The START program is available to faculty members with a primary, full-time appointment to CCSU, SCSU, UB UConn/UConn Health, within the following parameters:

• Projects should be translational in nature (i.e., cannot be basic research). Very early stage projects are eligible, but should nevertheless have an obvious downstream commercial application.
• The project need not have a related issued or pending patent or a submitted invention disclosure at the time of proposal submission.
• Each START project will be governed by the IP policies of the PI’s home university.  START funding may be contingent on applicants reaching an agreement with their university regarding IP rights and/or other investment terms prior to awards being finalized.
• Generally speaking, UConn-based START projects should have University-owned IP (or the potential to develop IP that will be University-owned) at their core.  If a UConn-based project is based on IP not assignable to the University, it can be eligible for START funding only if it has not already received funding from any source for commercialization activities.
• Projects that have been previously funded by START may be eligible for one additional award. To be eligible:
  • PIs must submit a final report on the first START award before applying for a new award. This report will be reviewed by the selection committee before considering any new application.
  • The new START application must propose a new scope of work. The same set of activities will not be funded twice
  • PIs must submit a new, full application and compete for additional funding alongside new applicants. START awards will not be automatically renewed.

• Faculty members that wish to apply for START funding will need to secure all necessary approvals for commitment of effort, use of recombinant DNA, use of animals, use of human subjects, etc., as required by their respective institutional policies and guidelines and any relevant local, state or federal regulations. All necessary protocols will need to be in place before funds are released.

START Budget Guidelines

• Allowable costs: graduate student stipends/summer support, postdoc salaries, other research assistant salaries, associated fringe costs, instrument use fees, materials and supplies, contractual services (external consultants or fee-for-service providers). Other commercialization-related costs not specified here or in the not-allowed list below should be listed in the budget and justified.
• Not-allowable costs: faculty salary, large equipment acquisition costs, travel for the purpose of presenting research results, costs related to basic research aims, graduate tuition, any overhead or F&A.
• Any changes to the budget of an awarded project must be approved in advance by the START program director. Requests for re-budgeting can be made to research@uconn.edu.
  Note: All contractual services and materials and supplies must be procured following the awardee’s respective university purchasing policies.

Elements to include in the START proposal are included below. Applications exceeding the total page limit of 6 pages (1" margins, 11-12 pt font) will be returned without review. Proposals documents should be uploaded to the UConn Quest Portal in PDF format.

• Applicant Information Form (basic information about the PI) - Available on Quest
  • Information needed: Name, Department, School/College, email, phone, academic rank, primary employer, grant funding status
• START Application Form (information about the project and team, including a 1 page abstract/summary of the project) - Available on Quest
  • Information needed: Title, amount requested, Abstract/Lay Summary, Key words, Team Members and roles
• Project Plan (Single PDF)
  • Proposal Narrative (2 pages)
    • Description and background of the potential innovation:
    • What problem or unmet need does the potential innovation target?
    • Are there any currently available products/technologies that target the same problem or unmet need?
    • If so, why is the proposed innovation is different from or better than those that are already available?
    • What is the current market size for the potential innovation?
    • What Technology Readiness Level (TRL) most closely describes the current stage of your innovation?
      • TRL2 Concept defined and/or application formulated, analytical tools developed (applied research)
      • TRL3 Experimental data demonstrates critical function (proof of concept)
      • TRL4 Invention validated in laboratory environment (feasibility)
      • TRL5 Invention validated in relevant environment (development)
      • TRL6 Pilot-scale prototypical system validated in relevant environment (tech demonstration)
      • TRL7 Full-scale system demonstrated in relevant environment (system demonstration)
    • Preliminary evidence: Summarize any preliminary data available.
    • Proposed experiments with project goals:
      • What are your project goals and your experimental approaches to achieve those goals?
      • How will achievement of your project goals help make the potential innovation more attractive for additional funding?
      • Could the experiments, if successful, yield patentable intellectual property?
  • Intellectual property (IP): Describe your IP position, realized or planned, and the competitive IP landscape. (1 page)
  • Collaborators: Provide the names of other investigators with whom you plan to collaborate, if any. Identify any industry partners you have already approached and their response to your outreach. (1/2 page)
  • Relevant publications: List up to six key publications written by you or others about the proposed product/technology. (1/2 page)
• Budget: Provide a preliminary budget estimate and proposed use of funds using the Start_Budget_Template on the START website. To give reviewers a complete picture of project feasibility, we also ask that any other sources of funding that may be used to further the aims of your START project be identified and the uses of these funds described. (single PDF)
• Appendices: Optional upload of other supporting documents (previous reviews, references, letters of support etc)

Proposals will be scored based on the following criteria:Market Need Addressed

• Would the potential innovation satisfy an unmet consumer, industrial or medical need?
• Is there a clear market need identified in the proposal?
• How much additional research and funding would be necessary to bring the potential innovation to the market?

