Venture Development Guidelines
Proposal Guidelines
- IACUC and IRB approval must be obtained from your University prior to proposal submission if animal or human subjects will be used with GRA funds
- Milestones and a budget update are to be reported semi-annually – due at June 30th and December 31st of each year until all funds have been spent
- GRA may elect to pay funds in tranches based on milestones
- Milestones may include both scientific and business tasks
When submitting the initial A proposal (in either Phase I or II), you will develop a road map for both the A and B phases. You will propose milestones, a schedule and a budget for both the A & B phase. The B phase must only be an estimate and may be revised at the time of submission of the B proposal.
Eligible Uses of GRA Funds
Activities that reduce commercial risk and further develop the commercially relevant value proposition including but not limited to the following:
- Prototype development
- Technology feasibility studies
- Market research
- Customer discovery
- Intellectual property assessment (prior art and freedom to operate analysis as appropriate)
- Regulatory and reimbursement assessment
- Fringe benefits (up to certain percentage determined by institution standard)
- SBIR consultant
- Post-docs
Prohibited Uses of GRA Funds
- For Phases I and II, compensation of any individual who holds equity, warrants or options in a GRA-funded company
- For Phases I and II, patent prosecution or legal expenses associated with incorporation or technology licensing
- For Phase I, equipment purchases that would be considered capital items by the university (e.g. $5,000 or greater)
- Proposals that seek funding to gather preliminary data for an NIH, NSF, DoD or other non-commercial grant
- Proposals for exploratory or basic research
- Funding for faculty hobbies with no need for dedicated, non-faculty management
- Undergraduate or graduate student tuition
- Overhead including clean room fees
- Compensated absences
- Rent
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