Now Accepting Letters of Intent for Catalyst Grant Round 9

Timeline for Grant Round 9

November 15, 2018    5:00 PM EST:  Deadline to submit Letter of Intent (LOI) for consideration in Grant Round 9
December 6, 2018: Invitations to submit a full proposal will be sent to Applicant Teams whose LOI meets funding criteria 
January 10, 2019   5:00 PM EST:  Deadline to submit full application for Round 9
January 23, 2019: Notifications will be sent to Applicant Teams selected to present to the Project Management Oversight Panel
Week of February 4, 2019: Presentations to Project Management Oversight Panel
Week of February 18, 2019: Virginia Catalyst Board of Directors final funding decision
March 2019​: Announcing of Grant Round 9 Awardees

How to Submit a Letter of Intent (LOI)

1. Review our funding criteria and proposal process 
2. Review our Letter of Intent guidelines below
3. Download and complete the LOI form
4. Submit the LOI​ by November 15, 2018 at 5:00 PM EST

Download LOI Form

Submit LOI

The Letter of Intent (LOI): What You Need to Know

A Letter of Intent (LOI) is required in advance of a full application submission. These will be reviewed by our Project Management and Oversight Panel (PMOP) to ensure that funding criteria are met. Those Applicant Teams whose LOI meets funding criteria will be invited to submit a full application.

LOI Guidelines
In a maximum of TWO pages excluding the contact information and signature page (10-12 point font)
Address the following Funding Criteria:

• Statement of the Problem and Unmet Need. Provide a brief summary of the problem the technology will address, and the health burden or public health need.
• Description and Nature of the Project. Provide a brief overview of the project plan including an analysis of its strengths as well as the gaps and requirements for progressing the idea.
• Scientific and Clinical Impact. Explain the novel insight, target, compound, biomarker, screen, assay, or technology and clearly outline the project's potential for translation and impact in life sciences.
• Economic Impact for Virginia. Describe how this project will create a positive impact for Virginia through increased revenues, job creation, and/or follow on funding.
• Intellectual Property.  Provide a summary of existing or planned intellectual property associated with this project.
• Plan for Commercialization. Clearly articulate a plan for moving the project from idea into commercialization. Please also provide a description of your project’s regulatory approval status. Has your team had a pre-IND/IDE meeting with the FDA? If not, what are the plans for accomplishing this?
• Significant Collaboration. Describe the capabilities of each project team leader to perform the project, and include their contact information. 
• Matching Funds. List the source of the matching funds for the project. Proposals have a matching funding requirement, beginning at 1:1 and rising to up to a 6:1 for major projects.

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      **Inclusion of proprietary information in LOIs or full applications is discouraged unless absolutely necessary for evaluation.
      When proprietary information is provided, it should be clearly marked and submitted as an appendix to the proposal. ​​

Project Scoring Elements

• Management/Leadership
• Scientific/Technical Feasibility
• Clinical Impact
• Collaboration Synergies
• Economic Impact (ROI) and Sponsored Research Multipliers
• Job Creation in Virginia
• Regulatory and reimbursement strategies
• Metrics for demonstrating substantive collaborations
• Barriers to Entry (IP, proprietary know how, etc.)
• Follow on Funding Potential
• Time to Market

Outcome Metrics

• Licenses agreements
• Publications and presentations
• Additional follow on funding from angel, venture capital or corporate ventures
• Acquisitions by Industry
• FDA filings/approvals
• Additional funding from state and federal funding sources
• Improvement in health status of targeted populations
• Job Creation in Virginia
• New collaborative ideas under development as a result of state‐wide matching
• Media releases as a result of collaboration activity (this could be press release, NPR story, University promotion of collaboration etc.)

What happens after submission of a Letter of Intent (LOI)?

1. LOIs will be evaluated by our Project Management and Oversight Panel (PMOP) to determine if the funding criteria are met.
2. The projects that meet funding criteria will be invited to submit a full application, which is then reviewed and preliminarily scored by our PMOP.
3. Based upon preliminary scoring, selected Applicant Teams will be invited to present, in person, to our PMOP for final scoring and ranking.**
4. Using final scoring and ranking, our PMOP will make funding recommendations to our Board of Directors (BOD).
5. Our BOD makes all final funding decisions.  
6. ​Applicant Teams will be notified of the decisions of our BOD.
7. ​If awarded grant funding, an Award Agreement Contract between the Virginia Catalyst, Industry Partner, Prime University, and Partner University(ies), will be executed and subsequently, initial award disbursements will be made. ​

 **Applicant teams are invited to submit a draft of their project presentation to obtain feedback and guidance from the PMOP prior to the face-to-face presentations at the Virginia Catalyst in Richmond, Virginia.

For More Information

CLICK HERE for a listing of previously awarded projects
CLICK HERE for the full press release announcing Virginia Catalyst's awarding of $2.7 Million in Grant Round 8 

Please direct questions to:
Suzänne Taylor, PhD, MBA
Vice President of Operations
staylor@virginiacatalyst.org