The Office of the Vice President for Research (VPR) is excited to invite early career faculty members to join our research mentorship program, Propel. The Propel Research Mentorship Program is designed to support faculty members who are new to the federal grants application process or have had success in securing relatively small grant awards, and are ready to apply for an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or a relatively large grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Through Propel’s structured workshops, mentorship and editing support, participants will spend nine months developing a polished grant proposal, and will submit the proposal to the targeted funding agency (NIH or NSF) at the end of the program, in late Spring 2025. 

Program activities for the 2024-2025 Propel class will run from August 23, 2024 through May 2, 2025, and participants will submit their proposals no later than June 2025. Prospective participants are encouraged to read more about the Propel program requirements.

The Office of the Vice President for Research will begin accepting 2024-2025 Propel applications on Tuesday, April 9. Complete application packages are due by Monday, July 1, 2024.

 

How to Apply for Propel

Any USC faculty member that meets the criteria below may apply. To be considered for Propel, faculty members must:

• Hold the title of assistant or associate tenure track professor (including assistant and associate research faculty).
• Be new to the federal grants application process or have received relatively small external grant awards (or subawards) in the past.
• Be employed at USC Columbia, the USC schools of medicine in Columbia or Greenville, a four-year USC comprehensive institution or a USC Palmetto College campus.
• Not have received a large federal grant (such as an NIH R01 or a medium/large NSF award of about $500,000 or more). Propel welcomes faculty members who have applied for large awards but not had them funded.

Note: Participants in a previous Propel class are not eligible to participate in Propel 2024-2025.

Applications for Propel will be administered through REDCap.

Click here to apply for Propel 2024-2025. 

 

Application Materials

The applicant must provide the following materials in their REDCap application:

• Choice of focus: NIH or NSF
• Five keywords related to your research
• Current faculty rank
• Optional: list a funding solicitation (please provide the name and link, if applicable) 

Please direct questions regarding NIH focused applications to Michael Beets, Ph.D., at beets@mailbox.sc.edu or 803-777-3003.

Questions regarding NSF focused applications can be directed to Emily Devereux, Ph.D., at devereue@mailbox.sc.edu 803-576-6787.

 

Propel 2024-2025 Schedule

Please refer to the Propel Research Mentorship Program page for more details on each workshop and deliverable noted below. A light breakfast and full lunch will be provided for participants at all program sessions.

9 April 2024