Innovation and Novelty

• Is the potential innovation novel?
• Would the potential innovation solve the unmet need differently (e.g., better, faster, cheaper) than the current state-of-the art?
• Would the potential innovation be a disruptive technology or an incremental improvement over the current state-of-the art?

Funding and Commercialization Potential

• Will the proposed experiments help make the potential innovation more attractive for follow-on translational research funding?
• Will the proposed experiments provide enough data/results to move the potential innovation toward patentability and/or commercial opportunities?
• While still early stage, are there any obvious potential licensees?

Scientific Merit and Feasibility

• Is the experimental design technically sound?
• Does the investigator/team have appropriate expertise and facilities?
• Can the proposed experiments be completed in one year?

Reporting requirements

• Final Reports: START awardees agree to provide a final report detailing project results, progress toward the project goals, any resulting manuscripts or publications and whether any intellectual property was generated, including whether an invention disclosure was filed with awardee’s university. Final reports are due within 30 days after the award period ends.
• Follow-up Reports: Recognizing that projects funded by START are early stage and will likely take some time to realize their commercial potential, we will be contacting recipients of START funding at the start of the fiscal year following the completion of each recipient’s award period to learn about the continued results of your project, the significance of those results, and to gather statistics about students supported, publications, additional grants received, intellectual property generated, other projects launched, commercialization activities, etc. This will allow us to better understand the impact of START PPOC funding and make the case for its continued funding beyond the initial three year period granted by CT Next.

Faculty can use these statements as a starting point for describing UConn resources within their research proposals (e.g., the NSF Facilities, Equipment, and Other Resources document, the NIH Facilities and Other Resources document, or others.) Please review the statement and modify as appropriate for the faculty member or the research proposal. Contact ovpr-rds@uconn.edu with any questions.  More statements are in development!

University Resources

• Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
• Diversity and Inclusion Resources
• Diversity and Inclusion Statement
• Diversity and Inclusion Statement - Engineering
• UConn Fact Sheet
• UConn Research Environment
• University Information Technology Services

Schools and Colleges

• College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources
• College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
• Neag School of Education
• School of Dental Medicine
• College of Engineering
• School of Law
• School of Medicine Core Facilities
• School of Pharmacy
• School of Social Work

Centers and Institutes

• Institute for Materials Science
• Science 1 Research Center
• Science 1 Fact Sheet
• Tech Park/Innovation Partnership Building

The topic-specific calendars below are provided by our partners at Hanover Research. The first page of each document is a calendar overview of upcoming funding opportunities. Subsequent pages provide more detail on each program.  New calendars will be uploaded as they are refreshed by Hanover Research. Please contact ovpr-rds@uconn.edu with any questions.

Grants Calendars

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion - August 2024 | Opportunities with deadline through February 2025

Research Centers - July 2024 | Opportunities with deadlines through early 2025

Student Success - June 2024 | Opportunities with deadlines through early 2025

Minority Serving Institutions - May 2024 | Opportunities with deadlines through February 2025

Engineering - May 2024 | Opportunities with deadlines through February 2025

Health Equity - March 2024 | Opportunities with deadlines through January 2025

Arts and Humanities - February 2024 | Opportunities with deadlines through February 2025

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning - January 2024 | Opportunities with deadlines through October 2024

Interdisciplinary Research - January 2024 | Opportunities with deadlines through September 2024

Environmental Sustainability - November 2023 | Opportunities with deadlines through September 2024

STEM Education - September 2023 | Opportunities with deadlines through September 2024

Early Career Research - Feb 2024 | Opportunities with deadlines through February 2025

Elements to include in the full application are as follows:

