The URC is pleased to provide financial support in the form of grants and fellowships for SUNY Cortland undergraduate students to promote research and creative projects and for travel to present at conferences. Currently, the URC oversees the following funding programs:
- Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowships;
- SPUR Grants Program;
- Student Research Travel Grants
- Undergraduate Research Assistant Program, in which faculty can apply for a Work-Study eligible student as a research assistant to advance their research/scholarly activities.
Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship Program
The Undergraduate Research Council anticipates offering a limited number of Summer Research Fellowships in 2025. These prestigious fellowships, funded by generous donors through the Cortland College Foundation, Inc., will provide a stipend to permit students to conduct primary research or creative activities with faculty mentors. Proposals from all academic disciplines will be welcome.
The fellowships provide an opportunity for undergraduate students and their faculty mentors to engage in eight weeks of full-time scholarly activity during the summer of 2025. Each fellowship consists of a $4,000 student award and a $2,000 faculty award.
Eligibility Requirements
- Faculty mentors may receive funding for only one fellowship.
- Student must be a sophomore, junior, or a senior graduating in Dec. 2025 or after.
- Student cannot be the recipient of a prior Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship award.
- Student cannot be enrolled in a Summer course because the Summer Research Fellowship is considered a full-time job.
- Fellowship must be completed by Aug. 8, 2025.
Expectations
- Attendance at an introductory meeting on April 29, 2025, 4:30 p.m., in the Corey Union Fireplace Lounge. Each fellowship recipient will give a brief presentation describing their proposed scholarly activity.
- Periodic meetings with your cohort of summer research scholars.
- Required presentation on the results of their research at the 2026 SUNY Cortland's Transformations student conference.
Evaluation Criteria
Proposals will be reviewed by the Undergraduate Research Council. The evaluation criteria will include:
- the intellectual quality of the project; and
- merit of the research/creative experience
The SPUR Grants Program
The Student Progress in Undergraduate Research program (SPUR) is designed to support students to become engaged in research with a faculty mentor. SPUR grants of up to $200 provide funds to help defray the cost of supplies, small equipment, and travel related to collecting data, conducting a literature review or gathering other material required for the successful project.
The SPUR grants program aims to support students who have not previously been engaged in a faculty-led research project. Students and faculty across all departments and academic disciplines at SUNY Cortland are eligible to apply. SPUR grants are available for an investigation where the undergraduate student is learning the research process through a 1:1 experience with a faculty or with several members of a department.
*Please note that student projects done as part of a research course are not eligible.
Faculty Mentor SPUR Application
The deadlines for this program are:
Spring Semester: May 1, 2025
Summer Session: June 1, 2025
Student Research Travel Grants
The Undergraduate Research Council’s Student Research Travel Grant Program is designed to assist with reimbursing travel costs of SUNY Cortland full-time undergraduate students who travel to present the results of their research at regional, national, or international conferences. Students must have a faculty sponsor/mentor.
Awards are for travel between Sept. 2024 and June 2025. The URC will accept only one application per eligible applicant per year. In order to be reimbursed, you must have submitted your application and been approved by the URC prior to your travel. We are unable to reimburse students for travel completed without an approved application.
Should the application be successful, the actual award amount may depend on available funds, number of applicants, and the distance/costs necessary for travel. Awards will typically be less than $500. Travel awards can only be applied for actual expenses incurred, and award recipients must submit original receipts to receive travel reimbursement. A complete application MUST include documentation that the student will be presenting (or has presented) at a professional and/or academic conference.
STUDENT Travel Grant Application
FACULTY SPONSOR Travel Grant Application
The deadlines for this program are:
Spring Semester: May 1, 2025
Summer Session: June 1,2025
Undergraduate Research Assistant Program
The Undergraduate Research Council in partnership with the Financial Aid Office is pleased to support the Undergraduate Research Assistant Program (URAP) through which faculty members from across the College may request a Work-Study eligible student as a research assistant to advance their research/scholarly activities. Students selected for this opportunity would be paid to assist faculty in their research and can gain valuable research skills and experience. Responsibilities will vary depending on the position. In general, the work may be more task-oriented (e.g., literature searches, grant proposal support, data entry, or routine lab work) than research undertaken through independent study or summer fellowship. Several faculty within a department or across disciplines can and are encouraged to jointly apply for a single student research assistant position. Work-Study students are assigned for a semester or a full academic year unless they cease to have financial eligibility, maintain good academic standing or drop below full-time undergraduate enrollment
This is a pre-matched program—Faculty are required to identify an eligible student as part of their application. In advance of the URAP application, it may be helpful for faculty members to post a “job announcement” to recruit potential students. Financial aid decisions and awards to students are made by the Financial Aid Office based on submission of the FAFSA data for the appropriate academic year. Eligibility for work-study cannot be determined until the Financial Aid Office has received the student’s FAFSA data and positions under this program can only be made to students who qualify for the federal Work-Study program (as verified by the Financial Aid Office). Student participants will receive an hourly salary for hours worked during the academic year and are expected to work for 5 or 10 hours a week (based on eligibility) for the entire academic year until their award is exhausted (calculated on a per semester basis) or their eligibility status is revoked.
Expectations for faculty:
- Faculty agree to supervise and mentor work-study students and submit appropriate paperwork (e.g., time sheets) during the entire academic year.
- Duties assigned to work-study students must be directly related to and advance the faculty’s own research/scholarly agenda.
- At the completion of the award (end of academic year) faculty are required to submit a report to the Undergraduate Research Council
The deadline for Fall 2025 May 1, 2025.