Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program

• The program offers year-long, two-semester, one-semester, and summer fellowships.
• Fellowships can be conducted on campus or off campus, like in national or specialized laboratories, or abroad.
• Year-long fellowships begin in the summer and extend through the spring semester.
• One-semester fellowships can be conducted in any semester.
• Length of fellowship offered varies by college.

• Students must be currently enrolled at Auburn University.
• Students must have time to complete their fellowship term before graduation.
• Students may not hold an undergraduate research fellowship from more than one Auburn University program concurrently.
• Fellowships are open to students in every major and of every classification (freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior.)
• Engineering Students: All students applying for a fellowship in the College of Engineering must submit a brief email of intent to Apply for the Fellowship by December 16th to ferguje@auburn.edu.
  The email must indicate the student name, faculty mentor, department of the student, department of the faculty mentor, a tentative title for the project,  and tentative duration of the project.

FELLOWSHIP APPLICATION IS CURRENTLY CLOSED AND WILL REOPEN ON JANUARY 10th, 2025.

• A student and faculty mentor should apply as a pair by submitting a joint application.
  • URFP Application Word Doc
  • URFP Application PDF
• Students should begin by identifying a faculty research mentor who has agreed to work with them. The student and mentor will then submit a joint application using the online portal. To apply, follow these steps:
  1. Download a copy of the application form from the above templates, in either Word or PDF format.
  2. Both the mentor and the student should use the blank form to assemble all the information needed to complete their respective sections of the application.
  3. Students begin the submittal process by going to the portal <<<LINK WILL BE HERE ON JANUARY 10, 2025>>>> to fill out the application online. NOTE: Once you begin filling out the online form, you will not be able to save the form and return to it at a later time. Your information will not be saved and you will have to begin again.
  4. Once the student has submitted the student section, the application will automatically be forwarded to the student’s mentor for completion.
• Engineering Students: All students applying for a fellowship in the College of Engineering must submit a brief email of intent to Apply for the Fellowship by December 16th to mla0001@auburn.edu.
  The email must indicate the student name, faculty mentor, department of the student, department of the faculty mentor, a tentative title for the project,  and tentative duration of the project.

NOTE: If the link does not open the form directly, please follow the steps below:

1. Please use a desktop or a laptop to access the form, i.e., no iPad or iPhone.
2. Empty computer cache (in your web browser, click on the top and select “clear browsing data,” “clear “cookies and other site data,” see Clear cache & cookies – Computer – Google Account Help).
3. Restart your computer.
4. Login into your Auburn Office Online account (https://portal.office.com ) to ensure you are logged in.
5. Once you are logged in, then click again on the link. A page with the form should appear after a few minutes (depending on your web browser, you might need to turn ON the cookies and refresh and reload the page).
6. You can try closing, refreshing, and using a different web browser if the first web browser does not work.
7. Once the form appears, complete the form information.
8. Click “Send to Mentor” to submit your form to the faculty mentor for review and approval.
9. Note that Safari is not recommended.

Program Expectations

• Specific expectations of the fellowship and fellow will be outlined by the college offering the fellowship.
• All fellows will attend an orientation session in which program requirements are explained.
• Fellows are required to give a presentation at the annual Student Research Symposium
• At the end of the fellowship, students will need to submit a post-fellowship assessment and a Research Highlight or Article to Auburn University Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship (AUJUS).

Fellow Activities

Fellows will be invited to participate in informal gatherings throughout the fellowship year to discuss their research activities and other topics of mutual interest. In addition to presenting at the annual Auburn University research symposium, fellows are also encouraged to present papers at regional or national meetings.

Yes, at Auburn, the student fellowship stipend for a semester is disbursed only if the student is registered for at least 1 credit hour during that semester. This policy includes also the summer semester.

Note: For the summer semester, students can ask to be exempt from this policy by emailing their faculty mentors and requesting that they discuss their cases with the Director of Undergraduate Research (email: UNDGRES@auburn.edu).

• Faculty who are interested in being a mentor to an undergraduate student should be committed to teaching the student, on a one-to-one basis, how to perform research.
• As part of the application, faculty mentors will provide a statement describing the proposed research activity and a proposed budget for the student’s research.
• Faculty mentors are expected to spend a minimum of one hour per week with the fellow during an academic semester and/or at least two hours per week during the summer.

One Year Fellowships:
Fellowship Stipend: Amount up to $4,500. Project funds: Up to $1500.

• Time Expectation:
  • During Summer: 35-40 hours/week for up to 10 weeks
  • During Fall and Spring: 8 – 10 hours/week

Semester Fellowships (Fall and/or Spring):

• Fellowship stipend: Amount up to $1,500/semester. Project funds: up to $500.
• Time Expectation: During Fall and Spring: 8 – 10 hours/week

Summer Fellowships

• Fellowship stipend: Amount up to $3,000. Project funds: up to $1000.
• Time Expectation: 35-40 hours/week for up to 10 weeks; for some colleges, 8-10 hours/week as in semester fellowships

Typically, the fellowship stipends are directly transferred to the student’s current AU ebill by the second week from the start of the semester. From the AU ebill, the stipend is transferred to the bank account that the student set up with their Auburn AU Access. 

Support for the program is provided by the Provost’s Office, the Office of the Vice President for Research, and the colleges and schools of Auburn University. The program is administered jointly by the Director of Undergraduate Research and the Associate Deans of participating schools and colleges.

A Steering Committee shall advise the Associate Provost and Vice President for Research on the programmatic activities and policies of the Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program. The Steering Committee will be composed of representatives from each college or school.

Statement of Purpose Objective

Each year, the fellowship application window open on January 10, 2025, and closes on February 15, 2025. Students and mentors must apply during this period.

1. Download a copy of the application form
2. Both the mentor and the student should use the blank form to assemble all the information needed to complete their respective sections of the application
3. Students begin the submittal process by going to the portal<<<LINK WILL BE HERE ON JANUARY 10, 2024>>>>to fill out the application online. NOTE: Once you begin filling out the online form, you will not be able to save the form and return to it at a later time. Your information will not be saved and you will have to begin again.
4. Once the student has submitted the student section, the application will automatically be forwarded to the student’s mentor for completion.

Click here to view the application in PDF or WORD.

Although not common, fellowship renewal for a second year is possible. A new application must be submitted to be considered for fellowship renewal.

Co-op students who have completed their co-op work obligations by the end of spring semester may apply for a fellowship beginning in the summer semester. You may not hold a fellowship while being a co-op student.

Summer internship students who have completed their internship work obligation by the end of the summer semester may apply for a fellowship beginning in the fall semester. You may not hold a fellowship while being a summer intern.

Students receiving financial aid are welcome to compete for a fellowship. Specific questions regarding the stipend and the student’s financial aid ceiling should be directed to the Scholarship Office.

Project funds/stipends include money that can be used for travel in accordance with university regulations.

Fellows are permitted to conduct a portion of their research at an off campus site, such as a federal laboratory, other university, library, or field site. A local mentor is still required.