South Carolina Research Authority

Provides South Carolina Research Authority through startup and academic commercialization grants, matching support, and innovation hub connections.

South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA) is a public nonprofit corporation chartered by the State of South Carolina in 1983 to strengthen the state's innovation economy. It sits at the intersection of startups, academic research, and industry partnerships, and it is one of South Carolina's most established public innovation institutions.

SCRA backs early-stage companies with non-dilutive grants of roughly USD 15,000 to USD 50,000, and it also supports academic-to-industry technology transfer through competitive research grants. The program set includes Startup Grant, Academic Startup Grant, Acceleration Grant, Federal Matching Grant, Academic Matching Grant, SACT, and the Innovation Hubs grant. The state's grant route is separate from SC Launch Inc., its affiliated nonprofit that provides equity and convertible loans.

The organization works through a membership-based model and a statewide network of six Innovation Hubs, so applicants usually meet SCRA through a narrower channel than a typical open call. That structure makes it especially relevant for South Carolina companies and university-linked teams that need commercialization support, federal-match capital, or a bridge from research to market.