Undergraduate Student Research Opportunities - Research Office

The Traditional Undergraduate Research Program (URP) provides opportunities for students to collaborate with a faculty member to do specific research projects during the academic year for a scholarship and for academic credit. The student writes and submits the proposal, which is reviewed by the faculty URP committee. It is essential to meet with the faculty member, who would mentor the project. to do specific research projects they are interested in for academic credit and a scholarship during the academic year. Students present their results in a talk at the Montana Academy of Sciences annual meeting in April. Many students also present their results at other conferences.

• URP Guidelines

The Undergraduate Research Committee is pleased to open the call for proposals for the Spring 2025 Session of the Research Assistant Mentorship Program (RAMP). This program is for freshman, sophomore, and junior-level researchers (less than 90 credits of completed coursework) that have not yet participated in formal URP funded research. Ideally, full-time faculty members will assemble teams of 3 undergraduate researchers for spring semester research projects.

Proposals (3 pages max) should be drafted by faculty mentors and submitted to urp@mtech.edu no later than 12 p.m. (noon) on the first monday of December.  Full details for proposal submission, and the required cover page are attached.  No late proposals will be accepted. 

• RAMP Guidelines
• RAMP Proposal Cover Sheet

Program Goals

The primary purpose of the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program is to provide an intensive, in-depth research experience or an in-depth public health internship experience to a small number of Montana Tech undergraduate students. 

Term of Award

Projects are expected to span 10 weeks, beginning on or after May 19, 2025. Supplies must be purchased and travel completed, with all invoices and associated paperwork submitted to the Research Office, by August 8, 2025, unless other arrangements are made prior to that date. 

Participant Eligibility

Faculty: Any full-time faculty member of Montana Tech is eligible to be a SURF mentor.

Students: Any degree-seeking Montana Tech undergraduate student in good standing who will be a full-time student during fall semester 2025, is eligible to participate in the SURF program; students must be enrolled full-time for the fall semester before initiating their SURF project. A faculty mentor should not submit a SURF proposal for the same project to be submitted by a student who plans to respond to the traditional Undergraduate Research Program (URP) Spring call. A student may participate in proposals for both SURF and URP, as long as the URP project builds on the research done during the summer for the SURF, or the URP and SURF projects are on unrelated topics. The relationship between the two projects, if there is one, must be identified and described briefly on the budget page. Students participating in a SURF may not use the same experience for clinical hours or for any other credit required for their degree.

Proposal Submittal

Mentors should submit proposals electronically to urp@mtech.edu. Files should be in .pdf format with the following naming protocol:

mentorlastname_surfproposal_2025.pdf.

The proposal deadline is Wednesday April 9, 2025 by 5:00 p.m.

• SURF Proposal Guidelines
• See SURF posters from previous years

Undergraduate students may also engage in public health internships under the auspices of URP. Proposals are submitted at the same time and in the same manner as for research projects. The review process, eligibility requirements, scholarship amounts, and stipends are the same as for undergraduate research projects.

• URP/PHI Cover Sheet

Some Montana Tech faculty have received funded research grants through various external agencies and many include undergraduate students as hourly employees on these projects. Talk to faculty in your department, CAMP, MBMG, or in the department doing the kind of research you are interested in to find out what opportunities are available.

In addition, many universities and federal laboratories host undergraduate research programs, often called “Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU).” The November to February time frame is when these host sites invite applications. The links below, many others, and those of the professional society for your discipline will have current information, as will Montana Tech’s Career Services Office.

• Nationwide REU OPPORTUNITIES funded by the National Science Foundation
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Summer Research

The following programs are offered through other institutions and may be available to Montana Tech students:

• National Undergraduate Research through NSF REU Program