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Research, scholarship, + creative activities during the summer

This research program, funded by Blugold Commitment Differential Tuition, is intended to facilitate undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative activities during the summer. Awards include funds for student stipends, faculty stipends, supplies, services, and research travel.

*If your project involves the study of your educational practice, consider applying for the Summer Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Scholarship.  

The ideal project would involve a student in as many aspects of the scholarly process as possible. This will look different in each discipline, but might include:

  • Identification of a question, problem, or creative or scholarly goal
  • Development of a process or approach to answer, solve or achieve it
  • Carrying out the project

However, the project should be tailored appropriately by the mentor to match the developmental level of the student. The level of independent work performed by a first-year student will typically be quite different from that of a senior student in their second year working on a project.

Projects under this program, which is funded by Blugold Commitment Differential Tuition, should lead to the presentation of results at meetings of scholarly organizations and, where possible, provide baseline data for inclusion in proposals to extramural funding agencies. As a condition of the grant, students will be expected to present their results at the annual UW-Eau Claire Celebration of Excellence in Research and Creative Activity, Provost's Honor Symposium, or the UW System Symposium for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity. Students are also encouraged to present findings at professional conferences or meetings in their disciplines or at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research(NCUR); travel funds for this purpose are available through the Student Travel for Presentation of Research Results program. In addition, it is not uncommon for a student to contribute to or co-author a manuscript for publication that results from their work. If the scholarly work will be ongoing, faculty are encouraged to use the results to provide baseline data for inclusion in proposals to extramural funding agencies.

Related Programs That Support Undergraduate Research:

Award:

Faculty collaborating with undergraduate researchers will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the grant award. Funds for this program will not be available until July 1. All ORSP funds should be used by October 15th or earlier. Please return all unspent funds to ORSP. The award consists of three primary categories:

Student Stipend: Summer grants are limited to the following student stipend amounts per proposal - up to $2,300 per student, with a maximum $6,900 per project. The total stipend for any individual student working on multiple projects may be limited to $3,500 in the funding cycle, depending on the availability of funds. Faculty mentors can submit multiple projects requesting full student stipend amount, awards will be determined based on the availability of funds.

Faculty Stipend: Faculty serving as research mentors are eligible for a $2,300 stipend. Faculty involved in more than one project will only be eligible to receive a single stipend. Faculty applicants should check with their Department Chairs in the event that an overload needs to be requested if they are also teaching or being paid through the University for other work during the summer. Overload payments are not allowed if federal funds are involved in summer salary.

Supplies, Services, and Travel: In addition to the stipends, each collaborative project is eligible to receive up to $600 for supplies, services, and travel directly related to the project (not for travel to present at a conference, see Student Travel for the Presentation of Research Results). 

Eligibility:

Faculty, academic staff, and undergraduate students engaged in research or other scholarly activities in all disciplines are encouraged to apply. Faculty and academic staff with .5 FTE or greater appointments for the next academic year, and UW-Eau Claire continuing undergraduate students planning to enroll for the Fall semester at least half-time are eligible. A graduate student may also be involved in the project as a mentor to undergraduate students. The proposal may be submitted by any member of the collaborating team. 

Deadline for Application: February 10.

*If the deadline falls on a weekend or holiday, the due date will be extended to the following Monday.

This deadline is when applications are due to chairs (or supervisors). Chairs/Supervisors are asked to ensure that proposals reach ORSP within one week of the posted deadline.

Application Process/Writing Guide:

The Summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates application (processed in BP Logix) may be initiated by the faculty mentor or a student.

Faculty mentors are encouraged to mentor students in proposal writing as appropriate to the situation. In particular, more senior students and students continuing on a project should be included in the proposal preparation process. Part of the mentoring process is to carefully review student-written proposals prior to submission. For students, the Center for Writing Excellence can help at any stage of the writing process, from brainstorming and outlining to organizing arguments and polishing claims.

Go to the eform application for additional application information. 

Apply Here

Proposal Evaluation:

Primary evaluation will be based on the quality of the student research experience proposed. Click here to see the criteria used by project reviewers. Where projects are ranked equally, preference may be given to:

  • Tenure-track faculty, especially in the first three years
  • Projects that bring in new students
  • Ongoing projects in which student and project have progressed appropriately
  • Interdisciplinary projects
  • Projects from underrepresented disciplines
  • Projects that involve students in proposal-writing
  • Projects from faculty with a good track record in research mentoring
  • The first project from a faculty member over the second or third from a faculty member in any proposal round
  • Projects that are developing promising groundwork for an extramural funding proposal

Recently Awarded Projects:

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