There are two opportunities to apply during the academic year: one in the fall, another in spring. Refer to the URF website for up-to-date information on deadlines. Decisions are typically announced three to four weeks after the deadline. URFs expire Aug. 31at the conclusion of the fiscal year in which they were made, unless the student graduates earlier, in which case the fellowship expires on UT’s official commencement date. All funds not spent by the expiration date revert back to the URF fund.
Applications must be submitted online.
Once the student submits all of their materials, the application portal sends an automated message to the faculty supervisor requesting the rec letter and some additional information. Applications are not complete until the faculty materials are received. Students are therefore encouraged to submit their materials several days in advance of the deadline, and to confirm that their supervisor submits all necessary information.
URF recipients must send a brief end-of-project report to uresearch@austin.utexas.edu, due a month after the end of the fiscal year (in September).
Eligibility
- Only currently enrolled undergraduates at The University of Texas at Austin may apply. Applicants must be enrolled full-time (minimum of 12 hours) in a bachelor’s degree program or in the PharmD Program. Graduating seniors must provide full-time status certification by the Registrar’s office or academic advisor if enrollment is less than 12 hours at the time of applying.
- URF awards are given once per student. A student may re-apply after an unsuccessful application.
- Award limit is $1,000 per project.
- Applicants must have a minimum overall in-residence UT GPA of 2.5. New transfer students should include a copy of their college transcript, and new freshmen a copy of their high school transcript.
- Research projects must be independent, i.e., the student has an intellectual stake in the project rather than solely assisting with a professor’s project.
- Research supervisors must be affiliated with UT Austin as tenured, tenure-track, or professional-track faculty members, or full-time research staff. The supervisor endorse the applicant via letter of recommendation, and will attest to the appropriateness of the student’s research expenses throughout the project and will need Principal Investigator (PI) status in order to request IACUC, IBC, or IRB approvals if applicable.
Research Approval and Training
If your project will use vertebrate animals (live or dead), human subjects (or data about humans), or any type of biohazardous materials, including recombinant DNA, your faculty supervisor may need approval from the Office of Research Support (ORS). Although final ORS approvals are not needed at the time you submit your application, they are required for disbursement of URF funds and for data collection to take place.
Evaluation Criteria
URF proposals are typically reviewed by faculty in the same field or an adjacent field as the student. Reviewers provide numerical scores for the following criteria:
- Clarity and thoroughness of presentation (error-free, jargon-free, clearly labeled and explained)
- Relevance to the applicant’s degree program and career plans
- Scientific, scholarly, or creative merit of the project
- Evidence of ability to carry out the project (as shown by accomplishments and letter of support)
- Budget reasonably reflects the proposed project’s needs, is itemized and justified
The Office of Undergraduate Research provides reviewer feedback (if any was provided) for applicants whose proposals are not accepted.
Proposals must adhere to the following page limit and formatting requirements:
- Research proposal: four pages or less, 12-point font, including references; a typical URF bibliography is 1/5 or 1/4 of a page long. (See proposal template)
- Curriculum Vitae/Resume: one page.
- Faculty supervisors must submit a one-page letter of recommendation reflecting a strong knowledge of the student’s background and full confidence of project completion; letters are submitted through the URF submission portal
The Office of Undergraduate Research may prioritize funding based on various criteria including expected date of graduation, GPA, the number of students supervised by a professor, as well as the disciplinary makeup of the application pool.
Procedures for Undergraduate Research Fellowship Funds
- By the end of the fiscal year (Aug. 31) or the student’s graduation date (if prior to Aug. 31), all funds should be spent by the award recipient. Funds will be returned to the Undergraduate Research Fellowship fund. Note that processing of purchase orders and other paperwork can take several weeks; students are strongly encouraged to arrange for all expenses several weeks in advance of the deadline.
- The Office of Undergraduate Research will create and provide an account number where the URF funds will be spent, however, the OUR no supervision of these accounts. The Office of Undergraduate Research will ensure that all appropriate business services leads will have access to the URF accounts once they are created. All expenditures will be facilitated by the department business office and the URF faculty and student awardees.
- It is the responsibility of the student, supervisor, and departmental accounting representative to ensure that all expenditures support the research project in accordance with The University of Texas and State of Texas guidelines. This includes the production of fiscal documents (purchase orders, requisitions, travel vouchers, etc.) and accounting for the fellowship. Click here for more information and assistance.
- Upon completion of the research project, and no later than a month after the end of the fellowship period, each URF recipient must submit a one-page final report or reflection to the Office of Undergraduate Research at uresearch@austin.utexas.edu. The report should briefly describe the research outcome(s), list any publication(s) resulting from the work, note any academic awards received by the fellowship recipient, and include post-graduation goals of the recipient.