Stanford C-ShaRP
c-ShARP Community of Shared Advanced Research Platforms .

FY26 Stanford University C-ShaRP Voucher Program (RRID:SCR_022986)

Program Overview

The C-ShaRP Voucher Program (RRID:SCR_022986) is aimed at encouraging new users to utilize Shared Facilities across Stanford Campus in their research for any or a combination of purposes stated below. Funding for the c-ShARP Voucher Program is made possible by investments from the Provost and VPDoR. The maximum per request is $10,000. 

C-ShaRP (Community for Shared Research Platforms) welcomes collaborative proposals from new faculty, working collaboratively with Shared Facilities Staff, for accessing services and usage of equipment, in Stanford’s shared research facilities in SOM, SOE, H&S, and SDSS. This year, only one primary applicant per proposal is allowed.

The overarching goal of the C-ShaRP Shared Facility Voucher Program is to enable new faculty at Stanford to explore, access and use services offered in an extensive network of shared facilities.  The vouchers, to be used in the shared facilities, also empower shared facility staff to help new users to navigate the facilities, and publicize the institutional investments and ongoing commitment needed to maintain a world-class knowledge base within the shared facilities.

C-ShaRP, through the Voucher program, aims to provide support and guidance to faculty who are forming direct partnerships with Shared Facilities that serve their research discipline.  The voucher will increase utilization of the shared facilities by providing funding for proof-of-concept experiments for new users exploring new research technologies. Work supported by these funds is expected to lead to submissions of major extramural grants (NIH R01/equivalent, major foundation awards, DOD, etc.).

Program Priorities

  • Incentivize new faculty to use shared facilities as they set up their research programs or explore new directions for their research
  • Allow new faculty to access shared instrumentation before committing start-up funds or grants to purchase their own equipment
  • Encourage faculty to explore new, but unfunded research topics by collecting pilot data.  Data collection must be in a shared facility that the PI has not used before.

Eligibility

Members of the Academic Council and the Medical Center Line faculty. Applicants belonging to the following two priority categories are eligible to apply.

  • Priority 1: Assistant Professors within their first 2 years at Stanford.
  • Priority 2: Established investigators who are new users of a shared facility to enhance their current research by testing innovative ideas that represent a clear departure from ongoing research interests 

Applicants should provide a brief justification of their priority category. 

All applications must either be jointly submitted by at least one staff member from the shared facility that provides the instrument and service, OR, must be accompanied by a letter of support stating the feasibility of the proposed research from the facility staff member.

Shared Facilities

Visit the Community for Shared Research Platforms (C-ShaRP) website for a list of eligible shared facilities. Other shared facilities not listed here or perhaps in various stages of being established, are also eligible. The evaluation criteria of Impact and Operations apply, so we would advise that proposals from facilities not currently listed on the C-ShaRP site consider devoting extra effort to describing Operations.  All eligible facilities must have an instrument and service user fee based on university approved rates.

  • 33+ distinct facilities set up as academic service centers in H&S, SOE, VPDOR, SOM; one consolidated facility in SDSS.
  • $300M+ in-service capital asset value at acquisition; $30M+ of user fee income.
  • 3.8K+ internal users and 600+ faculty users across all facilities.
  • 141K+ internal user hours billed across Stanford shared facilities, equivalent to 16 years of continuous 24/7 use.

Requirements

Proposals should be submitted on the Stanford Seed Funding site, following this format. 

Maximum funding amount: $10,000. The C-ShaRP funding is intended to enable shared facilities to do more and support your research in new, more involved ways. It should not be used to replace existing funding from other sources for existing activities pre-dating C-ShaRP. Requests to support subsequent iterations of a C-ShaRP-developed activity are allowable. The total budget of any submitted proposal should not exceed $10K.

How Can the Funds be Used? 

The number and amount of awards are limited to the funds at hand. Proposals will be scored and prioritized by C-ShaRP committee members. Funds can only be used in Shared Facilities to support the usage of equipment, infrastructure, and/or staffing time detailed in the proposal budget. Funds can NOT be used to pay salaries.  Annual reports will be used to track spending. See the C-ShaRP site for more info about the proposal process, including FAQ's.

Important Dates

We are excited to announce the FY26 C-ShaRP Voucher Program proposal call:

  • Thursday, September 18, 2025: call for proposals open.
  • Monday, November 10, 2025: proposals due.
  • On or before Friday December 17, 2025: decision announcement. Previous Awards

Contact

Claudius Mundoma, Director of Shared Research Platforms
Email: cmundoma@stanford.edu