SCTR Translational Entrepreneurship Pilot (STEP) Grant

Up to $10,000 direct costs for a 12-month period from the date a Notice of Award is issued.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

Please notify sctr-sdo@musc.edu upon submission of an application. Applications are reviewed within 3-4 weeks of submission.

All applications will be submitted online using the InfoReady application portal.

• Principal Investigators (PIs) must have an MUSC faculty appointment
  • Faculty from other institutions are encouraged to partner with MUSC faculty on collaborative applications
• Students, trainees, and faculty members may serve as Co-Investigators
• The investigative team must represent interdisciplinary collaboration
• PIs can only have one active grant award from SCTR at any given time

Please note that all applicants are recommend to obtain a biostatistical consultation with Biostatistics, Epidemiology, & Research Design (BERD). To request a consultation, visit SPARCRequest and select SCTR from the service catalog, then choose “Biostatistics, Design & Epidemiology” under the SCTR service category.

Specific Aims (1 page)

State concisely the goals of the proposed research and summarize the expected outcome(s), including the impact that the results of the proposed research will exert on the research field(s) involved. List succinctly the specific objectives of the research proposed (e.g., to test a stated hypothesis, create a novel design, solve a specific problem, challenge an existing paradigm or clinical practice, address a critical barrier to progress in the field, or develop new technology), translational potential of the proposed research, and potential impact as applicable.

SCTR-specific instructions: Each team member’s role, how the project will stimulate new and interdisciplinary collaborations that would otherwise might not have taken place, plans/potential to secure future extramural grant funding including funding agency and mechanism (R, P, U, or any other). Learn more about specific aims on the NIH website.

Research Strategy (3 pages)

Learn more about research strategy on the NIH website. Investigators are also required to include a “Path to Commercialization” section outlining entrepreneurial plans that will stem from the research. Plans may include start-up company formation, SBIR/STTR grant submissions, industry partnering and licensing, or other strategies for translation through commercialization.

Literature Cited (if applicable)

Literature cited does not count toward page count limits.

Learn more about literature cited on the NIH website.

Early-Stage Investigator (ESI) Requirements

The following are only required for PIs meeting NIH ESI criteria.

• Qualified senior co-investigator(s) as mentor(s) must be identified and include the mentor(s) name, biosketch and support letter(s)* on the application
• Strong mentorship plan - include details of ESI/mentor interactions, frequency of meetings, timetable and plan for achieving research independence, additional resources etc.
• Potential of the project to lead to independent funding with a plan to submit a K-series or R-series application

*Support letters do not count toward the page limit of the application.

Timeline (1 page)

Timelines should be in table format.

Detail your plan for extramural grant applications, publication, dissemination, and/or implementation of findings.

NIH Biosketches

Submit biosketches of all investigators and mentors.

• A CV/resume is sufficient for any investigator who is non-academic or a community member.
• Combine all the biosketches together as a single PDF file in the order of the project team members listed in the application form (PI’s biosketch being the first) to upload
• If a consultant(s) is involved in the proposed project, please include the name(s) and her/his roles/duties in the research proposal. You do not have to include their information on the InfoReady application form or submit biosketches.

Learn more about NIH biosketches on the NIH website.

Detailed Budget for Initial Budget Period

PHS 398 format.

Submit in PHS 398 format.

Budget Justification

Learn more about budget justification on the NIH website.

Progress Report

Progress reports are required for PIs with prior SCTR awards, including: SCTR Discovery Grant, SCTR High Innovation High Reward Grant, SCTR Team Science Pilot, SCTR Telehealth Pilot, SCTR Community Engaged Scholars Program, and SCTR KL2/COM K12.

Required Components:

• Were you the principal investigator (PI) or Co-PI of any SCTR funding in the 2 years preceding the submission date for the new pilot project you are proposing? Examples of previous funding may include SCTR pilots, KL2, and the community engaged scholars program.
• PI or Co-PI's Name
• Funding Mechanism
  • SCTR Discovery Grant
  • SCTR High Innovation High Reward Grant
  • SCTR Team Science Pilot
  • SCTR Telehealth Pilot
  • SCTR Community Engaged Scholars Program
  • SCTR KL2/COM K12
  • Other SCTR funding (describe)
• Title of your project
• Brief report of no more than 3 pages about your study progress
  • Specific aims & findings/results of each specific aim
  • Summary of overall results
  • Conclusions of project
• Description of any of the following results of your project:
• Peer-reviewed publication(s)
  • List all publications
• Extramural funding award(s)
  • List all awards
• Intellectual property disclosure to your institution's technology office
  • List all technologies, including: early stage, intermediate stage, advanced stage, commercialization/product sales, and all other technology
  • Describe the type of IP

Letter of Support*

Letter of support from a project mentor (only for PIs meeting NIH ESI criteria).

State of Record of Innovation (ROI)

Statement indicating if a Record of Invention (ROI) has been submitted to the MUSC Zucker Institute for Innovation Commercialization (formerly the Foundation for Research, FRD)

This submission is recommended when appropriate.

