Catalyst Accelerator Awards for the Development of Therapeutics, Diagnostics, Medical Devices, and Digital/Computational Health

INDEPENDENT REVIEW

Project Award Amount: Up to $75,000

OFFERED ONLY IN FALL CYCLE. This grant will not be reviewed by RAP review committees; it will be independently reviewed by the Catalyst Accelerator Award Selection Committee.

The Catalyst Accelerator is dedicated to advancing UCSF innovations which are novel, impactful, and scalable. The Catalyst Accelerator provides expert advice, service, and mentorship from industry advisors, subject matter experts, and serial innovators to UCSF Principal Investigators (PIs). In addition, Milestone Advancement Plans (MAP) will be developed to advance each of the selected innovations along the translational path to commercialization and patient benefit.
 

Catalyst Accelerator Awards

Catalyst Accelerator Awards are issued in a two-step process. (Additional details in table below)

• Catalyst Consultation Award (November 2026 to March 2027): The Consultation Award Phase is intended to help teams strengthen the translational and commercial positioning of their projects prior to final funding consideration.

• Catalyst Final Award (May 2027 to May 2028): Awarded teams use their project funding to advance their project aims to achieve milestones. 

Personnel Eligibility
Applicants must be UCSF faculty members in any series (Ladder Rank, In Residence, Clinical X, Health Science Clinical, Adjunct) and at any rank (Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Full Professor).

Trainees, including students, residents, clinical fellows, postdoctoral fellows, and specialists, are encouraged to participate as key project team members, but the PI and co-PIs must be UCSF faculty.

If there are external collaborators in your project, the person and their institution need to be specified.

Projects Eligible for the Catalyst Accelerator
The Catalyst Accelerator supports early translational research projects (T1) with a potential path toward clinical implementation or commercialization.  Competitive projects should be beyond the discovery stage and include pilot or proof-of-concept data supporting feasibility and product development.  Ideal candidates for the Catalyst Accelerator are projects that are novel, impactful, and scalable and fall into the categories of Therapeutics, Diagnostics, Medical Devices, or Digital / Computational Health. 

If there are technology components as part of your solution that were not developed at UCSF, this needs to be clearly stated and attributed to the correct source.

The Catalyst Accelerator does not support discovery research. 

Ineligible projects include:

• Basic or exploratory research 
• Target identification or unvalidated biomarker discovery 
• Projects lacking pilot data or proof-of-concept evidence 
• Projects without a defined translational or commercialization pathway

Award Process
The award process is aligned with UCSF PRIDE values, UCSF Principles of Community and this program does not use race, gender, sex, or other protected categories or proxies for protected categories in the selection process. Please refer to https://opportunity.ucsf.edu/about/pride-valuesexternal site (opens in a new window) and https://opportunity.ucsf.edu/about/principles-communityexternal site (opens in a new window)

Submission Rules

Intellectual Property (IP): Projects should have a strong potential for generating intellectual property and for commercial development. Any existing IP must be assigned to, or jointly owned by, The Regents of the University of California. 

It is expected that each awarded project will result in an Invention Disclosure to UCSF Innovation Ventures. If you have not already submitted an Invention Disclosure on this project, please review the Invention Disclosure process here.external site (opens in a new window)
 

Estimated Timeline:

Review Criteria
Proposals will be evaluated on the following:

1.        Unmet medical need  
         - Clinical indication
         - Limitations of current standard of care
         - Potential for clinical impact

2.       Scientific rationale and Preliminary Evidence
         - Strength of pilot data and proof-of-concept evidence
         - Validation supporting the proposed approach

3.       Translational and Development Feasibility 
         - Realistic milestones and timelines
         - Readiness for product development activities
         - Clear advancement along the translational pathway

4.       Commercial Potential 
         - Market size and competitive landscape
         - Clinical adoption and reimbursement considerations
         - Potential to attract follow-on funding or partnerships

5.       Intellectual Property Position
         - Status of disclosures and filings 
         - Opportunity to generate defensible IP
         - Potential IP risks or barriers
 

TO APPLY:

STEP 1) Complete the electronic application formexternal site (opens in a new window).  Please note there are several pieces of information that need to be provided directly via the electronic application form (selecting the appropriate grant mechanism, providing demographic information, uploading an abstract, etc.).

STEP 2) Upload the proposal as a SINGLE PDF that includes all the items listed in numerical order from the instructions below. 

Format Requirements: Arial, Aptos, or Calibri font; 11 pt. minimum, 0.5 inch for all margins.

Application Length: Maximum of 3 pages (not including PI and team bios, literature citations, and budget pages).

Application Content:

• PI name(s) and project title
• Brief executive summary that includes: the unmet medical need being addressed; the discovery or observation underlying the project; the specific focus of the Catalyst project; and the future product
• Details on unmet medical need and competitive landscape (how the medical need is currently being addressed and other approaches being pursued to the same end)
• Details on the discovery and their implications for the eventual product opportunity; details on the current state of the project
• Details on the proposed Catalyst project’s specific aims, and how the aims will advance the project along the product’s development path
• Intellectual property status (disclosures made to HTC along with the applicable case numbers, any patent filings, any issues)
• Current sources of funding for the project; existing collaborations with other institutions on the project; and the funding strategy after the Catalyst Award phase of the project. 
• Commercialization strategy (out-license to industry partner, initiate a clinical trial, start a company, etc.)
• Additional requirements
  • Literature citations 
  • PI and team short bios (please do not include NIH Biosketches)
  • Budget – include the amount requested for each specific aim of the project; each aim’s estimated timeline, and the milestones to be achieved by that aim. PIs are required to list their effort whether paid or in-kind. Use the following budget template form: Catalyst Program Budget Justification Templateexternal site (opens in a new window)

Budget Justification Instructions:

*  NIH based salary cap  
**Travel is restricted to reaching project sites
 

Supported Project Aims by Track

• Therapeutics: lead optimization, preclinical efficacy and safety studies, IND-enabling activities
• Diagnostics: biomarker or assay validation, analytical testing, regulatory strategy
• Medical Devices: prototype development, bench or animal testing, usability studies, regulatory strategy
• Digital/Computational Health: AI/ML-enabled tools, software validation, clinical workflow integration, usability testing

Please contact [email protected] with any questions