Shoals Marine Lab Summer Research

Grants for students to work on projects at Shoals Marine Lab full time during the summer. The Lab is on Appledore Island off the coast of Maine and includes research facilities and classrooms in addition to living space for faculty, students, and staff. Students interested in the program should work with a Dartmouth faculty mentor to develop a research proposal in marine biology, sustainability, earth sciences, or environmental engineering. Faculty mentors are expected to be in frequent contact throughout the project and will travel to the island for several days during the summer. Small groups of students (2-3) have the option to submit a group proposal as some projects may be more appropriate for a team rather than an individual. Faculty who have supervised projects at Shoals include Professors Celia Chen and Mark Laidre from the Department of Biological Sciences.  

For an insider's perspective on research at Shoals Marine Lab, check out the DUJS article by Leah Valdes '18 and Professor Mark Laidre.

Listen to these interviews with Professor Mark Laidre and past and present members of the Laidre Lab. (Episodes 5 and 6 of the podcast series.)

• Applications are accepted in winter term for summer research.
• Grants are intended for current undergraduates. In some cases, applications may be considered from students who will graduate at the end of spring term. 
• Applicants must be in good standing with the college and eligible to participate in college-sponsored programs. Students who are withdrawn from the college for summer term (medical or personal leave, etc.) are not eligible.
• Students who have previously received funding through UGAR must be in good standing in that program in order to be considered for a grant (e.g. submitted all required paperwork and final reports).
• If you have questions about your eligibility, contact UGAR prior to the application deadline.

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until April

* Before beginning your application, read the application do's and don'ts.

Note that all materials are submitted online:

• Recommendation request form
  • When you submit the request form, your research mentor will receive an email with a link to the online recommendation form
• Application form
  • Use only letters, numbers, and basic punctuation (e.g. periods and commas).  DO NOT use any special characters (e.g. dashes, quotation marks, tildes, umlauts, bullet points), tabs, or line breaks
  • Read the guidelines for writing an abstract BEFORE you begin the form
  • Click "submit form" when you have entered all information
  • When you submit the form, you will receive an automatic email. Save a copy of this email as it is confirmation of your application submission
• Research proposal
  • 4-6 double-spaced pages (this page limit does not include references, additional figures, etc.) 
  • Read the guidelines for the written proposal before submitting
  • The proposal is submitted as part of the online application form
• Recommendation from your faculty research mentor 
  • Be sure to follow up with your faculty research mentor to make sure s/he received the email with the link to the form and is aware of the application deadline