The Office of the Vice President for Research (VPR) is excited to invite early-career faculty members to join our new research mentorship program, Propel. The Propel Research Mentorship Program is designed to support faculty members who 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 early summer 2022. Program activities for the 2021-2022 Propel class will run from September 24, 2021 through April 29, 2022, and participants will submit their proposals no later than June 2022. Prospective participants are encouraged to read more about the Propel program requirements and life cycle.

The Office of the Vice President for Research will begin accepting 2021-2022 Propel nominations on Tuesday, August 17. Complete nomination packages are due by Friday, August 27, 2021.

 

How to Apply for Propel

Any faculty member may nominate any number of early-career faculty members who meet the eligibility criteria for Propel (self-nominations are not allowed). To be considered for Propel, faculty members must:

• Hold the title of assistant or associate professor.
• Have received relatively small external grant awards (or subawards) in the past (see program page for additional guidance).
• Be employed at UofSC Columbia, the UofSC schools of medicine in Columbia or Greenville, a four-year UofSC comprehensive institution or a UofSC 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.

To nominate a faculty member for Propel, the nominator will log into the Office of the VPR’s awards nomination system using the same university network username and password they use to access USCeRA, etc. (no new account required). Once logged in, the nominator will search for and select the nominee. This will generate an email that will prompt the nominee to complete the nomination package.

The nomination system will open for 2022 Propel nominations:

• To initiate a nomination (or complete your nomination initiated by another faculty member), log into vprinitiatives.research.sc.edu.
• Download the 2021-2022 Propel Nomination Guide (pdf) for step-by-step nomination instructions. 

 

Required Nomination Materials

The nominee will answer two simple questions inside of the system, and will prepare and submit the following materials as PDF documents:

• Cover letter (letter of intent) of one to two pages in length, explaining why the nominee is an excellent candidate for Propel
• Curriculum vitae
• NIH or NSF biosketch
• Past three years of completed/current/pending support documentation

A faculty review committee will score nominations to inform the selection process. Selected participants will be notified via email by Friday, September 17, 2021.

 

Propel 2021-2022 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.

Date, Time and Location	Details
Fall 2021
Friday, September 24, 2021 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. UofSC Conference Center Close-Hipp Building, 8th floor	Workshop Session One General session: Program kickoff Breakouts for NIH and NSF participants
Friday, October 29, 2021 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. UofSC Conference Center Close-Hipp Building, 8th floor	Workshop Session Two General session: Budgets Breakouts for NIH and NSF participants
Friday, November 19, 2021 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. UofSC Conference Center Close-Hipp Building, 8th floor	Workshop Session Three NIH breakout: various proposal sections NSF breakout: various proposal sections Deliverable one due to mentor after workshop session three.
Spring 2022
Friday, January 21, 2022 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. UofSC Conference Center Close-Hipp Building, 8th floor	Workshop Session Four Session four will focus on participant presentations of their first deliverable. Each participant will give a 10-minute presentation, with five minutes for Q&A. Deliverable two due to mentor after workshop session four.
Friday, February 25, 2022 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. UofSC Conference Center Close-Hipp Building, 8th floor	Workshop Session Five Session five will focus on participant presentations of their second deliverable. Each participant will give a 10-minute presentation, with five minutes for Q&A. Deliverable three due after workshop session five.
Friday, March 25, 2022 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. UofSC Conference Center Close-Hipp Building, 8th floor	Workshop Session Six Session six will focus on participant presentations of their third deliverable. Each participant will give a 10-minute presentation, with five minutes for Q&A. Deliverable four due to mentor after workshop session six.
Friday, April 29, 2022 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. UofSC Conference Center Close-Hipp Building, 8th floor	Workshop Session Seven Session seven will focus on mock proposal review presentations. Each participant will give a 10-minute presentation of their full proposal, with five minutes for Q&A. Full proposal due to external reviewer after workshop session.
June 2022 (Final deliverable only; no session)	Submit final proposals to the target agency, either NIH or NSF.

 

 

12 August 2021