The Student Research Grants were established for students enrolled at Union College to promote educational innovation and to help enrich the College’s educational programs.  Student Research Grants encourage intellectual curiosity and provide opportunities to exercise intellectual abilities.  Previous years’ funds were used to buy parts to construct an airplane, for costumes and shoes for a dance performance, for antibodies to study cell motility, and to pay participants in psychological studies, among many other projects.

Below you can find everything you need to know about Student Research Grants, including deadlines, rules for what SRG funds can be used for, guidance for applying, and the application.

**You are encouraged to read through this entire page and consult with your research advisor before writing your proposal and submitting your application at the bottom.**

SRG Application Deadlines

• Fall 2024:
  • First Round, for projects beginning in Fall 2024, are due Thursday, Sept 19.   
  • Second Round, for projects beginning in Winter 2025, are due Thursday, Oct 31. 
• Winter 2025, for projects beginning in Spring 2025, are due Thursday, Jan 23.
• Spring 2025, for projects starting July 1, 2025 or later, are due Thursday, May 15.

SRG Spending Deadlines

• All spending in the current academic year must be completed by May 9, 2025.
• All receipts and documentation for spending and reimbursement must be submitted by May 13, 2025.

Eligibility

• You must be currently enrolled at Union College and be performing research or scholarship for credit at Union College.   You must be enrolled, or plan to be enrolled, in a senior thesis or project, Scholars project, research independent study, or research practicum (usually in the third term of the practicum).
• You must submit a detailed proposal describing your plan project.  We consider the proposal writing process to be an integral part of the research experience. Each individual student is expected to write and submit their own proposal.  In the case of group project with shared resources / budget, it is fine to have an identical budget, but the bulk of the proposal should be individually written by each student, making sure to spell out what their distinction contributions to the project will be.
• Engineering competition design teams are ineligible for individual SRG funding.   However, funding for such teams is available from the Dean of Engineering’s Office.
• Projects, term papers, or major assignments in courses that are not research based are ineligible for SRG funding.
• Terms abroad are ineligible for SRG funding.
• If, in the past, you received a Summer Research Fellowship from the UGR Office, but did not completed an exit survey and a final report that has been approved by your advisor, you are ineligible for SRG funding.

Funding Rules

A maximum total Student Research Grant award of $500 per student is allowed per academic year (July 1 to June 30).  Typical expenses that can be covered by SRG funding: research supplies, travel to perform research, and payment to study participants.  There are some also some items that may not be purchased with SRG funds.

Rules for Research Supplies

Research Supplies are divided into two groups: consumables, which are used up during your project, and permanent equipment / reusable items, which are things that can be used again by your advisor, lab, or department.  All items purchased with Student Research Grant funds are the property of the College and remain so upon the completion of the project.

Consumables could include a wide variety of things:

• Art supplies
• Reagents
• Disposable supplies
• Parts for constructing a device or exhibit
• Payment for access to data sets or specialized software
• Photocopying expenses in excess of $50 (at $0.07/page)
• Postcards and / or food for a senior art show, at a maximum of $100

Permanent equipment and reusable items require a 30% match by whomever will retain and use the items after the project is completed, i.e., the project advisor, lab, department, or program.  Reusable items are defined as things that the entity providing the matching funds (i.e. faculty advisor or department/program) has a reasonable expectation of being able to reuse.  Please discuss with your advisor the potential reusability of the items in your proposal and if they will be willing to provide matching funds for any of them if required.  Both your project proposal and your advisor’s support letter should clearly discuss matching on reusable items.  Costs for permanent/reusable equipment should not comprise more than 50% of the requested funds.

Examples of items that in certain contexts have been determined to be reusable include:

• Small laboratory equipment
• Costumes
• Sensors, batteries and other components that can reasonably be disassembled and are likely to be reused

Proposal Guidance: Make sure to list all supplies that you are purchasing in your budget, including their cost as well as the expected shipping and handling charges.  Do not include taxes, Union College is tax exempt in New York state and various other states.  Your budget should also indicate if an item is reusable.

Rules for Research Travel

Student Research Grants can be used to pay for travel expenses, like transportation, lodging, and meals, for the purposes of conducting research, like gathering data, view archival materials, or conducting interviews.

• Transportation.  Please use the least expense travel method available.  As of 2024, the College reimburse personal vehicle mileage at $0.67/mile.  Note that local travel in the Schenectady area is not covered.
• Lodging.  The College will cover the cost of moderately priced accommodations.  Use the most reasonable lodging option, taking into account factors such as cost, availability, and location.
• Meals.  You can budget up to $45 per day for meals while traveling.
• Access Fees.  Payment to enter museums, libraries, or other venues where you will be conducting your research.

In the case of group trips please coordinate with the other travelers to appropriately share lodging and local transportation costs.

You must complete the Off-Campus Travel Application for all UGR funded travel, before you travel.  Please work with your advisor to do this, but it does not have to be completed before you submit your SRG proposal.

