Sponsored Activities and Research Catalyst (SPARC) Program

Goal: To support faculty in new and continuing research projects, ultimately to support follow-up funding.


In 2022, REDE launched the Sponsored Activities and Research Catalyst Program (SPARC) to support scholarly activities that lead to submission of competitive extramural proposals. This program provides up to $10,000 in seed funding for projects to build the capacity to enhance and support proposal development and submission. SPARC participants will be encouraged to participate in a variety of curated professional development experiences. A SPARC writing accountability group will be facilitated by the Office of Research Development.

Up to ten projects may be selected for SPARC during FY25. The funds can be used for scholarly activities including supplies, travel, participant incentives, student assistantships or other expenditures required to support the project. The budget may include up to a total of $4,000 for reassigned time and/or summer salary for up to two faculty included on each project team (i.e. max. $2,000 each).


Faculty designated as either fixed-term or tenured/tenure-track are eligible for participation in this program. Startup program recipients with funding during FY25 or FY26 may not participate in SPARC. A focal point of this program is to encourage faculty with limited grant experience to develop competitive extramural proposals. Thus, faculty with no funding history and/or those with few intramural awards over the past five years will be given priority for participating in SPARC. Interdisciplinary efforts across departments, schools, colleges, and/or centers/ institutes are strongly encouraged. Requests to collaborate with faculty at other institutions to prepare competitive proposals also will be considered; however, no funds will be transferred to other institutions. Please see the complete instructions here: https://rede.ecu.edu/sparc/


The applications for FY25 (for funds in FY26) are due March 3, 2025. They will be evaluated on the rubric by a panel of grant-experienced faculty from across the campus.