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 USC. 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.

The application process requires a competitively written grant describing the proposed research, scholarship, or creative project. The experience students acquire through this process is invaluable by providing training in grant proposal development and 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.

Expand all*Eligibility

•   All PhD-degree seeking students in their second year (or later) are eligible to apply. First year PhD students are not eligible to apply for the SPARC Graduate Research Grant.  
•   MD-PhD students are eligible to apply for SPARC during the first year (or later) of the PhD phase of the program (if following a plan of 2 years of MD program, 3 years of PhD program, and then 2 years of MD to complete the program). 
•   Master of Fine Arts (MFA) and Master of Arts (MA) in Public History students are eligible and may apply in their first year (or later) of graduate study. Please note these are the only masters-seeking degrees that are eligible for SPARC.
•   MD, PharmD, and non-PhD seeking doctoral students are not eligible to apply for SPARC grants.
•   Applicants must be current students at the time of application.
•   At the time of award (May), applicants must have at least one full year left in the program prior to anticipated degree completion.
•   Applicants must have a minimum graduate GPA of 3.0.
•   International students are eligible to apply.
•   Students may receive the SPARC Graduate Research Grant only ONCE. 
•   Students who have previously received a major federal or foundation grant or fellowship (such as NIH F31 Fellowship, NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, etc.) are not eligible to apply for SPARC funding. Students are allowed and encouraged to apply for one of these at the same time as SPARC.
•   Each faculty advisor/mentor can sponsor only two student SPARC applications each year (i.e. only two students per faculty mentor may apply for SPARC each year). Faculty mentors may not circumvent this rule by sponsoring two students and then having other faculty sponsor additional students for whom they are the primary dissertation/thesis advisor. 

 

SPARC Application Video* 

This video* is optional. Applicants are encouraged to watch for helpful tips and hints on writing the proposal and submission process. Download video slides here and/or handout for notes here.

*NOTE The Application Guidebook is updated every year and supersedes/takes precedent over video content. The video is not updated every year as the majority of content is unchanged. The downloadable slides and handout have been updated.

 

SPARC Forms & Guidelines

Below are guideline documents detailing the SPARC application process for students and to assist faculty advisors in their role in the SPARC program, as well as the downloadable forms eligible students need for completing the SPARC proposal package.

 

 

SPARC Materials From Past Years