SC Research Network Wins $21.3 Million NIH Renewal

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A statewide program that puts undergraduates in biomedical labs across South Carolina has secured another five years of federal money, and it is adding more campuses.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded $21.3 million to renew SC INBRE, the state’s branch of the federal IDeA biomedical research network program. The grant, from the agency’s general medical sciences institute, covers five years starting Sept. 1, 2026. The University of South Carolina announced it Thursday.

The renewal marks 25 years of the program, which started in 2001 under an earlier name, the South Carolina Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network. Over that span it has drawn more than $88 million for research, teaching and workforce training in the state, making it one of the largest and longest-running federal grant programs in South Carolina. The previous five-year cycle, which began in 2020, brought in $18.9 million and had 14 member schools; a 2025 federal supplement extended it a sixth year and added Lander and USC Beaufort.

The network now includes 16 schools, the most in its history. USC’s Floyd School of Medicine runs it, and the state’s other two research universities, Clemson and MUSC, are members. The other 13 are smaller, teaching-focused schools: Benedict, Coastal Carolina, the College of Charleston, Columbia College, Converse, Francis Marion, Furman, Lander, Presbyterian, Winthrop and USC’s Aiken, Beaufort and Upstate campuses.

Program director Edie Goldsmith, who chairs cell biology and anatomy at the medical school, said in the announcement that the money will train students, back faculty research and build up lab capacity. Summer and school-year research programs will continue pairing undergraduates with faculty mentors, and several of the smaller schools will get help replacing equipment and renovating lab space.

NIH set up INBRE to grow research capacity by linking faculty and students at colleges in certain targeted states, South Carolina among them. The state network also runs yearly career and mentoring workshops and offers funding that any faculty member or student at a member school can seek.

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