Biology Research and Opportunity Endowment

Overview and Deadlines

This endowment supports faculty-mentored undergraduate research or experiential learning.

• Deadlines: October 16 and February 21. If a deadline falls on a holiday or weekend, it will be extended by 2 days.
• Review: All applications will be ranked by members of the Undergraduate Studies Committee (USC).
• Notification: Students and PIs are notified by email about the outcomes of the review in a timely manner.
• Fiscal Rule: Please remember that all funds must be spent within this fiscal year—plan ahead for summer work!

Submission Instructions

Proposals that do not adhere to the following formatting guidelines will not be reviewed. * Proposal (maximum of 2 pages): A brief description of the research project including title, summary/scientific abstract, research proposal, itemized budget, bibliography and any figures or tables. The proposal should be written for biologists, by the student, in consultation with the faculty advisor. It should describe experiments to be conducted, rather than primarily being a description of what goes on in the advisor’s lab. Where possible, an overview of the advisor’s research questions should be provided.

• Lay-abstract (maximum of 150 words): Abstract aimed at a general audience describing the project and how funds will be used. This abstract is for lay-persons and is NOT part of the 2-page research proposal. It should NOT be the same as any summary/scientific abstract provided in the 2-page research proposal; the abstract will be read by non-scientists such as donors or administrators, while the research description will be read by biologists.
• Letter (maximum 1 page): Letter of support from nominating faculty member.

Compiling and Submitting (For Faculty Advisors)

• Compiling: The faculty advisor should create a single PDF document including the items in the following order: (i) proposal, (ii) lay-abstract, (iii) advisor’s letter of support.
• File Naming: Student Last Name-Advisor Last Name-BiologyRO-Semester.pdf (e.g., Jones-Saha-BiologyRO-Spring2026.pdf).
• Resources: If you do not have Adobe Acrobat, use free resources for generating merged PDF files on the web including pdfMaster or pdfFiller.
• Submission: The final PDF file should be submitted via email to the current Chair of the Undergraduate Studies Committee (Diane Shakes for 2025-26).
• Resubmission: Students who do not receive an award may resubmit revised proposals at the next deadline.