1. A one-paragraph abstract (type or copy/paste into a form on Quest).
2. Results from prior OVPR-funded projects: If you've received funding in the past from OVPR internal seed grants or commercialization grants, please give a brief account of the outcomes of those projects and any research products generated (type or copy/paste into a form on Quest).
3. Project plan document (five page maximum, 12-pt font and 1” margins), including
   1. Problem/Unmet need: Describe the problem or unmet need that the innovation targets.
   2. Description of the Product: Describe in detail the product or technology concept.
   3. Estimate Market Size:
      1. Please describe the total available market this invention addresses (TAM)
      2. Estimate serviceable available market (SAM)
      3. Estimate serviceable obtainable market (SOM)
   4. Competing Products:
      1.  Identify any currently available products/technologies, and explain why they do not adequately satisfy the problem or unmet need.
      2. Explain how the proposed innovation is different from or better than those that are already available.
   5. Intellectual property (IP): Describe your IP position, and the competitive IP landscape. List your current patent applications or patents pending as well as any granted patents related to this project. If you currently have no patent applications, please mention plans for future invention disclosures.
   6. Commercialization Plan:
      1. Describe major milestones required to enter market?
      2. Describe the pathway to market?
      3. Expected time to enter market and financing required to enter the market
      4. Describe regulatory pathway if applicable
   7. Preliminary evidence: Summarize any preliminary data available that substantiates the proposed innovation usefulness for the applications envisioned.
   8. Proposed work with project milestones: Outline the proposed scope of work approaches with timelines and a clearly defined set of objective milestones to be completed by the end of the initial award period.  Please include an analysis of how the proposed activities will sufficiently de-risk the innovation to allow for further commercial development.
4. Biosketches/CVs: Please include brief biosketches/CVs (formatted as appropriate for your field) for all PIs/Co-PIs.  Include your most recent publications or those most relevant to the work proposed.  Also include current/pending support from external sponsors and UConn sources (including start-up funding). This may be appended to the end of the CV/biosketch or integrated within it, if your discipline’s format already provides space for current/pending.  Biosketches/CVs may be uploaded as one PDF or as separate PDF documents.
5. Budget: Provide a preliminary budget estimate and proposed use of funds. Please see Internal Funding Budget Guidelines for instructions and a budget template.
6. The budget spreadsheet should be converted to PDF format prior to upload.

Full Proposals will only be accepted from applicants who have submitted an LOI and received an invitation to proceed with a proposal. Invited applicants should upload their proposal documents the Quest Portal (you may be prompted to first log in and then to click the link again to access the application) 

The SPARK program is available to UConn/UConn Health faculty members, within the following parameters:

• IP: Projects should have intellectual property at their core. Projects based on IP not developed by UConn are not eligible. Projects that have not produced an invention disclosure by the end of year 1 of funding will not be eligible for follow-on funding.
• Startups and License Options: If a startup related to the SPARK project exists at the time of award, an option agreement must be taken within 6 months of the award.  If a startup company related to the project is formed at any point in the future, an option agreement must be taken within six months of the startup creation.
• Effort and Salary: Although no minimum effort level is required for SPARK projects, a PI must have departmental research time available during the award period or address in the application how they will handle the time commitment required by a SPARK project. Generally speaking, SPARK is only available to tenure-track, clinical, and (Storrs/Regional Campus) APiR faculty. Research Professors / those whose positions are contingent on grant-funding (soft money positions, including UCH in-residence faculty) are not eligible. Faculty with potential SPARK projects that involve grant-dependent faculty should contact the SPARK program director before applying.
• UConn Primary Appointment: SPARK PIs must be faculty whose primary appointment is at UConn / UConn Health. Faculty with primary appointments to CCMC or Jackson Labs are not eligible to apply. PIs with a primary appointment at a TIP company are also not eligible. Individuals who are not eligible to apply as a PI may be able to serve as a collaborator/consultant on an eligible PI’s SPARK project.
• Number of submissions: Eligible faculty can only submit one LOI/full proposal per year as lead PI. Investigators may serve as collaborator on multiple projects.
• Past SPARK Winners: Prior SPARK awardees may apply for SPARK funding for new projects/technologies that are distinct and independent of those funded with past SPARK awards. All past SPARK awardees are asked to consult with the program director prior to submission to ensure eligibility.