Proposal Guidance: Provide a clear explanation for why travel is required and explain why your project could not be accomplish remotely via phone, video conferencing, or email.  If your travel is to conduct interviews with specific individuals, include documentation showing your are in contact with these individuals, and they have agreed to be interviewed.

Rules for Paying Study Participants

Student Research Grants can be used to compensate study participants.  The typical participant pay rate is $10/hour.  There are several options for compensating participants discussed below; please work with your advisor to determine the most appropriate method for your project.

1. Payment through Online Research Platforms, e.g., Prolific, MTurk, CloudResearch.
2. Payment through Digital Wallet Services, e.g., Venmo, Paypal.  Unless your advisor agrees to make these payments on your behalf, you will need to make this payment from a personal account and then latter be reimbursed by the College.
3. Payment in Cash.  Your advisor can work with the College arrange a cash advance for you to distribute.

Some additional considerations:

• Note that Options 2 & 3 also require additional documentation of payments made to study participants, especially for participants that are not member of the Union community (students, faculty, staff).  See the SRG Participant Payment Guidelines for more information.
• You may not compensate participants with donations made on their behalf.
• You may not begin spending SRG funds for a human subject study unless the College’s Human Subject Review Committee (HSRC) has either approved or exempted your study.    Please work with your advisor and the HSRC to ensure that you’ve complete all requirement to begin your study.  If the HSRC has already approved or exempted your study please indicate this in your SRG application.

Proposal Guidance: Make sure that you justify the participant compensation method you’ve selected using concrete details of your study.

Examples of Expenses Not Covered by Student Research Grants

The following are example of expenses that cannot be paid with SRG funds, have restrictions on purchase, or should be sourced on campus.

Prohibited Expenses

The following things that cannot be purchased with SRG funds.

• Purchase of alcoholic beverages.
• Payment of tuition, workshop, or seminar fees.
• Payment to professionals, e.g., laboratory assistants, translators, accompanying musicians, web designers.
• Purchase of major equipment.

Restricted Expenses

Things that can be purchased with SRG funds, but need additional explanation in your proposal.

• Cameras, recorders, or other personal electronic devices.  You must explain why the specific device is a necessary component of the research project, e.g., an integrated camera in a prototype device.
• Bulk supplies that will be used for other projects.  These can be included, but their cost should be discounted to reflect the amount of supplies used by your project.
• General books or software. If the book(s) or software are specifically necessary for the project and not available elsewhere on campus, i.e. in computer labs or the library, you may include a justification for the purchase in your proposal and it will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
• More than $100 total toward postcards and/or food for a student’s senior art show.  Note that students may print up to 10 catalogs.  The catalogs may be distributed to advisors, the department, the gallery the exhibition is shown in, the library, and one for the student.  The cost of each catalog should not exceed $8.00 each.

Purchase of Common Items

Do not include the purchase of common items available on campus in your proposal.  Please work with your advisor and/or department lab manager or technician to determine resources already available to you.

• Standard lab supplies, e.g., chemical glassware and plasticware, pipet tips, and stockroom items.
• Minor parts, e.g., screws, bolts, wires, resistors.
• Minor expenses, e.g., paper, pens, books, phone calls, small amounts of photocopying < $50.

Preparing your Proposal

The application requires you to upload a proposal that includes a detailed, itemized budget as a single PDF document.   Your budget should reflect the actual cost to complete your project—“padding” a grant proposal with unnecessary or overstated expenses is unethical.  The most common reason that Student Research Grants are send back for revision or rejected are insufficiently clear or detailed budgets.  

Proposal Requirements

• 2-4 pages long, single spaced with appropriate citations and references.
• A statement of the problem being investigated or goals of the project being undertaken, including prior work in the field for context.
• The research questions you are asking with tentative hypotheses and / or the anticipated outcomes of your project.
• The research methodology, or design or creative process that you are employing.
• The reasons why the item listed in your budget are necessary for the success of your project.
• The faculty committee that reviews SRG is made of faculty from all across the College, please write your proposal so that the main points can be understood by a general audience.

Budget Requirements

• The budget must be formatted as a table and clearly organized.
• The budget must include a detailed breakdown of anticipated expenses with a row for the table for each item or expense.
  • Supplies: Provide vendor names, product quotes, and shipping and handling costs, if applicable.  If the item is reusable mark it as such and discount it’s cost by what your advisor or department has agreed to match.
  • Travel: Provide quotes for transport and lodging cost, and estimates of meals, fees and mileage costs.
  • Participant Payments: Describe the method by which participants will be paid, the rate of pay, the expected number of participants, and any fees associated with online research platforms.
• The budget should appear on it is own as the final page(s) of your proposal.
• The budget should end with the total amount of money that you are requesting that matches the number you enter into your application.
• If your budget is over $500, describe where funds in excess of the amount you are requesting will be obtained.

A link to some more detailed suggestions for how to write an effective proposal.

Application

Accessing your Funds and Documenting your Expenses

Your award letter from the UGR Office will contain instructions for how spend your funds and report those expenses.   See the Undergraduate Research Award Guidelines and SRG Participant Payment Guidelines for general guidance on what to expect.