SCRA Federal Matching Grant

SCRA Federal Matching Grant

Funds South Carolina companies converting federal research awards toward development follow-through with match support.

Eligibility · United States · US-SC

The SCRA Federal Matching Grant provides up to $50,000 in non-dilutive state funding to South Carolina companies holding a current federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I award. Administered by the South Carolina Research Authority — a public non-profit corporation chartered by the State of South Carolina in 1983 — the grant is designed to help Phase I federal awardees build the additional technical and commercial evidence needed to compete for federal Phase II awards, which typically range from $400,000 to $750,000 and above depending on the federal agency. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis with no fixed annual deadline.

Eligibility requires the applicant to hold a current, active federal SBIR or STTR Phase I award at the time of application, and the company must be South Carolina-based and an active SCRA member company. SCRA membership is invitation-only with an acceptance rate below 40 percent; all member companies must complete an Annual Economic Impact Assessment. The $50,000 match is intended to supplement, not replace, the federal Phase I funding — the grant supports Phase II preparation activities such as prototype refinement, market validation, and regulatory pathway development. Full eligibility criteria, allowable uses, stacking rules, and the scoring rubric are published in a criteria PDF (August 2025 edition) at scra.org and must be reviewed before applying, as these details were not captured in the publicly available HTML pages.

The Federal Matching Grant is one of four non-dilutive grant programmes SCRA operates alongside the Startup Grant, Academic Startup Grant, and Acceleration Grant. Companies that successfully leverage the Federal Matching Grant to win a Phase II federal award often become candidates for SC Launch Inc. equity investment, particularly where the federal Phase II validates large market opportunity in defence, cybersecurity, health technology, or advanced manufacturing — all active sectors in SCRA's portfolio. Inquiries should be directed to SCRA through scra.org.