FAQs

Model

  • Control Group provides research services that handle grants, compliance, IP, incorporation, funding strategy, hiring, and legal backend so scientists can focus on discovery. We operate as your ‘shadow cofounder’ on the business and administrative side of science.

  • We work with undergraduates, postgraduates, faculty, and early research teams at different stages, so everyone. The support looks different for each group, but the goal is the same: remove execution bottlenecks and give time back to innovators.

  • Incubators focus on companies after ideas are validated. While we do support projects at any stage, we also work earlier, embedding ourselves in the research process and handling the backend long before a pitch deck exists.

  • Universities provide resources; Control Group provides integration. We work alongside existing infrastructure, coordinating grants, compliance, IP, legal, and staffing in one place, with a dedicated team that stays with the project from start to finish.

  • Our research services are open to a wide range of scientific projects, including basic, translational, and interdisciplinary work.

    The Control Group Studio is more selective, however, and focuses specifically on early-stage, commercializable projects where we can build companies around the resulting product or IP. More info below.

Research Services

  • Control Group handles everything researchers don’t want to—or aren’t trained to—do. That includes grant strategy and writing, compliance coordination, IP and tech transfer, incorporation, commercialization planning, investor-facing work, personnel hiring, and more. Our support is fully tailored to each project: some need funding, others need structure, others need legal or business execution. We meet the work where it is and build whatever’s missing.

  • We identify appropriate funding calls and coordinate with experienced grant-writing and funding-matching partners to develop narratives, budgets, and submissions, ensuring each proposal is positioned for the best chance of success.

  • We coordinate approvals through supervising PIs and institutions, managing timelines and documentation so projects stay compliant without slowing down.

  • We stay involved operationally, always working in the background, supporting grant reporting, IP decisions, next-stage funding, investment representation, compliance, and anything else you need while you focus on the experimental work.

Control Group Studio

  • The Studio is our venture arm. It exists to capture exceptional early ideas, secure funding, build the legal and administrative foundation, and form companies when the work proves fundable.

    The Studio had three application rounds, Spring, Summer, and Fall.

  • Primarily undergraduates and postgraduates with strong early ideas that require structure, credibility, and execution support to move forward.

  • The microgrant is catalytic. A large sum is dedicated to the cost of our professional grant strategy partners, who ensure it is funded, and our legal experts who ensure it is protected and investable. A portion is dedicated to the awardee to support them in the time of funding procurement and project development.

  • We evaluate scientific logic, feasibility, execution path, and funding potential. We’re selective by design.

  • We refine the idea, apply for grants, handle incorporation and compliance, and form a company around the resulting product or IP if funding is secured.

  • Equity is structured around the level of involvement Control Group has, and will vary depending on the Applicant’s experience and capability. Applicants get funding, a PI, and a legal path to own their idea — none of which exist without us.

Funding & Revenue

  • We generate revenue through research services, grant participation where appropriate, and equity in Studio spinouts.

  • SAM.gov is the federal system that allows organizations to participate in U.S. government grants and contracts. By operating as a registered research partner, Control Group can be written into grant applications as a collaborator or service provider, allowing us to support projects operationally while being compensated in a compliant, transparent way.

  • No. We are paid as a compliant research partner or service provider when written into grants, not by skimming awarded funds.

  • Initial catalytic funding comes from Control Group’s endowment. The goal is always to secure external, non-dilutive funding as quickly as possible.

Legal & Structure

  • Control Group Labs LLC is the parent entity. It owns a set of subsidiary companies, each of which holds equity in a small number of projects. This structure keeps cap tables clean, isolates risk, and allows each project to be managed and funded appropriately while remaining part of the broader Control Group ecosystem.

  • Each Studio project is incorporated as its own standalone entity once funding or commercialization makes sense. Control Group forms and manages the entity, structures the cap table, and holds equity through a Control Group–owned subsidiary, keeping ownership, liability, and governance clean from day one.

  • Researchers retain founder ownership. Control Group takes a structured equity stake in exchange for execution, funding, and infrastructure.

  • All research is conducted under existing university policies. Universities retain ownership of IP generated in their labs, and any resulting companies license that IP through standard tech transfer agreements. Control Group works alongside university offices to coordinate disclosures, licensing, and downstream company formation so everything stays compliant and clean.

  • Control Group does not conduct experiments or operate wet labs directly. All research is performed under a supervising PI within existing university infrastructure and compliance frameworks. Control Group’s role is administrative, strategic, and organizational, which keeps research liability with the host institution where it belongs.

Growth & Vision

  • Pittsburgh offers a rare concentration of top-tier universities, medical centers, and applied research, without the cost and friction of older biotech hubs. It’s an ideal place to build and validate a scalable research and commercialization model before expanding to other ecosystems.

  • Our model scales by layering on top of existing university infrastructure rather than rebuilding it. Each new university becomes a node: the same services, processes, and legal structure, adapted to local policies but coordinated centrally through Control Group.

  • Success means real forward motion: funded grants, protected IP, publishable results, or a clear path to commercialization—without spending months navigating bureaucracy alone.

  • Success is a growing portfolio of funded projects and companies, recurring grant participation, and a reputation as the default execution partner for serious early-stage science.

  • We’re expanding our research services, growing the Control Group Studio selectively, and building a distributed network across universities. Long term, Control Group becomes core infrastructure for how scientific work gets funded, structured, and executed.