Shackouls Research Fellowships

Fellowship applications are now being accepted year-round!

Apply for an Undergraduate Research Fellowship!

Application Deadlines

Early submissions are highly encouraged.

  • Spring Term (typically Jan-April) Deadline: December 5
  • Summer Term (typically May-July) Deadline: April 30
  • Fall Term (typically Aug-Dec) Deadline: July 30

Description

Research Fellowships are financial awards for Honors students pursuing research projects with MSU faculty. Research may be performed on-campus or off-campus, with a typical time commitment of 20 hours per week for 8-10 weeks in summer and 5-10 hours per week for 10-15 weeks during the academic year. This program will consider budgets up to $2000 per student per term.  While we are rarely able to fully fund every project, we try to at least partially fund those projects determined to be worthwhile. We try to assist with materials and resources (paying research subjects, etc.) required for the research and some salary support.

Eligibility

Applicants are required to have an MSU faculty mentor approve and supervise their research and be in good standing with the Shackouls Honors College.

Application Materials

  1. Description of your research project including purpose, significance, methods, and timeline (about 1-2 pages).
  2. Proposed budget outlining materials, amount, cost, estimated number of hours and weeks of work.  Hourly rate can be around $9-11 per hour. 
  3. Letter of support from your faculty mentor that they agree to the proposed project and budget and commit to supervise your research and the disbursement of the funds.

You are encouraged to seek support from your academic department so that the honors office can leverage our limited resources and serve as many deserving students as possible. When preparing your budget, please note any additional funding received from your home department or mentor. Examples of preliminary budgets may be found here, here, and here!

It is your responsibility to check with your research mentor as to whether or not your research project is restricted (i.e. classified, export controlled (EAR/ITAR), proprietary, or other restriction). If your mentor identifies your research as restricted, the release of any information to the public must be coordinated with the Office of Research Security to obtain required authorizations before release. Severe penalties, both civil and criminal, may result if restricted information is made public without the proper authorizations.

Expectations Of Fellowship Recipients

  • Present your findings at Undergraduate Research Symposium.
  • Submit a research report to Dr. Anastasia Elder 30 days after end of funding period. Research reports must be submitted as a Microsoft Word or PDF document. Past research reports may be viewed here.
  • You may also be required to submit an abstract to a regional or national conference and, if accepted, present at the conference. If you submit to a conference, you may be eligible for a partial travel grant to assist you in presenting at the conference. If we request that you submit to a conference, you will recieve funding to attend. A separate application is required for travel awards.

 

Funding for these fellowships have been primarily sponsored by Bobby & Judy Shackouls.