The Office of the Vice President for Research is pleased to announce the application period for the 2022 SPARC Graduate Research Grant program. 2022 SPARC grant applications are due by Wednesday, October 13, at 5:00 p.m. 

Program Overview

Sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research, the Support to Promote Advancement of Research and Creativity, or SPARC, Graduate Research Grant is a merit-based award designed to ignite research and creative excellence across all disciplines at UofSC. The overall objective of the SPARC Graduate Research Grant is to provide support and to encourage outstanding students to pursue exciting research directions during their graduate career at the University of South Carolina. To achieve this end, the SPARC program provides the opportunity for eligible graduate students to secure funding up to $5,000 to support their research, creative or other meritorious scholarly project. SPARC funds can be used to pay for salary, supplies and other costs essential to completing and promoting funded projects.

A unique aspect of the SPARC program is the requirement that all applicants complete and submit a competitive grant proposal package. The experience students acquire through this process is invaluable as it doubles as training in grant proposal development, helping SPARC applicants build the skills and background necessary to make them more competitive in seeking national fellowship awards from federal and private funding sources.

Complete information about the application process, including all 2021-2022 SPARC application materials are available on the SPARC program page. All graduate students who apply for a SPARC grant must view an application workshop video prior to submitting their proposals. Visit the Office of the Vice President for Research website for complete application details and to sign up to receive a notification when the workshop video is available.