Funding Opportunities for Undergraduate Students

Several grant opportunities are available to help undergraduate students participate in scholarly and creative endeavors. There are internal grant programs, available through Center of Excellence for Faculty and Undergraduate Student Research Collaboration, many of which are funded by the Blugold Commitment Differential Tuition program. These support student research time and materials and travel to present research results. Scholarship opportunities are also available. There are external opportunities for summer internships and research, as well. 

Remember, you can satisfy Liberal Education Outcome Skill 3: Create original work, perform original work, or interpret the work of others through a research project.

Skill 3: Create, Perform, Interpret

Students may satisfy their Liberal Education requirement for Skill 3: Create original work, perform original work, or interpret the work of others through a non-credit research experience. An in-depth research project, mentored by a faculty member, provides the opportunity for a student to demonstrate originality and facility with discipline-appropriate techniques used in scholarly research and creative endeavors.

The procedure is as follows:

• Go BP Logix, and click the Lauch eForms (BP Logix) button.
  • Select "Start New Form."
  • Start the "Student Application S3 Achievement" form. This will inform ORSP that you plan to request your research experience count for your LE3 requirement.
• In the semester that you tell us you will be completing the project, we will send your faculty mentor another form to assess your achievement of the S3 outcomes.
• Assuming your mentor indicates through that form that you have met the benchmarks for achieving competency in S3, ORSP will alert the Registrar's office to the fact that you have completed that requirement.

DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE! Otherwise, there may not be enough time to process the request.

Internal Grants + Scholarships

Students may work with a faculty member to apply for any of the following grant opportunities. The Center for Writing Excellence can help at any stage of your writing process.

Work on a project over the summer

• Through the Summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates program. Deadline in February.

Work on a project during the academic year

• Through the Faculty/Student Research Collaboration program. Deadlines in July and September if funds remain.
• Through the Diversity Mentoring program. This program is designed to support students of color and students with low income in faculty/student undergraduate research collaboration. Deadline open.

Apply for a research scholarship

• There are three specialized scholarship opportunities for student researchers:

1. The Kell Container Corporation Scholarship for Faculty/Student Collaborative Research. 
2. The James R. Larson & Vicki Lord Larson Undergraduate Research Fellowships. There are five Larson Fellowships, one each for the College of Business, College of Nursing, College of Health and Human Sciences, and two for the College of Arts and Sciences - one for sciences and one for non-sciences. 
3. The Outstanding Undergraduate Research Project Award. Open only to students majoring in chemistry, biology, or nursing. 

Present the results of your project

• In addition to presenting at the UW-Eau Claire Celebration of Excellence in Research and Creative Activity (CERCA), you can apply up to two times a year to help fund travel to present at a professional conference. Deadline open.

Research Opportunities and Funding Beyond UW-Eau Claire

Summer Research Fellowships/Internships

Summer Research Fellowships/Internship programs span a range of disciplines. See program website for specific due dates.

