What We Do
Our staff serves as an information and support hub to encourage students and faculty across campus to get involved in--and get the most out of--the UIC Undergraduate Research Experience. We aim to increase and diversify participation in research, scholarship, and creative endeavors by forging partnerships on and off campus and leading initiatives such as those listed below.
Make a connection: Heading link
The Undergraduate Research Experience (URE) is a university-wide initiative dedicated to fostering scholarly engagement and intellectual growth. Its mission is to make research an integral part of the undergraduate academic experience at UIC by creating mutually beneficial research relationships between students and faculty researchers. Its backbone is an interactive database that students can use to search for faculty with undergraduate research positions and where faculty and other campus researchers can list opportunities and identify themselves as committed to supervising and mentoring undergraduate researchers.
Summer College Event: Making the Connection: Research, Inquiry and Discovery at UIC
We offer a one-day event in July to help incoming first-year students and transfers “make the connection” at UIC. The program includes faculty guest speakers, a research site visit, resource tutorials, and network-building experiences that activate students’ creative and academic curiosity and connect them earlier and in stronger ways to UIC as a community of learning and discovery.
Fund their work: Heading link
The Chancellor’s Undergraduate Research Award allows students who have demonstrated financial need to work as research assistants for hourly pay–at no cost to faculty or departments. Faculty apply online on behalf of the student(s) they have recruited. Students are hired by the faculty member’s department just as any other student employee would be, and then reimbursed through the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs and Academic Programs at the end of the semester. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until yearly funding has been exhausted.
We also provide information about numerous funded research opportunities run out of individual UIC labs and research groups, departments, and colleges as well as sources of support for students conducting, presenting, and publishing research while studying abroad, during the summer, and between undergraduate and graduate or professional school. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for upcoming deadlines.
Share their results: Heading link
Undergraduate Research Forum The Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs and Academic Programs partner with the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, the Honors College, the Latin@s Gaining Access to Networks for Advancement in Science program (L@S GANAS), the University Library, the Urban Health Program, and the Center for Clinical and Translational Science to plan and host the UIC Undergraduate Research Forum. Each spring UIC students from every discipline present their research, scholarship and high-impact engagements, accompanied by a poster or other visual display that captures the spirit of the research work and/or highlights key features of the project. Students from all disciplines (Arts, Business, Computer Science, Engineering, Humanities, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, among others) speak one-on-one to Forum attendees and judges during a high-energy 3-hour session.
University of Illinois Undergraduate Research Day “Posters Under the Dome” Posters Under the Dome is a collaboration between the University of Illinois at Chicago, Urbana-Champaign, and Springfield, spotlighting the discoveries and accomplishments of undergraduates who are engaged in research. It provides a venue for students to present their work in poster format at the Illinois State Capitol to Illinois representatives and others on a day dedicated specifically to undergraduate research. The event also helps members of the Illinois legislature better understand the importance of involving undergraduates in research, scholarly, and creative work.
Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research Journal In collaboration with the UIC Honors College, the University Library, and the Graduate College, the our office publishes an inter-disciplinary open access research journal for undergraduate work. Graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and faculty serve as section editors and peer reviewers and undergraduate students learn hands-on about processes of conducting research, undergoing formal peer review, editing, revising, doing layout, copy-editing, and engaging in journal publicity.