Recap: 2025 Mentoring Grant for Summer Undergraduate Research and Creative Work

UROP’s Mentoring Grant for Summer Undergraduate Research and Creative Work was designed to involve more undergraduate students in research and creative work through UROP-funded, mentor-created summertime projects. One hundred percent of the funding is applied to supporting student work through the purchase of materials and supplies, payments for third-party services, payment for student travel, and/or student wages.

UROP introduced several changes to the Mentoring Grant for the 2025 application cycle, including a newly fashioned application form on Kuali Build, as well as shifting the application timeline forward in the academic year. Whereas previous application cycles launched in the Spring, the 2025 Mentoring Grant opened for submissions in Fall 2024. Furthermore, UROP partnered with Dr. Nhu Nguyen (Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Science), who generously provided funding from his own extramural award to support additional proposals in agriculture and data science.

For the 2025 application cycle, UROP received a record-breaking 59 applications—the highest number to date—requesting a total of $459,000, more than three times the available funding. Of these, 8 were from the arts and humanities, 9 from engineering and computer science, 33 from the natural sciences, and 9 from the social sciences.

Thanks to $135,000 in funding from the Provost’s Office, UROP’s ongoing partnership with CTAHR Associate Dean and Director of Research Dr. Walter Bowen, and UROP’s new partnership with Dr. Nhu Nguyen, UROP was able to fund 20 proposals in the amount of $152,500. Of these, 5 were from the arts and humanities, 1 from engineering and computer science, 9 from the natural sciences, and 5 from the social sciences.