Undergraduate Research

Each semester, the Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities (RSCA) office offers the Academic Year Undergraduate Research Experience (AYURE) grant to support faculty-mentored student scholarship. 

AYURE Program Funding:

• Up to $750 for supplies, participant payments, etc. to carry out the project.
• AYURE awardees are eligible to later apply for travel funds to present their work at a conference, pending campus/state permission to travel. Students are eligible for up to $1000 in travel support, and faculty mentors for up to $600.

Eligibility:

These competitive grants are open to all full-time faculty and their undergraduate mentees. We welcome applications from all academic divisions on campus (FPA, LA&S, SOB, SOE, SSE, Library).

We adopt a broad, inclusive definition of "research" and accept numerous types of projects. 

Some are faculty-driven projects in which the student learns valuable skills while helping to advance the mentor’s scholarship. Others are student-driven projects in which the faculty mentor guides a student eager to chase a budding interest. 

Some are conventional scholarship, where the aim is to create new knowledge or creative works. Others are apprenticeships, where the aim is to train the student on the discipline’s core skills, such as how to use state-of-the-art equipment or how to play an unusual musical instrument. Still others are applied projects, where the aim is to assist a campus or community group by, for example, providing a consultative service.

Whatever its form, the main eligibility criteria are:

• Through one-on-one training from the faculty expert, the project extends the student’s learning and professional development beyond what is possible in the classroom.
• Projects are also intensive, taking the semester or longer to complete. Mentors should meet at least weekly with their student to discuss progress and problems that arise during the semester.
• The student is involved at a high level in multiple phases of the project.

Most projects involve only one faculty mentor and one student. But we have occasionally supported larger projects with two faculty mentors and/or two students.

Fall 2021 AYURE Application:

• Deadline: Friday, September 3 Extended to 4pm on Monday, September 6.
• Fall 2021 AYURE application 
• See the SURE grant site for sample applications, which are similar in format to the AYURE ones.

Congratulations to all 2021 Spring AYURE award recipients!