2023 Breakthrough Graduate Scholars Guidelines and Criteria Document (pdf)
This document provides a comprehensive overview of the Graduate Scholar Award criteria and a listing of the required nomination items.
The Breakthrough "family" of awards are presented each year by the Office of the Vice President for Research to recognize outstanding researchers and scholars at the University of South Carolina. The Breakthrough Graduate Scholars award honors our outstanding graduate-student researchers.
The Office of the Vice President for Research's Breakthrough Graduate Scholar Award recognizes exceptional graduate students who demonstrate excellence in the classroom, and make considerable contributions to research and scholarly activities in their field. We honor approximately one dozen exceptional graduate students with this award each spring.
The call for Breakthrough Graduate Scholar Award nominations is distributed each year in the fall semester. All graduate students are eligible for nomination by their graduate program directors. Each graduate program director may nominate only one exceptional graduate student per year for the Breakthrough Graduate Scholar Award.
Nominees should demonstrate excellence in the classroom and make considerable contributions to research and scholarly activities in their field. Examples of award-worthy activity include obtaining fellowships and awards, presenting at national and international conferences, creating performances or exhibitions, publishing papers or book chapters.
Nominations are submitted through an award nomination system based on the university's sponsored award administration system, USCeRA, which is a familiar interface for most faculty members.
The below guidelines and forms are from the fall 2022-2023 Breakthrough Star Awards nomination cycle. This documentation is subject to change from year to year.
This document provides a comprehensive overview of the Graduate Scholar Award criteria and a listing of the required nomination items.
This document provides step-by-step instructions for preparing and submitting a Breakthrough Award nomination through the USCeRA-based nomination system. (This guide applies to all Breakthrough Awards.)