Mini-Grants

CURM will help faculty members set up an academic-year (i.e., September - May) undergraduate research group at their own institution. Each year, CURM will award mini-grants ranging from $12,000 - $21,000 each to professors who are accepted into the program. These mini-grants will consist of financial support for undergraduate research groups consisting of 2-5 undergraduate students and one faculty member. CURM will provide:

$3,000 stipend for each student in the group

($2,000 to be paid initially, $500 to be paid after the student presents his/her research at the Spring Research Conference, and $500 to be paid after the student submits his/her final research report). Students will be expected to spend ten hours per week during the academic year working on the research project.

$6,000 for the professor

The faculty mentor needs to be actively involved with the group. However, many of them have a high teaching load. Hence, CURM will offer $6,000 for each professor to buy out at least one course from his/her teaching load during the academic year in order to free up time to spend working with these mentored groups. When a faculty member applies to this  program for a mini-grant, we will require a letter of support from his/her department chair, dean, or appropriate administrator explicitly stating what the $6,000 faculty stipend will be used for. At a minimum, this must be a reduction of one teaching course. However, we suggest some additional items, such as a commitment to partially support the faculty member to attend the Joint AMS/MAA Meetings in January at which we will have a mid-year meeting or a commitment to send undergraduate students to a regional conference where they can present their research.

Travel Funds

CURM will cover the travel and lodging up to $650 for the professor to attend the Faculty Summer Workshop at Brigham Young University (BYU) and will cover the travel and lodging up to $650 for the professor to attend the Spring Research Conference  at BYU. CURM will also cover the travel and lodging for each undergraduate student participant up to $650 per undergraduate student to attend the Spring Research Conference at BYU.

Supply Funds

$250 will be available to your institution for your group's supplies.