Proposal Guidelines

Proposal Guidelines 

Proposals should be authored and submitted by faculty mentors or the departmental staff coordinating the projects and programs to be funded. 

Proposals must explicitly address:

• Scholarly and experiential goals for participating students
• Mentoring strategies, including training and resources available to new mentors as well as guidance and resources for students
• Outreach and selection criteria for students participants, including efforts to address issues of diversity and inclusion as appropriate
• For Departmental Grants, recruitment and selection criteria for mentors and projects, where necessary
• Specific outcomes for past participants (e.g. subsequent publications, honors theses, presentations, etc.) as appropriate.  Discuss any available student or mentor feedback, and highlight new processes or initiatives responding to this feedback.
• Proposed off-campus/international projects must be clearly described in the proposal, and funding may only be disbursed after additional requirements on the part of students, mentors, and departmental staff are completed. VPUE Undergraduate Research funds cannot support, in any manner, travel to or research in locations where Stanford Global Risk has deemed the environment to be unstable or unsafe. 
  • All research programs and projects are subject to change at any given point and time depending on Stanford Global Risk advisories and CDC guidelines. 
  • Continue to pay special attention to current Stanford travel restrictions and undergraduate research policies outlines in the University Health Alerts. 
  • Read more about the Undergraduate Research requirements for projects involving Off-campus Travel and International Travel.
• All grant proposals must include an appendix with a Contingency Plan in the event that disruptions (not just COVID) occur.

Selection Criteria

Grants are competitive, and even strong proposals may receive only partial funding. Successful proposals will provide concise evidence of:

• A plan to cultivate strong faculty mentorship
• Intensive student intellectual engagement with faculty mentors' scholarship
• Student training to develop the skills that enable more independent projects and increased intellectual responsibilities in the future
• A clear plan to foster student engagement with other undergraduate researchers as well as the department or program’s broader scholarly community
• **Please note that exemplary proposals may be shared with future applicants. 

Program Administration

For questions regarding program goals, proposal content, or review criteria, please contact:

Brian Thomas
Associate Dean of Undergraduate Research Opportunities
bthomas@stanford.edu
650/723-0051

For questions regarding grant administration and budgets, please contact:
vpue-research@stanford.edu
650/497-5388