Undergraduate Research & Engagement

Part of the New Models of Cooperation in Three Challenged and Critical Areas Grant
Funded by the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation

This component of the New Models Grant is about developing new models of and opportunities for collaborative scholarship/research. While collaborative scholarship/ research is a model that may be more familiar within the natural sciences, it is a model that is viable in any discipline, not just the sciences. It also is a model that has tremendous benefits for both students and faculty. And, as with any model, each campus and discipline will need to tweak the collaborative scholarship/research components to derive the most benefits.

To guide its work, the Undergraduate Research & Engagement Task Force defined collaborative scholarship as any original scholarly endeavor involving faculty and students acting as colleagues. The scholarship must be on a level commensurate with the standards of the international scholarly community to which the work relates, and the expected result of the work should be a peer-reviewed publication, performance, public exhibition, or presentation at a professional meeting.

Within this definition it is assumed that the student is a genuine collaborator and not merely an assistant, and that the level of participation of the student is such that both the student and faculty member are recognized as coauthors of the final work.

As the Task Force considered existing collaborative research opportunities on ACS campuses and how best to impact campus culture and support the kind of dialogue that would yield new models and new opportunities for collaborative scholarship/ research, it decided to make available to ACS campuses the majority of the grants funds allocated to this “challenged and critical” area. Rather than follow the traditional model of awarding individual mini-grants, the Task Force opted to offer grants to departments and divisions at ACS member institutions for the purpose of encouraging the design, evaluation, redesign, and implementation of student/faculty collaborative research/scholarship opportunities and the dissemination of the results. Asking faculty/staff members within a department/ division to work together to create a departmental or division proposal was an intentional decision by the Task Force members.
All departments/divisions are invited to apply for these grants, but special encouragement to submit proposals is extended to departments/divisions that are not actively offering collaborative scholarship/research opportunities. Disciplinary, multidisciplinary, or interdisciplinary efforts may be proposed.

We invite you to review the full Submission and Selection Criteria for Undergraduate Collaborative Scholarship Grants. Please direct questions about these grants to Dr. Thom Moore, Physics Department, Rollins College, tmoore@rollins.edu.

Undergraduate Research Survey Summary (May 2008)