Getting Started
Getting ready to apply:
- come up with your idea and think of a UAC faculty mentor who would be a good fit
- prepare a strong pitch for your idea - the more well thought out and complete your idea and plan are, the more likely a faculty mentor is to trust you can bring the project to completion and say "yes"!
- Remain open to faculty feedback: your mentor may have concerns regarding feasibility, theoretical support, technical or methodological limitations, or ethical approval (for research with human participants you need an IRB for example) - listen and address these concerns when writing up your proposal!
- create a reasonable timeline that clearly shows you understand what it takes to complete the project, and you can do it within the set time for the project.
- make a realistic and reasonable budget -- see the guidelines for what is and isn't allowed in a UROG budget proposal here: Budget & Finance
- prepare all other necessary components and documents.
Submit by the Sunday (before midnight) after week 4 of the fall semester (see upcoming deadline date on the UROG homepage). Late submissions will not be considered!
Instructions for how to submit will appear on the How To Submit page when the next deadline approaches. If there is nothing on there yet, check back later.
Step 1: Prepare a Proposal
In collaboration with your faculty mentor, prepare a proposal including a realistic timeline and reasonable budget - including budget justification.
See what to prepare for each of the different types of grants on the grant-specific pages here:
Submissions will be collected using an online form, we therefore encourage applicants to avoid the use of special characters, formulas, images, and tables in their proposals to the extent possible. When you paste your proposal text into the application form, please proofread the pasted text carefully.
Supplementary material, budget + budget justification, and UAC faculty mentor reference:
- Special character keys, formulas, images, and tables may be attached in a one-page PDF document.
- Please prepare a separate PDF for your proposal budget and budget justification.
- You will be required to provide contact information for your UAC faculty mentor. The faculty mentor will automatically receive an email confirmation with instructions to provide their support and mentor reference.
Step 2: Complete the Online Application
- Complete the online submission form by the Week 4 Deadline of the Fall semester.
- When requested to provide additional information and/or address issues with your budget, submit your revisions by the week 7 deadline.
- The form requires student information, faculty mentor information, and the full proposal.
- Prepare your budget + budget justification in a separate PDF to upload to the submission form.
- Provide all images, tables, graphs, etc., as appendices in one additional PDF file and attach that file to the form as suplementary material.
- Footnotes and endnotes do not translate into this system. Please use parenthetical in-text reference forms (such as APA or MLA) and provide full references in the References field.
Step 3: Mentor Reference
Upon submission of the student's application form, the faculty mentor will AUTOMATICALLY receive an email confirmation with instructions to provide their support and mentor reference. The mentor's reference MUST be received by the re-submission deadline (week 7) in order for an application to be considered for funding.
Step 4: Revisions (if applicable)
After initial submissions are received, the UROG committee will perform a pre-review and screen for issues of incompleteness and budget issues. If additional information and/or budget revisions are required the applicant will be notified and invited to resubmit their revised proposal and budget by the revisions deadline.
Review Criteria Check-List
UROG Proposals are reviewed and evaluated by the UROG committee, comprised of UAC faculty from various departments. Reviewers are asked to evaluate proposals using the following criteria:
PROJECT QUALITY
Overall quality of the proposed research or creative work and effective written presentation of the project.
- Is the proposed research or creative work timely and well-developed?
- Does the student exhibit a strong understanding of the project?
- Is the proposal well-written? Has it been carefully edited? Is the presentation professional?
- Is it written so someone without specialized knowledge of the topic can understand it?
PLAN AND TIMELINE
Specific activities to be undertaken and a concrete, realistic timeline for completion of the work.
- Does the student present a concrete timeline detailing specific activities to be undertaken?
- Is the timeline realistic for completion of the project?
QUALITY OF THE MENTORING RELATIONSHIP
Relationship of the proposed work to the expertise of the faculty mentor, familiarity of the faculty mentor with the student and his/her/their skills and goals, and impact of the proposed mentoring activities. A UROG scholar's success depends critically on high-quality mentoring. Please consider this aspect of the application very carefully.
- Does the student demonstrate familiarity with the faculty mentor's scholarship?
- Is the proposed work sufficiently related to the expertise of the faculty mentor?
- Are the faculty mentor and the student well-acquainted? Do they already have an established collaborative/mentoring relationship?
- What is the impact of the mentor's proposed mentoring activities?
- Is the mentor prepared to personally provide high-quality mentoring to this student?
IMPACT ON THE STUDENT'S EDUCATION
Potential of the UROG experience to substantially enhance the student's ability to meet educational and/or professional goals.
- Do the proposal and mentor reference make the case that the UROG experience will substantially enhance the student's ability to meet educational and/or professional goals?
Writing Center tutors can help you develop your proposal with one-on-one writing instruction.
