Funding Innovation at Rice

Supporting researchers and entrepreneurs in commercialization

One Small Step Grant

The One Small Step Grant provides crucial early-stage funding for Rice faculty and students pursuing projects with commercial potential. These grants help bridge the gap between research discovery and commercial viability—supporting proof-of-concept development, prototype creation, market validation, and initial IP protection that prepare innovations for technology transfer or venture formation.

Mission

One Small Step provides gap capital that enables Rice researchers and student entrepreneurs to take the critical first steps toward commercialization. By funding early experiments, prototype development, and market validation activities, these grants reduce risk and increase the likelihood of successful technology transfer, licensing agreements, or startup formation.

Grant Overview

Awardees receive grants of up to $100k to develop and test your technology before spinning out or licensing. The One Small Step Grant offers crucial support for experiments that pave the way for groundbreaking startups or the licensing of breakthrough technologies. The grant's objective is to provide gap funding to faculty engaged in promising projects with commercial potential. We are specifically interested in projects within 12-18 months of forming a spin-out or embarking on a licensing event.

Eligibility

One Small Step Grants are available to Rice University faculty, researchers, postdoctoral fellows, and students (graduate and undergraduate) affiliated with a tenure or tenure-track faculty lab working on projects with potential for commercialization through licensing, startup formation, or industry partnerships.

Application Timeline and Key Dates

Applications for the grant open once a year in September. Applications undergo an initial review and select projects will be invited for an interview. Following the interview and diligence process, up to five projects will be invited to pitch to the Grant Selection Committee in early October.

Past Awardees

Cycle Four Awardees:

  • MightyMito: $50,000 Award - Developed by Mario Escobar in Rice associate professor Isaac Hilton's lab, MightyMito is a gene activation platform that leverages CRISPRa to upregulate PPARGC1A, a master regulator of mitochondrial biogenesis, directly within cardiomyocytes.
  • IronLattice: $50,000 Award - Developed by Jaeho Shin in Rice professor James Tour's lab, IronLattice is developing a superlattice-based ferroelectric device that enables analog, nonvolatile in-memory computation for artificial intelligence workloads.
  • Actile Technologies: $50,000 Award - Developed by Barclay Jumet in assistant Rice professor Daniel Preston's lab Actile Technologies is developing a platform of smart textile devices that enhance human performance, providing thermal relief in extreme environments and delivering haptic communication in information-dense situations.

Cycle Three Awardees:

  • Chassis.Bio $100,000 Award - Developed by AJ Walters in Rice assistant professor Caleb Bashor’s lab, Chassis.Bio is a therapeutics solution that targets neuroinflammation and supports brain repair through early intervention, starting with ICU trials for severe traumatic brain injury, aiming to reduce death and disability.

Cycle Two Awardees:

  • LymphGuide $100,000 Award - Developed by Martha Fowler in Rice professor Omid Veiseh’s lab, LymphGuide is a customizable alginate-based hydrogel platform combined with an engineered cell therapy that aids in lymphatic cell regrowth, initially targeting the treatment and prevention of lymphedema.
  • HEXASpec $100,000 Award - Developed by Tianshu Zhai in Rice professor Jun Lou’s lab, HEXASpec develops inorganic fillers and molding compounds for next-generation chip packaging. These advancements are designed to enhance chip protection and heat dissipation, unlock future computing power, and promote sustainable practices.

Cycle One Awardees:

  • PerisBio $100k Award - Developed by Samira Aghlara-Fotovat and Samantha Fleury from Rice Professor Omid Veiseh's Lab, PerisBio focuses on novel, hydrogel-encapsulated engineered “cell factories” for the minimally invasive treatment of endometriosis.
  • Solidec $100k Award - Developed by Ryan Duchanois and Yang Xia from Rice Professor Haotian Wang's Lab, Solidec is a room temperature, solid-state direct air capture technology.
  • DirectH2 [FKA HornetX] $80k Award - Developed by Rice Professor Aditya Mohite's lab, DirectH2 aims to produce highly stable green hydrogen using a perovskite-based photoelectrochemical cell with leading efficiency.
  • Coflux $80k Award - Developed by Jeremy Daum and Alec Ajnsztajn from the labs of Rice Professors Rafael Verduzco and Pulickel Ajayan, Coflux focuses on covalent organic framework-based photocatalysts for instream remediation of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) from water.

Frequently Asked Questions

What sort of projects are you looking for?

Projects must be affiliated with a faculty lab at Rice University, and can be within any school or department. The goal must be to run the final experiment or set of experiments that would create the fundable data, i.e. the data that would convince an independent investor to support a startup, or a company to license the technology. You can not have yet signed a license or raised external funding.

Who can apply?

Applications can be submitted by undergraduate or graduate students, postdocs, faculty or research staff, and must be part of a research lab of a tenured or tenure-track faculty member. Please make sure to list the tenure-track or tenured faculty member with whom you are applying. Applicants can be within any school or department.

How does the application work?

The application runs in four phases:

  1. Full Application: Apply with the Typeform provided on the website and here.
  2. Interview: Select applicants will move forward and be invited to interview with the One Small Step Grant team.
  3. Diligence: We will review your application and notes from the interview and conduct due diligence with your provided references and other market research. This diligence will culminate in a two-page Deal Memo that will be presented to the Grant Selection Committee and provided to applicants at the end of the process.
  4. Grant Selection Committee: Select applicants will be invited to pitch before the Grant Selection Committee. They will review your pitch, conduct a short Q&A, and read the Deal Memos. Based off this review, the Grant Selection Committee will make a decision on which awards to grant and their award size.

Who is on the Grant Selection Committee?

To ensure objectivity and funding of the projects with the highest commercial potential, the Grant Selection Committee is composed of experienced entrepreneurs, investors and corporate executives and one representative from Rice.

Trevor Best, Co-Founder and CEO, Syzygy Plasmonics; Adrian Trömel, Interim Vice President for Innovation and Chief Innovation Officer, Office of Innovation, Rice University; Jim Cohen, General Partner, Fitzgate Ventures; Emily Reiser, PhD, Strategy and New Ventures, Texas Medical Center; Sarah Hein, Co-Founder and CEO, March Biosciences; Mark Poag, General Partner, Fitzgate Ventures; Paul Sheng, PhD, Managing Partner, Fathom Fund.

When will I find out about my application?

Applications open in September. Decisions on awardees will be communicated by the end of October.

Where do I apply?

Apply here: https://9ahsxd7j2fw.typeform.com/1smallstep

See the full list of application questions here.