered by Duke faculty. We invite research proposals from regular rank Duke faculty in good standing with the university. Priority consideration will be given to proposals that:

  • Involve equitable and substantive collaborations with community partners throughout the grant period;
  • Are informed by best practices in community-engaged research;
  • Engage centrally with a housing issue salient in our local region and provide evidence of this salience by describing the alignment of the issue with the priorities of the Strategic Council, the Housing Supply Gap Analysis, Durham’s affordable housing strategic plan, the Community Health Improvement Plan, and/or other documented needs/assets assessments based on community priorities or relevant local policy initiatives.
  • Plan for impact or sustainability beyond the term of the grant — by using the results of this grant to apply for research funds, communicating research outcomes to inform ongoing efforts in NC or maintaining partnership beyond the duration of the grant.

While not required, we encourage proposed projects that engage graduate and undergraduate students in aspects of the anticipated research or lead to new experiential learning opportunities through courses, Bass Connections, Service Learning, or other curricular or co-curricular programs. In addition, projects are encouraged to include partnership with faculty at North Carolina Central University.

The Ethos of Community-Engaged Research

Community-engaged research involves co-creation between academic scholars and community-based partners beyond the university. Such undertakings rest on trust and mutual respect that requires significant investment of time in relationship-building, development of a shared project, and communication across difference. Community-engaged research is based on the recognition that community involvement in the research process improves research quality and the likelihood that research will benefit the community. Team members should have the capacity and motivation to listen with humility, respect the significant knowledge each member brings to the effort, and teams should co-create key questions and research methods, have a plan for disseminating research findings with the community, and adhere to the highest ethical standards of community-engaged research. 

For additional resources, the Center for Community-Engaged Scholarship is available for consultation or to provide training. In addition, see:

Eligibility

  • Proposed projects must involve a lead investigator from Duke and one or more community partners. More than one proposal may be submitted, but the faculty member is only eligible to receive one award as Lead Investigator during a given funding cycle.
  • Community partners may include:
    • Nonprofits with & without 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
    • Community organizations and members of practiced-based research networks
    • Eligible agencies of the federal, state, and local government
  • Regular-rank Duke Faculty, including professional and non-tenure track.
  • Proposals that include faculty in the School of Medicine or School of Nursing should include at least an equal number of faculty from non-health schools.
  • Projects are also encouraged to include partnership with faculty from North Carolina Central University.
     

Eligible Types of Expenditures

Budgets may cover a range of reasonable and justifiable research expenses. Common expenses include stipends for research assistants; honoraria and payments to community partners; payments to consultants; research-related travel; materials; workshops; food and refreshments, space rental and parking or transportation, transcription services; statistical consultants; open access publication fees; community forums and interactive multimedia installations or multimedia platforms. 

Pilot grants may include up to $10,000 for faculty salary and fringe. Planning grants should not include faculty salary. For projects that involve faculty with full nine-month salaries, coverage should be described as a portion of summer salary and fringe. For projects that include faculty expected to raise their salaries through grants, salary should be described as percent effort (including salary and fringe). 

Grants are generally expected to cover research projects that last 12-18 months, but please clarify expected timelines in the proposal.

Proposal Requirements

In addition to general information, proposals should include the following:

  1. A brief abstract or summary of the proposal (200-word maximum);
  2. A brief (maximum three-page) narrative that articulates (1) the area of shared interest among partnering entities, (2) the question or problem the group proposes to explore, (3) the proposed group’s unique position and qualifications for engaging in the interest area and/or addressing the question or problem, (4) a description of the lead partners and how the group will ensure an ongoing equitable partnership, (5) activities the group plans to conduct during the exploratory period, (6) anticipated outcome (e.g., sustained interactions, joint grant application, new educational offering, project team proposal, research project, etc.); and 7) timeline;
  3. A proposed budget & justification;
  4. A listing of the organizing core group with 2-page CVs for each. Please be sure to include names, titles, organizations, and email addresses for all partners. Community partner leads may substitute a detailed bio if a CV is not available.

Planning grant proposals should follow the same guidelines but can be shorter and should focus on how the group will develop the partnership and research plan and how the partnership will use what they do during the planning period to move to the next step of research. For planning grants, community partners can provide a letter of support in lieu of a CV or bio.

Review Process and Selection Criteria

Applications will be subject to peer review, including both faculty and local community experts, and final decisions will be made by a small selection committee comprising faculty and community partners.  Peer reviewers and selection committee members will focus on the criteria below. Interviews with finalists may also be arranged. 

  • Significance of the contribution of the proposed project and connection to the local context and interests described in the background section;
    • Depth of engagement with local community partners and organizations and equitable allocation of resources;
    • Feasibility of the proposed project; and
    • Feasibility of the sustainability plan, including potential for future external funding.

Duke Research Policies

All grantees must adhere to Duke’s Research Policy Manual throughout their awards’ performance periods. The responsibility to address issues concerning data management (Chapter 5) and intellectual property (Chapter 6) and human subjects (Chapter 7), among others, will be vested with PIs. Applicants should direct any questions of university-wide research policies to the Office for Research & Innovation.

Proposal Submission 

Please submit your proposal in a single PDF format to the following email address: dcces@duke.edu by April 3, 2026 at 5 PM.

Timeline

  • RFP released: February 24, 2026
  • Interest webinar: March 12, 2026 at 4pm (Register here to attend the webinar)
  • RFP deadline: April 3, 2026
  • Decisions communicated: Early May 2026
  • Funds made available: June/July 2026
     

Contact

Please submit questions via email to dcces@duke.edu and a member of the Center for Community-Engaged Scholarship staff will follow up.

Reporting and Training Expectations

Grant recipients are required to participate in a workshop on housing research and best practices in community-engaged research, offered during the 2026-2027 academic year, likely in late spring. At the end of the funding period, recipient PIs will be expected to report on the short-term outcomes of funded projects and share copies of any key deliverables.