Fund Your Research

There are many ways to receive funding to support your research: through the Office for Undergraduate Research, from other institutions at UNC, and from external sources. OUR sponsors or co-sponsors several fellowship programs that offer funding for students to do mentored research in the summer and/or during the academic year:

SURF: Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships

SURFs are major awards (at least $4,000) to enable undergraduates to engage in summer research under the guidance of a UNC faculty advisors for a minimum of 9 weeks at 20 hours/week. Applications for SURF are considered once a year and proposals are due on February 1st each year.

Summer Award for Research-Intensive Courses

This award covers in-state tuition for one three-hour research-intensive course at UNC-Chapel Hill. The course must offer one-on-one mentorship with a UNC faculty member. Such courses have a standard course number of *95 (i.e., 395, 495) and are offered in many departments already or can be added for a specific year.

Other Summer Research Opportunities

We’ve compiled an ever-evolving list of Summer Research Opportunities at Carolina and in other places.

Travel Funding

The Office for Undergraduate Research (OUR) offers travel awards of up to $500 to UNC-Chapel Hill undergraduate students to help pay for the cost of travel to present results of their research or creative performance at a professional conference in their field. The travel awards are made possible by a generous gift from the McGee Family Undergraduate Research Fund. Travel Awards funds may be used for registration and travel expenses, but not hotel or food expenses.

Current Funding Opportunities

Our “News and Updates” has the most recent funding opportunities from around campus.

Other Sources of Funding

If you are interested in international research or research involving a global audience, check out the funding database and other resources maintained by UNC’s Center for Global Initiatives.

For other sources of summer support, please visit the Carolina Internal Funding Database. Many of the programs listed on our Undergraduate Research Programs at UNC page also offer funding for undergraduate research.