Applying for a Research Grant

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Eligibility for UW-W URP Research Grants
Applicants must:

• Be of sophomore status or greater at the time of application.
• Have a UW-W cumulative GPA of 2.75 or higher at the time of application.
• Have received no more than one prior Undergraduate Research Grant.
• Have the project endorsed by a faculty supervisor (here, faculty members are tenure-track, tenured faculty or academic staff members holding at least a 50% appointment).
• Be enrolled full-time in an undergraduate program during completion of project.

Guidelines For Grant Use

• Student investigator receives no salary/wages from the project. Books, software, small equipment, and other materials purchased with grant funds belong to the University. Funds must be expended following regular University guidelines and within University's fiscal year.
• Funds may be used for dissemination of project results.
• Use of human subjects or animals in the research must receive approval by the appropriate University committee.
• Projects which run beyond or span academic years require special justification.

Expectations

• All students whose projects are funded are expected to submit an abstract to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) or the University of Wisconsin Symposium on Research and Creative Activities.
• All students whose projects are funded are expected to present their results at the annual UW-Whitewater Undergraduate Research Day Program.
• Funded students will be asked to fill out a brief web survey.
• Failure to satisfy these expectations, without satisfactory explanation, will result in ineligibility for undergraduate research funding for the student and mentor for one year.

Review Criteria

• Project description is clearly written by the student in her/his own words, well designed and cost-effective.
• Student shows a strong interest in the project, and it fits into the student's academic and /or career plans.
• Project is realistic for the student's background, the time frame, and the amount of funding.
• Faculty supervisor supports the project and has an appropriate background for supervising the project.  Faculty may supervise up to three projects per year.
• Project is likely to result in a paper, creative performance, visual art object, or academic project that can be presented to a professional/peer audience and/or published in a scholarly publication.

Sample/Model Proposal: Download an example of a successful proposal.

Proposal format
A complete proposal package will include the following:

1. The UW-Whitewater Undergraduate Research Grant Cover Page (available as a Word Document or as an iPDF). 

   This form should be submitted by the faculty mentor from the mentor's UW-W campus e-mail account (to Denise Ehlen via email to ehlend@uww.edu) and will be accepted as constituting the mentor's full commitment to support the proposed student project.

2. A proposal up to three pages in length (typed, double spaced, minimum 1 inch margins, 12 pt font).  The proposal will include the following sections:
   • A brief introduction including a statement of goals and objectives for the project.
   • An outline of the method or design for carrying out the project (should be the largest section of the proposal).
   • A schedule for completing the project.
   • A statement of anticipated significance of results (i.e. briefly describe possible outcomes of the project and why they are likely to be of interest).
   • A brief budget with expenses itemized.  (Note that the budget should not exceed the needs of the project, normally up to a maximum of $500/person or $1000/person for undergraduate honors thesis research.   Limited additional awards of up to $250 are available for projects that require research abroad.  Special attention should be paid to the budget of larger requests).
3. A letter of endorsement from the faculty supervisor (maximum one page), briefly evaluating the scholarly merit of the student research project.
4. A current AR of the student applicant.
5. A current curriculum vitae of the faculty supervisor (the short format recommended by some granting agencies is acceptable).
6. A summary of outcomes of Undergraduate Research Awards sponsored by the same mentor in the preceding two years. These data are for program assessment purposes and will help us to maintain and increase funding for the program. Mentors, please fill in all cells for which you have information in the excel file you can download here. Please change the name of the file to your (the mentor's) last name before submitting it.

Proposal submission

E-mail items 2-5, preferably as a single Word or pdf file, and item 6 (an Excel file), to: Denise Ehlen.

Faculty mentors should email item 1 (the cover form) to: Denise Ehlen.

The Undergraduate Research Committee (faculty/staff representatives from each college), will review applications and make recommendations to the Program Director.  Project funding is for fall 2009-spring 2010.  All purchases must be made and/or reimbursed by May 1, 2010.

Deadline for Spring Grant Proposals:  April 26, 2010