Sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research, the Support to Promote Advancement of Research and Creativity, or SPARC, Graduate Research Grant is a merit-based award designed to ignite research and creative excellence across all disciplines at UofSC. The overall objective of the SPARC Graduate Research Grant is to provide support and to encourage outstanding students to pursue exciting research directions during their graduate career at the University of South Carolina.

Trenton Agrelius was awarded a SPARC grant for his project entitled "Message mystery: How Daphnia relay environmentally relevant information to future generations." Michelle Passerotti was awarded a SPARC grant for her project entitled "Non-Lethal Age Estimation Using Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS): An Innovative Tool For Fisheries and Conservation Management" Congrats to both of them!