TO:                  All UVM Undergraduate Students and Faculty

FROM:            Richard Galbraith, Chair, Research, Scholarship, and Graduate Education Committee
                        S. Abu Rizvi,Dean, Honors College

 RE:                  URECA!  Undergraduate Research Endeavors Competitive Awards

We are very pleased to announce the URECA! program for Spring 2011. URECA! (Undergraduate Research Endeavors Competitive Awards) is designed to stimulate undergraduate research with faculty mentoring. This student-faculty research program encourages students, under the guidance of faculty mentors, to incorporate research experiences more fully into their undergraduate educations, and provide incentives for the students and faculty who engage in these meaningful research collaborations.

URECA! provides funding for research projects in all disciplines, including the humanities, the social sciences, and the physical and life sciences.  All full-time undergraduate students are eligible, and any member of the UVM faculty may act as a mentor.  Research projects that are associated with course credit may be eligible for URECA! funding if the proposed project will provide a research component beyond what would otherwise be done to earn course credit.

Students submit an application cover page, a 2-3 page narrative describing the nature of their research project, budget information, their resume, an endorsement by the faculty mentor, and the faculty mentor's curriculum vitae.  The proposal may be an extension of an existing research project or one newly developed for URECA!  Students who have previously received URECA! funds must detail how the proposed research differs from and/or extends previously funded URECA! research.  Detailed information about the application process, including guidelines, is available on the web at  http://www.uvm.edu/ugresearch/ureca/. Proposals are due by noon on Monday, February 7, 2011.

We strongly encourage students involved in animal or human subjects research to review the guidelines for ethical treatment of subjects (for animals see: http://www.uvm.edu/~iacuc/ ; for humans see: http://www.uvm.edu/~irb/ ). Students must be in full compliance prior to submission of the application in order to be considered for the program.

The Faculty Senate Research, Scholarship, and Graduate Education Committee evaluates the proposals.  Proposals are evaluated on the basis of quality, the value of the research experience for the student and the record of the faculty member.  Students selected for the program each receive a $1,000 prize and research support of up to $3,000.  A detailed budget with full justification of all requested research expenses is required.

While the Faculty Senate Research, Scholarship and Graduate Education Committee will evaluate the proposals and award the scholarships, the Honors College will administer the application process and oversee the funding of the program. Direct any questions to the Honors College, Office of Undergraduate Research at 656-5533 or [log in to unmask].