SPARK LOIs and Proposals will be scored based on the following criteria:

Market Need—does the innovation address an unmet need and is there evidence that there is a market for the proposed solution?

• Does the applicant make a strong case that there is a need/problem that needs to be met?
• To what degree will the innovation satisfy the unmet consumer, industry or medical need?
• Does the proposal include market data and a compelling estimate as to what share of the market the innovation may realistically capture?

Innovation and Novelty—Is the innovation novel and/or does it make a significant improvement over currently-available solutions?

• Does the proposal make a convincing argument that the innovation is novel and or makes a significant improvement over currently-available solutions?
• Is there existing or the potential for intellectual property protection?
• To what degree does the innovation solve the unmet need differently (e.g., better, faster, cheaper) than the current state-of-the art?
• If novel, is the innovation a disruptive technology, a platform technology, or an incremental improvement over the current state-of-the art?

Commercialization Plan—Is there a realistic path for commercializing the innovation?

• Does the proposal present a feasible path to bring the innovation forward to market?
• Does the proposal contain reasonable estimates of the developmnt time needed to enter the market?
• Does the proposal present plans for future financing of the project, such as SBIR/STTR or industry investment/collaboration?
• For future development, will this technology require regulatory approval?  If so, does the proposal address plans for successfully navigating the process?
• Does the applicant point to any obvious potential licenses / commercial partners for this innovation?

Approach and Feasibility—Are the activities proposed attainable in the proposed timeline and are they consistent with the high scientific/scholarly standards?

• Does the investigator/team have appropriate expertise and laboratory facilities available to conduct the work?
• Does the project include the involvement of a UConn core facility or a third party be required to complete the work (e.g prototype development)?  If so, have appropriate commitments been obtained?
• To what degree will the activities proposed de-risk and advance the development of the innovation?

SPARK awardees agree to provide regular progress reports to the OVPR during and after the award period. Reports fall into four categories:

• Consultations with TCS: Awardees are expected to connect regularly throughout the award period(s) with their point of contact within OVPR Technology Commercialization Services to discuss progress, to talk through potential problems, and to consider future steps and additional resources that may be of use. Each PI will work with their TCS contact to set up the best check-in schedule, but it is expected that consultations would happen at least on a quarterly basis.
• Six-month Reporting: After six months of each award period (typically in September/October), applicants will be asked to submit a brief progress report via the Quest Portal.  After satisfactory review of this report, the second payment of the award period will be made to the award account.
  • Applies to projects that begin in FY25 and beyond.
  • To renew the SPARK project for 6 months;
    • You will need to complete a form to provide an update on required milestones
      • Indicate submission of any new Invention disclosure and reference number
      • What milestones have been achieved in the past 6 months?
      • Indicate if a startup exists
      • Indicate if an option license has been accepted from UConn
      • Indicate if an application for UConn TIP membership has been submitted
      • Upload a one-page report on progress and plans for the next 6-month period. If your experiments were not successful as planned, please describe what alternate approaches you will take in the next 6-month period.
• Application for Renewal/Follow-on Funding: At the end of the initial award period, awardees will have an opportunity to request follow-on funding to support continued development of their innovation. The renewal process will proceed as follows:
  • One month prior to the completion of the initial award period, awardees will receive an invitation to submit a renewal NOI (indicating whether they would like to renew, request an extension, or allow the project to close out).
  • Awardees who select the renewal option will be able to submit a renewal application in the Quest system immediately after completion of the NOI.
  • Renewal applications should include the following:
    • A brief oral presentation (20 min, followed by Q&A) on project activities and accomplishments and plans for the follow-on award period. The presentation should address the milestones agreed upon at the start of the initial award period and demonstrate that they have been satisfactorily completed.  The OVPR will reach out to awardees to schedule this presentation after receiving their follow-on funding NOI.
    • A revised scope of work for the follow-up award period, detailing proposed activities and how those activities will move the technology forward along its path to market
    • A new budget with justifications outlining how follow-up funds will be used.
    • Renewal applicants are limited to 3 pages, plus references and budget
• Post award project completion reporting: After the project has been completed, the OVPR (Office of the Vice President for Research) would like to evaluate project progress and to learn more about the impact of the work that has been done.  To this end, you will receive a link to a short survey asking you questions about the outcomes and impacts of your project once your project has been completed and then again, one and three years post award project completion.