Funding Undergraduate Researcher Travel
Undergraduate Research Travel Grants
Pilot funding ($10,000) awarded in July 2025 by the Student Services Fee Board allowed Undergraduate Research to launch the inaugural Undergraduate Research Travel Grants program in Fall 2025.
These grants support student travel (up to $1,000) to conferences or other professional development events.
The program is open to all undergraduate students working with a faculty or staff mentor on research or other scholarly or creative activities. Although many students plan to present their work at an event, we also prioritize some non-presenting students who wish to attend events for networking and professional development. We also seek to award funds to some students outside of STEM fields.
Our 2025-2026 applicants, who submitted research statements, budgets, and mentor support forms in Fall 2025 and Spring 2026, included 98 students representing 13 colleges. Thanks to all these stellar applicants, and special congratulations to the Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 Undergraduate Research Travel Grant recipients!
Across both semesters, beyond initial Student Services Fee funding of $10,000, partnerships with the W.A. Franke Honors College, the College of Agriculture, Life, and Environmental Sciences (CALES), the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program, and the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholar Development (URSD) provided funding to award a total of $23,500 in travel funds to 26 students representing eight U of A Colleges [College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences (CALES), Engineering, Fine Arts, Public Health, Optical Sciences, Science, Social and Behavioral Sciences, and College of Medicine-Tucson]. The partnerships with Honors, CALES, and VIP allowed Undergraduate Research to administer the competition and have a certain number of slots awarded to meritorious applicants who met their criteria (i.e., active Honors status, with a major in a CALES department, or participant in a VIP team).
Big news as of 4/28/26! We have been awarded $10,000 by the Student Services Fee for FY27 to continue to award these grants to students! So we are actively seeking partnerships with Colleges and other entities who seek to support undergraduate student travel! Fall 2026 Application opens August 31, 2026 and the Application Deadline is Sunday, September 13th, 2026, at 11:59 pm.
To partner with us to fund Undergraduate Research Travel Grants from your corner of campus: Please reach out to Kay Orzech and Melinda Struyk, sub-team leads for the Undergraduate Research Alliance Funding and Support team. Your support lets you support undergraduate student travel for students in your college/area while having the administrative details handled by Undergraduate Research. Your support allows us to deepen our pool of applicants and expand the number of students we can fund.