Allowable costs

• Faculty Salary Support. Faculty members’ effort, related to the proposed pilot project, must be clearly listed in the budget. Support of faculty salary and fringe benefits is allowed up to 5% effort for each faculty member subject to the NIH salary cap. It should be noted that personnel salary requests and all other budget item requests should be clearly justified and appropriate to conduct the proposed research properly.
• Effort Reporting. SCTR Pilot Projects are funded by MUSC Institutional funds. For institutional compliance purposes, it is the PI’s responsibility to make sure all faculty effort listed in the budget is in compliance with their institutional effort policy.  Investigators are not required to accommodate their effort on the pilot project budget. However, they have to be in compliance with their respective institution’s effort policy should they choose to charge the effort to other funding sources.
• Other Personnel Support. Salary and fringe benefits are allowed for technical support, such as: Research Fellows, Research Assistants/Coordinators, Research Nurses, etc.
• Non-personnel Research Expenses. Some allowable expenses are: supplies, equipment (under limited circumstances), animal purchase cost and care, study subject compensation, study subject transportation costs, in- and out-patient care costs, and statistical and computational services including personnel and computer time. All expenses must be directly related to the proposed research.
• Subawards. Please indicate potential subaward(s) to other institutions clearly on the budget. No signed documents from subaward institution(s) are needed at the time of application submission. If needed, the SCTR Finance Office can assist the PIs and their Business Managers to establish subawards once an application is approved for funding. However, the PI and PI’s department will be responsible for establishing the subaward on time to start the project without delay, and managing it. If the subaward is not processed on time and delay is due to the negligence by the PI and PI’s department, SCTR may deny the funding for your project.

Unallowable Costs

• Students. SCTR pilot project funds cannot be used to cover student tuition, fees or health insurance costs, either directly or indirectly as a stipend. If an application proposes a student stipend as undergraduate or graduate student research assistant, funding support will be deemed inappropriate and not funded. If an application proposes a graduate student as a research assistant, you must provide a justification as to why a student is included in the proposed project and how work on this pilot project is related to the student’s thesis/dissertation research project. Proposed student(s) – undergraduate and graduate – must be identified by first name and last name (i.e., TBD/TBN is not allowed).
• Ancillary Personnel. Salary support for ancillary personnel, such as Mentors and Administrative Assistants is not allowed.
• General office supplies and equipment, computers and laptops (unless specifically requested and justified), membership dues and fees, travel costs to meetings, publication and subscription costs, mailing costs, and rent are not permitted.
• Facilities & Administrative (Overhead/Indirect) Costs. Facilities and administrative costs, also known as indirect/overhead costs, are not permitted.

• Go to https://sparc.musc.edu/ and log in with your MUSC net ID and password
• Select ‘South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research Institute (SCTR)’ from the menu on the left
• Select ‘Funding Opportunities’ from the drop-down menu (towards the middle of the page)
• Select ‘SCTR High Innovation – High Reward (HIHR) Pilot Project Grants’ from the Funding Opportunities page (towards the top of the page)
• Select ‘+’ to put the service in your cart
• Choose Yes/No for the popup question ‘Is this a new request?’
• Select ‘save and continue’ (on your right)
• Log in with your MUSC net ID and password, add your request as directed (i.e. new request or adding it to your already existing request (SRID) using ‘Visit Your Dashboard’) and then process accordingly.
• If it is new request, then select ‘Save and Continue’
  • Select ‘Start a New Study’
  • Complete all of the starred (*) fields and then click ‘Save’
  • Select ‘Pending Funding’ for the ‘Proposal Funding Status’ question
  • Select ‘Internal Funded Pilot Project’ for the ‘Potential Funding Source’
  • Indicate as ‘SCTR’ for the ‘Please Specify’ and ‘Sponsor Name’
  • Select ‘Save’
  • Add estimated ‘Start Date’ and ‘End Date’ fields (For example: 9/1/2022 to 8/31/2023)
  • Then click ‘Save and continue’ (at the bottom of the page, to your right).
  • Steps 3 and 4 listed on top of the page are not required. Move directly to ‘Step 5’ by clicking the arrow.
  • Review your request and click ‘Submit Request’. This step must be completed to add the funding opportunity and receive a confirmation.
  • ‘Request-ID’ (without -0001, which is your request SPARC ID, should be added to your InfoReady application form where it is indicated to add the SPARC ID.

• Go to https://sparc.musc.edu/dashboard and log in with your MUSC net ID and password
• Select the appropriate Protocol ID from the list on your dashboard
• Then click on ‘Add/Modify Request’ (middle of the page, towards your left)
• From the ‘Browse Service Catalog’ (menu on the left) select ‘South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research Institute (SCTR)’
• Then select ‘Funding Opportunities’ from the drop-down menu (towards the middle of the page)
• Select ‘SCTR High Innovation – High Reward (HIHR) Pilot Project Grants’ from the Funding Opportunities page (towards the top of the page)
• Choose ‘No’ when you receive the ‘New or Existing' popup
• Click the ‘Step 5’ arrow on top of the page to review and submit the request
• ‘Submit’ your request. This step must be completed to add the funding opportunity to the existing SRID

Questions regarding the application process may be emailed to SCTR’s Office of Science Development (sctr-sdo@musc.edu).