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Undergraduate research programs

General information

SURFD administers programs that provide funding for Dartmouth undergraduates to engage in faculty-mentored research.

  • Mentors must be employed by and have a faculty appointment at Dartmouth
  • Research experiences must contribute to the student's academic development.
  • The following types of projects are NOT eligible for funding: 
    • Administrative or clerical: tasks typically compensated via wages such as maintenance of a website, editing of a publication, scheduling research participants, etc.
    • Curricular: development and/or assessment of course materials
    • Commercial: tasks related to development of a commercial product
    • Institutional: tasks related to strategic direction of an institutional initiative

Undergraduate research program summaries

Undergraduate Research Assistantships at Dartmouth (URAD): part-time research while taking classes

  • Applications are accepted each term for research in the following term.
  • Students submit an application form and faculty endorse the application.
  • Students must derive a clear academic benefit from the research. These experiences are considered to be the equivalent of an academic class in terms of time commitment and learning outcomes.
  • Students must be on campus throughout the research term, and that is also the expectation for faculty mentors.

James O. Freedman Presidential Scholars: two-terms of part-time research during junior year while students are on campus and enrolled in classes

  • Eligibility is based on GPA and applications are only accepted in the spring.
  • Students submit an application form and faculty endorse the application.
  • The program is intended to prepare students for honors thesis research, and the relationship of the research experience to the student's major is considered in the selection process.
  • Faculty mentors must be eligible to be primary advisors for student honors theses in their academic department or program. In most cases, this includes faculty with the following appointment types: tenure-line, research track or lecturer/senior lecturer.

Leave-Term Research Grants: full-time research during a leave term

  • Students must be intellectually engaged and play a key role in the project. Students who are starting out in research or serving primarily as research assistants are not eligible.
  • Students submit an application and written proposal, and faculty submit a recommendation. That recommendation is a key part of the selection process.
  • The research may be on or off campus, but there must be a rationale for the location of the research (e.g. working directly with the faculty mentor on campus; engaging in field research off campus)

Conference Travel Grants: funding for students to present their faculty-mentored research at an academic conference or meeting.

  • The research must have been conducted in collaboration with or under the supervision of a Dartmouth faculty member (college or professional school faculty).
  • The presentation can be a talk, poster, or other format, and the student can be an individual author or one of multiple authors on the project.