Innovation Catalyst Program
Initiative: Stevens Translation Catalyst
The Innovation Catalyst Fund was created to support early-stage Trojan innovators across the university. Designed to support student, faculty, staff, and alumni innovators, the fund provides resources for a range of innovation-related activities, such as covering legal and incorporation costs, supporting engagement with USC-affiliated startups to gain real-world experience, and advancing use-inspired research with entrepreneurial potential. By helping founders translate ideas into viable ventures, the fund aims to promote social and economic impact through innovation and entrepreneurship. Programs like the Innovation Catalyst Fund plays a critical role in the broader USC innovation ecosystem, which is designed to provide comprehensive support across the commercialization spectrum for USC-affiliated founders.
Initiative: Stevens Translation Catalyst
The Stevens Translation Catalyst is an initiative within USC’s Innovation Catalyst Program that provides up to $50,000 in targeted funding to support validation and proof-of-concept work for USC-owned intellectual property. The goal of the program is to facilitate generation of data that positions technologies for licensing, startup formation, or additional translational funding.
The program is open to tenured, tenure-track, and RTPC faculty (excluding lecturers, adjunct, and part-time faculty). Eligible activities may include drug candidate optimization and lead refinement (such as in vivo safety, efficacy, and dose-range studies), prototype development and functional testing for medical devices, validation of biomarker panels using real-world data or clinical or computational studies, development of a software MVP or digital tool, prototype validation in laboratory environment studies, and materials manufacturing, characterization, techno-economic analysis (TEA) studies, and early scale-up work.
Funding is meant to support direct research activities conducted in USC laboratories and, in certain cases, may be applied to offset university overhead associated with company-sponsored research agreements when a commercial partner is interested in licensing USC IP and validation work is performed in a USC lab.
Applications are due by March 1, with award decisions announced and funds released on May 1.
If you are experiencing technical issues submitting your proposal or have additional questions, please contact the rii@usc.edu.
ICP - Stevens Translation Catalyst
Innovation Catalyst Program
Initiative: Stevens Translation Catalyst
The Innovation Catalyst Fund was created to support early-stage Trojan innovators across the university. Designed to support student, faculty, staff, and alumni innovators, the fund provides resources for a range of innovation-related activities, such as covering legal and incorporation costs, supporting engagement with USC-affiliated startups to gain real-world experience, and advancing use-inspired research with entrepreneurial potential. By helping founders translate ideas into viable ventures, the fund aims to promote social and economic impact through innovation and entrepreneurship. Programs like the Innovation Catalyst Fund plays a critical role in the broader USC innovation ecosystem, which is designed to provide comprehensive support across the commercialization spectrum for USC-affiliated founders.
Initiative: Stevens Translation Catalyst
The Stevens Translation Catalyst is an initiative within USC’s Innovation Catalyst Program that provides up to $50,000 in targeted funding to support validation and proof-of-concept work for USC-owned intellectual property. The goal of the program is to facilitate generation of data that positions technologies for licensing, startup formation, or additional translational funding.
The program is open to tenured, tenure-track, and RTPC faculty (excluding lecturers, adjunct, and part-time faculty). Eligible activities may include drug candidate optimization and lead refinement (such as in vivo safety, efficacy, and dose-range studies), prototype development and functional testing for medical devices, validation of biomarker panels using real-world data or clinical or computational studies, development of a software MVP or digital tool, prototype validation in laboratory environment studies, and materials manufacturing, characterization, techno-economic analysis (TEA) studies, and early scale-up work.
Funding is meant to support direct research activities conducted in USC laboratories and, in certain cases, may be applied to offset university overhead associated with company-sponsored research agreements when a commercial partner is interested in licensing USC IP and validation work is performed in a USC lab.
Applications are due by March 1, with award decisions announced and funds released on May 1.
If you are experiencing technical issues submitting your proposal or have additional questions, please contact the rii@usc.edu.