• Undergraduate Research Center
• Academic Year Opportunities
• Academic Student Projects

Academic Student Projects

These funds may be used for consumables for an independent study project, comps research, or travel to local field research sites or research subjects.

Supplies for art, video and performance projects, oral history, and education outreach in the local community may also be funded. Projects must be primarily academic in nature, although not-for-credit activities can receive support. Funds will be awarded to students on a competitive basis. Grants are limited to the range $50--$300 per project. The ASP grant is not intended to be the sole support for any project.

There will be multiple proposal deadline dates for the 2012-2013 academic year.

For Fall Semester 2012 projects: 
September 14, 2012 
October 12, 2012

For Spring Semester 2013 projects:
Early decision: November 30, 2012
January 25, 2013

Please note the following regarding deadlines: Complete applications received by Sept. 14 will be reviewed and notified by Oct. 12. Applications received after Sept. 17 will not begin the review process until Oct. 12 and will be considered for any remaining first semester funds; awards will be announced by Nov. 16. Second semester Early Decision applicants will be notified of their funding before Jan. 4, 2013. Applications received by Jan. 25 will be reviewed and notified by Feb. 22.

Grants are limited to the range $50-$300 per project. The ASP grant is not intended to be the sole support for any project. Budgets should reflect the total cost of the project and funding expected from other sources should be shown. Each student is limited to one ASP grant per academic year.   

Students apply for project support by submitting an application to the Undergraduate Research Center, at South Trailer C.

• The Cover Sheet must be completed, including an endorsement by a faculty member. The student and sponsor signatures indicate that the proposal was written by the student.
• The application form must be accompanied by a project proposal, limited to two pages, and written by the student. The research proposal must begin with a clear, one sentence research question or project goal that you expect to address through your project. This should be followed by an elaboration of the project, discussion of its importance, explanation of the methodology you expect to use, a review of prior investigations by you or others, and literature citations where appropriate (for tables, figures, and quotes). Pursuant to federal law and College policy, all research involving human subjects must be reviewed and approved by the College’s Human Subjects Research Review Committee (HSRRC).  Research involving vertebrate animals or potential biohazards must also be reviewed by the appropriate committee (IACUC or Biosafety)
• Include a one page personal statement describing prior work which prepares the student for the proposed project and the importance of the proposed activity to the student's intellectual or professional development.
• A one-page budget for the project is also required. The budget should include an itemized list of all costs of the project and all the sources of funding which may be available, including departmental support, faculty grants and self-help as well as the amount requested from the ASP fund. Include only those items which must be purchased expressly for this project. In general, the purchase of permanent equipment or books cannot be supported by ASP grants. Any non-consumable supplies will become college property at the conclusion of the project. For more information, click here.
• A letter of support from a faculty member is required. The letter may be submitted by email.

All materials submitted as part of the application must use 8.5" x 11" paper, single sided, with 1" margins and type font no smaller than 11 point. Paper clip together -- PLEASE DO NOT STAPLE!

The ASP Cover Sheet is available here; to read the file, you may need to download and install the free Adobe Acrobat reader. Applications will be considered by the Director of Undergraduate Research and award letters will be e-mailed to both the student and the faculty advisor.

After your research

All work on the project must be completed within the academic year in which the grant is awarded. A report on the work at its conclusion is required. This report must consist of a 250 word abstract, a three to four page report on the project activities and results, and a one page budget report. Particular attention should be paid to answering the research question posed in the proposal, or explaining why it could not be answered. On-going projects must submit a work-in-progress report at the end of the award term, discussing progress to date and plans to complete the project. These reports should be submitted no later than one month after the completion date of your award by e-mail to urc@oxy.edu and should be copied to the mentor. Reports missing for prior year projects will disqualify applicants from consideration for additional grants and may result in the student's account being charged the full amount of the grant.