Opportunity Overview
The South Carolina Clinical & Translational Research Institute (SCTR) Translational Entrepreneurship Pilot (STEP) Grant supports innovative interdisciplinary translational projects with substantial intellectual-property or commercialization development potential.
Funding and Deadline
STEP provides up to $10,000 in direct costs for a 12-month project period. The current SCTR Pilot Funding page states that STEP applications are accepted on a rolling basis. No fixed deadline, closing time, or timezone is published, so applicants should confirm current availability in InfoReady before submission.
Program Focus
Projects should have a credible path toward commercialization or technology transfer. The published application structure asks applicants to describe a Path to Commercialization, including potential routes such as startup formation, SBIR/STTR funding, an industry partner, licensing, or another concrete commercialization pathway.
Application Requirements
The current SCTR page lists a Specific Aims section, a three-page Research Strategy, Path to Commercialization information, Literature Cited when applicable, early-stage-investigator material when applicable, a one-page Timeline, NIH biosketches, a detailed PHS 398 Budget and Budget Justification, and a Progress Report when applicable. A Record of Innovation statement is recommended. Submission is through InfoReady.
Allowable and Unallowable Costs
SCTR’s current pilot guidance lists allowable research costs including appropriately justified personnel, research supplies, equipment under limited circumstances, participant compensation and transportation, inpatient and outpatient care, statistical or computational services, and potential subawards. Unallowable costs include student tuition, fees and health insurance; ancillary personnel such as mentors and administrative assistants; general office supplies; general-purpose equipment unless specifically justified; dues; conference travel; publication and subscription costs; mailing; rent; and facilities and administrative or other indirect costs.
The public SCTR page reviewed by Atlas does not state a mandatory match or cost-share requirement for STEP.
Atlas Analysis
Atlas Opportunity Score: 64/100. STEP is a legitimate South Carolina healthcare-innovation funding pathway, but its value depends on a project having genuine new intellectual-property or commercialization development rather than merely deploying an existing commercial product.
N9+ Fit Score: 25/100, conditional. N9+ should not be positioned as a routine purchase or promotional deployment under this mechanism. A potential fit would require an MUSC-led project that develops genuinely novel intellectual property, integration, workflow, research methodology, or commercialization work around remote examination or telehealth technology and satisfies SCTR’s commercialization expectations.
QC Healthcare Fit: 5/100. This mechanism is translational entrepreneurship funding rather than a staffing or clinical-services procurement.
Direct-vendor disposition: Do not treat STEP as a direct Dr. Miltie submission. Any Dr. Miltie role would need to be subordinate to an eligible MUSC-led project and consistent with institutional conflict-of-interest, IP, procurement, and budget rules.
Eligibility Note
SCTR states generally that its pilot opportunities require interdisciplinary collaboration. The current public page’s detailed PI-eligibility language is written specifically for the Discovery mechanism, so STEP applicants should confirm the current STEP-specific PI requirements in InfoReady or directly with SCTR rather than assuming Discovery eligibility language applies unchanged.
Contacts
SCTR lists Sydney Bollinger at bollinger@musc.edu for InfoReady and program questions. The SCTR Office of Science Development may be reached at sctr-sdo@musc.edu.
Next Action
Prospective MUSC applicants should confirm current STEP-specific PI eligibility and funding availability in InfoReady, then build a project with a defensible commercialization pathway and project-specific budget.
Official source: MUSC SCTR Pilot Funding.