Please let the Undergraduate Research staff know if you have suggestions for any further information we should include on this page. If you have additional conerns or suggestions, please email us at urp@uww.edu.
General FAQs
Absolutely! There is research being conducted in all majors and disciplines on campus. We have funded some terrific projects to support innovative metal work and music composition. We are happy to fund more of these projects.
You can send them an email or ask them in person! There is no wrong way to ask a professor about research opportunities they may have. If you are unsure of how to get in contact with a professor or what to ask them, you can contact any of the URP Staff or send us an email at URP@uww.edu, and we will be happy to help!
Yes! Participating in research is not limited to new researchers or experienced researchers. Any level of research experience is welcome in undergraduate research!
Yes! You can do research in any area that you are interested in. Feel free to contact any professor or faculty member that is conducting research that you find interesting.
There are no prerequisites required for undergraduate research. However, depending on the area of research you are interested in, there may be specific classes within your major that would be helpful (not required) to take such as statistics or research methods.
Each program has eligibility requirements for students’ academic status which can be found here under the “Eligibility” tab. However, you can reach out to professors, faculty members, and the URP Office at any time during your academic career to ask about research opportunities!
Yes! Any student can get involved in undergraduate research. There are opportunities for all students within our various research programs which you can learn more about and find the applications for on our Student & Mentor Programs page.
You can earn an hourly wage under the Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP). For more information on RAP, please click here. Our other programs offer a research grant that can be used towards materials that are required for your research.
We advise you to take a look at the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs webpage on Research with Human Subjects here. You will be able to find the Institutional Review Board (IRB) guide and other useful resources for your research with human subjects. Research with human subjects through data collection from surveys must follow specific guidelines outlined in the IRB guide.
We advise you to take a look at the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs webpage on Research with Animals here. You will be able to find all the policies and procedures that must be followed and other useful resources for your research with animals.
Grant FAQs
If your proposal is approved for funding, the amount will be included on the award letter. You can keep track of your budget by subtracting the cost of your purchase requests from the amount awarded. If you ever have questions about how much money is left in your budget, you can contact the URP office.
The Institutional Review Board (IRB) is required for all research involving human and/or animal subjects. “The policies and procedures of the Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects (IRB) have been developed to protect the rights and welfare of participants in research.” The board will review the research proposal and make sure that adequate steps are in place to assure the protection of the participants. Each member of the research team is required to complete the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) prior to approval.
Each primary author (or lead student) can only be awarded once per semester. However, there could be a few applications from the same projects but with different authors examining different aspects of the same project.
Funds usually get spent within the scheduled budget. For example, if you were awarded the Fall Undergraduate Research Grant, it is expected that you spend all of the budget funds within the semester you started working on your grant (fall in this case). At the very latest, funds should be spent within the academic year that the grant was received.
Yes. Once you have been approved for funding by the URP office, you will have to take the next steps to becoming IRB and/or IACUC approved if you are doing research with human or animal subjects. Information on IRB, IACUC approvals and CITI Program Training can be found at https://www.uww.edu/orsp.
Yes. The grant is used for supplies/travel needed to complete the research. Most students start with an idea and write a research proposal. The research proposal includes a timeline, budget, research question and hypothesis. If their project is picked to be funded, then the URP office will order the supplies they request (usually included in their budget) to complete their research.
Funding is distributed per project, not per individual. If more funding is needed to fund the project, there are some research endowments and scholarships that you can apply for ranging from $300-$700. If students on the same research project want their own source of funding, they would be required to write their own research proposal and their research would have to be somewhat different from the other project. These students must also create a separate poster and presentation.
Absolutely! Many past projects have been done by research teams with multiple students, mentors, or a combination of both. Some projects have even had five or more student collaborators even from several interdisciplinary fields. This is a great way to learn to work as part of a research team. Usually there is a student leader who is the primary author to the project, but this is not always the case.
The sky is the limit! There really is no limit to what kinds of research is relevant to receive funding. We have funded a wide variety of research projects ranging from dance productions and art displays, to research that collects qualitative data, quantitative data, and everything in between. The only thing we ask is that the student’s research is being overseen by a mentor.
Yes. As part of the contract obligation form for receiving an undergraduate research grant, students must present at one of UWW Undergraduate Research Days (either Spring or Fall) AND at one of the larger conferences (UW-System symposium or NCUR).
Unfortunately it does not, unless you requested such an arrangement in advance and it was approved. You must spend all the funds in your grant by mid-April; the exact date varies from year to year so if you are worried about the deadline, just contact our office at urp@uww.edu.
Yes. We encourage students to do so since they will be getting valuable experience in proposal writing. Should the application be successful, you will also be awarded with opportunities to present on campus in our Spring Undergraduate Research Day, as well as receive financial support to present in either one of the following off-campus student research conferences: National Conference on Undergraduate Research OR UW System Symposium on Research and Creative Activity. You should indicate a budget of '0' on the itemized budget form and the desire to receive support to present in an Undergraduate Research Conference in the budget justification. You can indicate a conference preference but conference assignment is made by URP staff and their decision is final. Presentation at NCUR is also contingent upon acceptance of the submitted abstract by the review committee of the host institution.
While we do consider your preference, the decision process is handled by our staff and we will let you know by mid-to-late October. We expect that virtually all students who do two years of undergraduate research will have the chance to go to NCUR, if their abstract is accepted. Otherwise, seniors and Honors Thesis students may be at a slightly higher priority for NCUR attendance.
Mentor FAQs
Yes. We will probably be able to take anyone who is interested to the UW-System conference. Let the Director know if you are interested in attending NCUR once your student's NCUR abstract is accepted. Faculty who have not attended recently and who are supervising multiple students or who regularly mentor students are of the highest priority.
We understand that Undergraduate Research projects operate on short timelines that can require rapid adjustments to enable successful work. We are generally quite flexible on grant expenditures provided they adhere to university and URP guidelines. It is best to contact us with a revised budget and/or proposal so that we are aware of the situation.
Given the labor intensive work of mentoring high quality student research, the Undergraduate Research Program limits funding to three student projects for each faculty/staff supervisor per year. Several students, however, may be included in each project. Please be aware that the Undergraduate Research Program may not be able to provide full conference travel for all students in projects that have multiple researchers.
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