Mission

The most important science and scholarship rarely arrives fully formed. Often these ideas are deemed too risky or half-baked for a funding agency, but are too consequential to leave unsupported. The Carolina Catalyst Fund exists exactly for that moment.

The federal research funding is uncertain and evolving. The landscape our faculty are navigating is more complex than it has been in more than a generation. The Carolina Catalyst Fund is a joint investment from the OVCR and the Provost’s Office in response to this pressure. By re-envisioning and restructuring the Creativity Hubs mechanism, the Catalyst Fund backs the early, high-risk, high-reward research and scholarship that Carolina’s strategic priorities demand. The joint investment is intentional; it is a signal from the university’s highest academic leadership that these are the ideas that Carolina is betting on.

This year’s program gives advantage to research that deploys AI, machine learning, or large-scale data infrastructure, or that brings engineering design and translational thinking to bear on a scientific or scholarly challenge, in any discipline, at any tier. These are the cross-cutting capabilities that accelerate what every field can ask, answer, and deliver, but they are not requirements. In addition to AI and engineering, special consideration will also be given to projects that align with one of Carolina’s strategic research priority areas: preventing and curing disease; environment, energy, and planetary resilience; mind, brain, and human experience; and society, democracy, and the public good.

Two Catalyst Tiers

Catalyst Spark awards up to $10,000 for faculty at the early stage of an idea. These are fast investments in a specific question or for a defined hypothesis and a specific bottleneck the funding removes. Designed to test whether a large project is viable, produce preliminary data or proof of concept that positions a team for something larger. This tier welcomes humanities, arts, and disciplines where transformative work begins with curiosity rather than a dataset. 

Catalyst Accelerate awards up to $75,000 for teams ready to move. These investments are explicitly oriented to a downstream target, a center level NIH/NSF opportunity, an ARPA-H submission, a Genesis Mission opportunity, or a named private funder within 18 months. A credible downstream funding target is required in the application.

How to Apply

Applications are submitted through the LAMSeS internal proposal system by 11:59PM, October 15 (campus VPN required if accessing remotely).

• Catalyst Spark: Three-page application that describes the problem, the current state of practice, the proposed solution, the team, downstream opportunity, and a high-level budget table indicating anticipated use of funds by major cost category (e.g., research personnel, domestic travel, project consumables).  
• Catalyst Accelerate: Six-page application with all Spark elements plus a named downstream funding target, a realistic timeline to submission, and a brief account of what preliminary data the Catalyst investment will produce. If proposing computational or AI methods, describe the data infrastructure and methods environment that will support successful completion of study.

Proposals deploying AI, computational methods, or large-scale data should include a brief statement that describes the infrastructure that makes the science possible: what data exists and where, what computing resources are available or planned, and how the team will manage the analytical demands the work requires. All proposals, regardless of discipline or approach, should demonstrate that the proposed scope is feasible within the funding period and that the team has the access, expertise, and resources to execute. For humanities, arts, and qualitative scholarship, this means describing the archives, collections, fieldwork access, collaborative relationships, or creative infrastructure that make the work achievable, not merely imaginable.

The university anticipates supporting approximately 10 to 15 projects across both funding tiers, beginning December 1, 2026.

Evaluation Criteria

Research and scholarship will be prioritized that expands the limits of human knowledge and provides the tools for societal progress and impact. Teams that advance as finalists will best demonstrate:

• A compelling societal, disciplinary, or creative challenge and a concrete proposed solution 
• Capability and cross-disciplinary depth to advance risky work through proof-of-concept stage 
• A critical mass of talent at Carolina, with credible leadership or recognition in the proposed area 
• Clear leveragability: currently unfunded with a clear line to a larger opportunity 
• Alignment between the requested amount and the aims. Proposals that request less than the ceiling for well scoped reasons will receive favorable attention 
• Winning proposals can come from any discipline

Only the most impactful concepts are expected to be funded. Submissions are welcome from all disciplines across campus.

Strategic Priority Areas

Special consideration will be given to projects that align with one or more of Carolina’s four strategic research priorities:

• Preventing & curing disease 
• Environment, energy, & planetary resilience   
• Mind, brain, & human experience  
• Society, democracy, & the public good

In addition, engineering and AI are the cross-cutting capabilities that transform what every other field can accomplish. Proposals at any tier and in any priority area that deploy purpose-built AI, machine learning, or large-scale data infrastructure, or that apply engineering design and translational thinking to a scientific or humanistic challenge, will receive particular attention. Carolina is building a research enterprise where these capabilities are woven into discovery. Not every project will involve AI or engineering, nor should it. The Catalyst Fund is built for the full range of Carolina’s intellectual ambition, and the most transformative proposal may come from any discipline on this campus.