Delayed graft function (DGF) is commonly defined as dialysis in the first week post-transplant. This definition, though readily applicable, is too generic and unable to distinguish between “types� of DGF or time needed to recover function. We aimed to profile biological pathways in DCD kidney donors that correlate with DGF and discriminate different durations. N=30 DCD kidney biopsies were selected from the UK Quality in Organ Donation biobank and stratified according to DGF duration (immediate function, IF n=10; “short-DGF� (1-6 days), SDGF n=10; “long-DGF� (7-22 days), LDGF n=10). Samples were matched for donor and recipient demographics and analysed by label-free quantitative proteomics, yielding identification of N=3,378 proteins. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis on differentially abundant proteins showed that SDGF kidneys presented stress response pathways upregulation, while LDGF presented impaired response to stress, compared to IF. LDGF showed extensive metabolic deficits compared to IF and SDGF. DCD kidneys requiring dialysis only in the first week post-transplant present acute cellular injury at donation, alongside repair pathways upregulation. In contrast, DCD kidneys requiring dialysis longer beyond 7 days present minimal metabolic and antioxidant responses, suggesting current DGF definitions might not be adequate in distinguishing different types of injury in the donor kidneys contributing to DGF.