Slots: 2
Deadlines
Internal Deadline: Monday, October 14, 2024, 5pm PT Closed.
Nomination Form: Friday, November 15, 2024, 5pm PT
External Deadline: December 13, 2024, 5pm PT
Award Information
Award Type: Grant
Estimated Number of Awards: 50
Anticipated Award Amount: $600,000 over 3 years (plus $75,000 for USC)
Fellows may use the grant funds to support their own salary to create this opportunity, hire research personnel, and purchase services, equipment, or supplies.
Who May Serve as PI: Faculty, research scientists, or postdocs who are no more than 10 years past receiving the terminal advanced degree in their field (M.S., Ph.D. or M.D. received on or after 2015).
Link to Award: https://www.moore.org/initiative-additional-info?initiativeId=moore-inventor-fellows
Process for Limited Submissions
PIs must submit their application as a Limited Submission through the Gordon & Betty Moore link here: https://provost.sma.usc.edu/prog/moore/.
Materials to submit include:
- (1) Statement of invention (1” margins; single-spaced; standard font type, e.g. Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 2-page limit will be excluded from review.
- The first paragraph should clearly, and without jargon, describe the invention, the problem it seeks to address and its potential impact.
- The statement of invention should also include the following information:
- Description of invention, stage of invention, feasibility, and current funding
- Importance to the foundation’s areas of interest (science, environmental conservation and patient care), potential impact, risks, and approach to measuring success and progress over the 3year fellowship.
- Describe any technical risks that might lower chances of success and what you will do to mitigate these risks. For example, “If A doesn’t work, we’ll do B.”
- (2) CV – (5 pages maximum)
- (3) Statement of the School’s plan to assure that the nominee has at least 25 percent of their time to devote to their invention and $50,000 in annual direct support of the inventor’s work
Note: The portal requires information about the PIs and Co-PIs in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#, Gender, and Ethnicity. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.
Purpose
The Moore Inventor Fellows fellowship supports scientist-inventors at a critical prototyping stage to capture opportunities that otherwise might be missed. We seek to provide freedom and support to promising inventors with the most compelling ideas to pursue creative and disruptive innovations.
The scope of this call is intentionally wide: proposed projects should be broadly within the program areas of foundation interest (science, environmental conservation and patient care). Patient care inventions should resonate with Moore’s focus on improving the experience and outcomes of patients with solutions that improve clinical diagnosis.
We aim to support inventions at an early stage that could lead to proof-of-concept of an invention or advance an existing prototype that tackles an important problem. We seek innovations that promise to make a long-lasting and meaningful impact by addressing underlying problems in their field, but a clear path toward commercialization is not a requirement. For this opportunity we are not interested in supporting fundamental research projects or projects already at a stage where significant venture capital is available.
We seek creative individuals who have big ideas, deep knowledge, and the courage to take smart risks. We recognize inventors and innovators come from a diversity of backgrounds, disciplines and experiences and seek PIs across a broad array of academic programs and research institutions. Examples of such programs include but are not limited to environmental science and conservation, remote sensing, artificial intelligence, big data, climatology, emerging infectious diseases, biology, oceanography, engineering, physics, chemistry, materials science, neuroscience, and public health.
Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.