The Duke Clinical Research Institute's (DCRI) Summer Training in Academic Research Program (STAR) is expanding, in partnership with the Pediatric Trials Network, to welcome medical students from across the nation into our research community. Building on 14 years of success in training over 300 students, we're now offering medical students a unique opportunity to gain hands-on clinical research experience while serving as peer mentors to undergraduate and high school participants.
Clinical research drives medical innovation and evidence-based practice that improves patient outcomes across all medical specialties. Our program provides medical students with:
Research Excellence and Publication Success
- Work directly with DCRI faculty on secondary analyses of existing clinical trial data.
- Develop a hypothesis-driven research article that will be peer-reviewed, published, and indexed in PubMed.*
- Collaborate on projects spanning multiple therapeutic areas, including clinical epidemiology and health services research.
Meaningful Mentorship Experience
- Serve as informal 'near-peer' mentors to undergraduate participants.
- Share your medical school journey and career insights.
- Develop leadership skills in small group settings.
- Build lasting connections across academic levels.
Comprehensive Clinical Research Training
- Learn advanced clinical research methods through hands-on project work.
- Participate in didactic sessions covering statistics, epidemiology, and scientific writing.
- Shadow Duke faculty during clinical rounds at Duke Hospitals.
- Gain skills directly applicable to your future medical career.
* View examples of previous publications by STAR Program participants.
Program Structure & Support
Team-Based Learning Environment
Medical students join collaborative teams of four to six participants, working under the guidance of senior DCRI faculty with oversight from experienced research mentors. As medical students, you'll have the unique opportunity to provide peer mentorship while developing your own research skills.
Summer Experience (June–August)
- Remote: Pre-reading materials provided
- In-Person: June 24–July 29, 2026
- Clinical shadowing, literature review, and introduction drafting
- Statistical analysis planning and methods development
- Data interpretation, figure creation, and results analysis
- Abstract writing, poster development, and presentation preparation
- Remote: Finalize manuscripts; all remote work completed after July is on a timeline specifically developed to ensure academic success in the second year of medical school. It has been refined based on feedback from medical students who completed the program in 2023 and 2024.
Academic Year Follow-up: Continue your research remotely through video calls and email collaboration to finalize manuscripts for peer review submission, ensuring you meet International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship requirements.
Program Support
The program is fully funded, providing:
- Stipends ($8,000) to support your time through the summer
- All educational materials and resources
- Clinical shadowing opportunities
- Faculty mentorship throughout the program and beyond
The full stipend is only available to medical students who spend the entire in-person part of the program in Durham, NC. Any part of the stipend that supports travel costs is supported through non-federal funding sources in compliance with National Institutes of Health, Duke, and partner institution policies.
Application Requirements & Timeline
Please submit the following when the application portal opens on October 1:
- Copy of your AAMCAS application
- Essay: "What I want to be, and how I'm going to make it happen" (300-500 word limit)1
- One letter of recommendation2 from a medical school faculty member
Send your questions to dukestarprogram@duke.edu.
Application Timeline:
- Application Deadline: November 15, 2025
- Information Sessions: Two information sessions3 will be held via Zoom between October 20 and November 10. Check this website in October for exact dates.
- Interview Period: You will be notified by email within 48 hours upon receipt of your completed application (this includes your letter of recommendation). At that time, you may schedule an interview. Interviews will take place from October 31 to December 15, 2025.
- Notifications: end of December 2025
- Program Dates: June 24-July 29, 2026
1If you use AI to generate any part or any draft of your essay, please indicate that on your application.
2Ideally, letters of recommendation are from medical school faculty; however, letters may also come from undergraduate faculty.
3Information sessions will be hosted by Duke faculty but led by students who have attended the program in prior years.