• American Institute for Economic Research: Offers a Summer Fellowship Program that provides intensive training in economics. Visiting staff and research fellows expose students to research that is unlikely to reach mainstream classrooms via the conventional textbook route. Find more information here
• American Museum of Natural History: Anthropology Internships: Offers internships for students interested in anthropology, museums, or related fields. Find more information here
• Amgen Scholars: Supports participation in university research projects at one of 10 universities, including Stanford, UC Berkeley, and University of Washington. 
• Department of Commerce: Offers opportunities for hands-on education and training related to many fields of interest, including business; life, health, and medical sciences; communications and graphic design; mathematics; computer science; physical sciences. More info at https://careers.state.gov/intern/student-internships/. 
• Department of Energy: Scholars Program provides summer internships to undergraduates and graduate students. Majors accepted include engineering; physical sciences; environmental sciences; computer science and information technology; physics; program management; math; statistics; safety and health; accounting and finance; law; and other related discipline areas. More info at http://orise.orau.gov/doescholars/ and https://www.energy.gov/jobs/careers/students-recent-graduates.
• Energy Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship Program: provides students with an opportunity to gain and develop research skills with the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy for 10 weeks over the summer.  More info at http://orise.orau.gov/mlef/
• Department of Homeland Security: Sponsors a 10-week summer internship program for rising juniors and seniors majoring in homeland security related science, technology, engineering and mathematics (HS-STEM) disciplines. More info at http://www.dhs.gov/homeland-security-careers/students.
• Dow Jones Newspaper Fund: Supports summer internships in editing and reporting. Program provides free pre-internship training seminars on college campuses and weekly salaries. Interns who return to college full-time the following fall receive $1,000 scholarships from the fund.
• Council on Undergraduate Research - Psychology Division: Furthers the goals of Psi Chi by providing funds for undergraduate Psi Chi members to conduct summer research under the supervision of faculty. Awards include a $3,500 student stipend and a $1,500 faculty mentor stipend. More info at https://www.cur.org/membership-community/divisions/psychology-division/
• German Academic Exchange Service: Offers 2-3 month summer internships in Germany for research in biology, chemistry, physics, earth sciences, and engineering. 
• Keck Geology Consortium: Includes 4 weeks of summer research, continuing research during the academic year, attendance at the annual Keck Geology Consortium Symposium, and a publication in the annual Keck Geology Consortium proceedings volume.
• SURF Undergraduate Research Fellowships: Provides a ten-week summer internship in research laboratories at California Institute of Technology. Underrepresented students are encouraged to apply. 
• NanoJapan - International Research Experiences for Undergraduates: Provides summer research opportunities in Japanese university laboratories with Japanese mentors focused on the study of THz dynamics of nano structures.
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration: Provides access to all agency-wide internship/fellowship opportunities for students pursuing degrees in STEM fields. More info at https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/internship-programs/.
• National Institute of Standards and Technology: Invites undergraduate students to apply for the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program at one of the six NIST laboratories in Gaithersburg, MD: Material Measurement Laboratory, Physical Measurement Laboratory, Engineering Laboratory, Information Technology Laboratory, Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, NIST Center for Neutron Research.
  NOTE: This proposal must be submitted by the University, through ORSP. More info at https://www.nist.gov/surf/surf-gaithersburg.
• National Institutes of Health: Offers an opportunity to spend a summer working at the NIH side-by-side with some of the leading scientists in the world in an environment devoted exclusively to biomedical research. More info at https://www.training.nih.gov/research-training/pb/sip/
• National Science Foundation: Supports active research participation by undergraduate students through the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. NSF provides a searchable database, listing active REU programs. More info at http://www.nsf.gov/od/oia/activities/interns/.
• Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE): Seeks summer fellows to focus on public health issues related to the environment. Sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH), and Division of Laboratory Sciences (DLS). Current undergraduate and graduate students majoring in applied sciences that have completed three years of major coursework may apply. 
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Offers a variety of summer research programs in STEM areas related to energy. 
• The Pine Integrated Network: The Education, Mitigation and Adaptation Project (PINEMAP) Undergraduate Fellowship Program provides undergraduate fellows from across the United States with a research experience under a graduate student, post-doc, or research staff mentor and prepares them to successfully deliver secondary school science or social studies lessons based on summer research. More info at http://www.pinemap.org/education/undergraduate
• Rutgers University - Research in Science and Engineering (RiSE): Invites sophomores, juniors, and non-graduating seniors with strong academic credentials, a passion for research, and an interest in graduate school to participate in a 10-week summer research program.
• Smithsonian Institute: Offers internship opportunities across many Smithsonian museums/centers, including Astrophysical Observatory, Center for Education and Museum Studies, Environmental Research Center, National Air and Space Museum, National Museum of the American Indian, and Smithsonian Gardens. More info at http://www.smithsonianofi.com/.
• University of Central Florida - Preparing Future Researcher: Offers summer research experiences to help prepare for graduate school in the following disciplines: Chemistry, Criminal Justice, Security Studies, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Optics and Photonics.
• University of Missouri: Offers a variety of summer programs, including cell and molecular biology, animal sciences, and computational neuroscience. More info at https://undergradresearch.missouri.edu/external-summer-research-opportunities/
• U.S. Department of State: Offers intensive summer language institutes in thirteen critical foreign languages. More info at http://www.clscholarship.org/.
• WAVE Fellows Program: Provides support for talented undergraduates intent on pursuing a Ph.D. to conduct a 10-week summer research project at Caltech. The program is extended, but not limited, to underrepresented minorities, women, first-generation college students, geographically underrepresented students, and educationally and financially disadvantaged students.

Travel Grants

See program website for specific due dates. For many applications, you must work with a faculty mentor to complete.

• Council on Undergraduate Research - Biology Division: Up to $250 each, for junior or senior undergraduate students presenting original research results at a regional or national, discipline-specific meeting during the fiscal year.
• Council on Undergraduate Research - Social Science Division: Up to $200 each, for junior and senior undergraduate students presenting the results of research that they have conducted at a regional or national, discipline-specific meeting during the fiscal year.
• Many professional societies offer travel funds for students (e.g., reduced conference registration fees). Check the conference/society website.

Other Research Funding Opportunities

See program website for specific due dates. For many applications, you must work with a faculty mentor to complete.

• Active Minds Emerging Scholars: Provides an opportunity for students to complete independent mental health projects and connect with a network of young scholars and national experts in the field of behavioral health. More info at https://www.activeminds.org/programs/emerging-scholars-fellowship/
• Sigma Xi - Grants-in-Aid of Research: Supports student scientific investigation in any field. Awards are up to $1,000. More info at https://www.sigmaxi.org/programs/grants-in-aid.

Interested in Applying to Graduate School?

The Council on Undergraduate Research hosts a Registry of Undergraduate Researchers. This registry facilitates matchmaking between undergraduates who have research experience and a desire to pursue an advanced degree, with graduate schools seeking high quality students who are well prepared for research. All you need to do is fill out a simple curriculum vitae form and Graduate Schools will be informed of your interest.