1. If applicable, apply for an IRB or IRB extension. If applicable, apply for permission to travel abroad ASAP.
2. Submit required materials (See “First Payment and Required Materials to begin your SURF” below) to begin your SURF by 4pm on Friday, April 5. If not received by this deadline, you forfeit your SURF award.
3. Prepare for your research summer.
4. Receive payment around May 31.
5. Conduct research for at least 20 hours a week for 9 weeks.
6. Submit end of summer documents to OUR between August 12 and August 23 (see “End of Summer Materials” below)
7. OUR staff will review your end of summer documents and request necessary additions or edits.
8. Present at the Celebration of Undergraduate Research the following Spring and (optional) attend the fall reception to be honored for your research and talk to new students who are interested in research at Carolina.

Scholarships, Fellowships and Educational Assistance Grants or Awards

As defined in IRS Publication 970 Tax Benefits for Education, scholarships, fellowships and educational assistance grants are amounts paid for the benefit of an individual (generally a student) to aid in the pursuit of study or research. These payments typically support educational needs, such as, tuition, fees, room, board, supplies and travel or primarily for the benefit of the student’s academic development.

• All scholarships, fellowships and grants are reported in GradStar (or directly in Connect Carolina’s financial aid module) and considered Estimated Financial Assistance (EFA) when determining a student’s eligibility for federal and institutional aid.
• The amount of financial aid granted to a student cannot be above the established Cost of Attendance.

Cost of Attendance

The cost of attendance (COA) for a student is an estimate of educational expenses for the period of enrollment for which the student has applied for aid. Expenses included in the COA are tuition and fees, books and supplies, transportation, room and board, and personal expenses as required by federal financial aid regulations.  Total financial aid eligibility is capped at the COA for federal aid recipients and may be capped for other students by the campus under institutional policy.  Students with additional academically related expenses such as travel for research, childcare, etc. may appeal for a higher cost of attendance budget.  For more information, please go to: https://studentaid.unc.edu/current/costs/

What is a Place Holder Course

For students who are not enrolled in a typical course for credit, the Office of the University Registrar has created a zero-credit placeholder course that confers eligibility for receiving summer financial awards. This course will carry no tuition and fee charges.

In order to receive the SURF award, you must be a currently enrolled student at UNC-CH. If you are not enrolled in the summer semester in which you will be paid, we will enroll you. The course in which you will be enrolled will not count toward credit hours and will not show on your transcript, and will not require you to pay tuition, but is necessary in order for us to disburse the SURF funds to you.

If your enrollment has been discontinued for any reason during the summer term SSI or SSII in which you are to be paid, you must separately contact the Registrar’s Office to resolve this conflict before I can add you to the list to be enrolled in the placeholder course.

Also, please be aware that by accepting this award you understand it will count as financial aid and may impact the amount you receive in federal or other financial aid. 

Who to contact if you have questions about your SURF payment:

Please contact our@email.unc.edu with any questions about your SURF payment.

Visit the Cashier website (cashier.unc.edu) for detailed information about refunds, including how to sign up for electronic refunds and what to do if you don’t have a US bank account.

Click here to chat with the cashier office: https://cashier.unc.edu/#bot

Click here: Who to contact if you have questions about specific charges on your student account.

1098-T Form and related information.

Financial aid, please contact the Student Aid Office: https://studentaid.unc.edu/contact-us/contact-information/

Registrar’s office: registrar@unc.edu

Prior to beginning your work, we need the items listed below that constitute your program acceptance packet. Please follow the links below, complete the forms, obtain all necessary signatures, assemble your complete acceptance packet (this will include 3-6 forms depending on your project), and email to Dr. Robert Pleasants.

In order to process your payment, we must receive all required items listed below by Friday, April 5. You should receive your funds by May 31.

Requirements:

1. Award Acceptance and Personal Data Sheet (all projects)
2. Waiver of liability form (all projects) anyone can sign as your witness for this form.
3. IRB Approval (for projects involving Human Subjects): please provide a copy of the notification you receive from the IRB. We recognize that IRB approval may not be received by the 4/23 deadline for submitting your acceptance packet. In those cases, please submit the IRB determination as soon as you receive it by emailing it to Robert Pleasants. Please note that we cannot release your fellowship payment without necessary IRB approval.
4. Any SURF project that involves international travel will need to be approved by the University. Effective February 21, 2023, undergraduate international travel outside a study abroad program has resumed through a new, centralized process administered by the College of Arts and Sciences (for all undergraduate students regardless of school or college). Undergraduate students may initiate a request for approval of their independent education abroad activities through the HeelsAbroad portal administered by the Study Abroad Office: https://go.unc.edu/independent-edabroad. A complete request for approval must be submitted no later than 30 days prior to the student’s departure date, and you must share your approval with Dr. Pleasants in order to be funded by SURF. We do not recommend making any travel purchases (e.g. air travel arrangements) before you have been approved for your international travel.
5. Photographs and Photo Releases. A signed photo and video release is required for every identifiable person in photographs that you provide in your final materials to OUR. As we require a photograph of you in your final project, you should submit your photo release now and make extra copies as necessary for your research.  Anyone can sign as your witness for this form.

Who to contact if you have questions about your SURF payment:

Please contact our@email.unc.edu with any questions about your SURF payment.

Visit the Cashier website (cashier.unc.edu) for detailed information about refunds, including how to sign up for electronic refunds and what to do if you don’t have a US bank account.

Click here to chat with the cashier office: https://cashier.unc.edu/#bot

Click here: Who to contact if you have questions about specific charges on your student account.

1098-T Form and related information.

Financial aid, please contact the Student Aid Office: https://studentaid.unc.edu/contact-us/contact-information/

Registrar’s office: registrar@unc.edu

1. Student Internship Liability Insurance
   Risk Management Services provides a Student Internship Liability Insurance Program to campus departments in order to protect their interning students. Our student interns are put into professional settings and given professional responsibilities. However, in many situations, they may not have professional liability insurance protection. A student intern also can be subject to a malpractice claim. For more information, please contact Steve Kenny, Director of Risk Management Services (steve_kenny@unc.edu or 919-962-7360).
2. Tax Considerations
   Your award is a fellowship, it is NOT a payment for services. You will not receive a W-2, but you may receive a 1099-MISC from UNC-Chapel Hill reporting your fellowship. For more information, please consult IRS Publication 970.

At the End of the Summer

You must submit the following documents to OUR to complete the terms of your research fellowship. Follow the instructions carefully; documents that do not provide information in the required format and style will not be approved.

Send one email to our@unc.edu with the subject line “year program materials” (where “year”=current year and “program”=name of the fellowship, i.e., “2020 SURF materials”).

Each attached document should be saved with the following title format: “year_Lastname_Firstname_SURFitemname.” For example, “2020_Liu_James_SURFreflection” or “2020_Khairat_Omar_SURFslidedeck.”

All materials must be submitted between August 12 and August 23.

Please note: Al items have to be approved, not just received, by OUR. In many cases, the Final reflection and/or PowerPoint requires editing before approval, so it is in your best interest to submit your materials early.

1. Final Reflection Prepare a one-page reflection addressing the following:

• • • What did you learn about the research process through your summer research experience?
    • What, if anything, would you do differently?
    • What, if anything, surprised you about your summer research experience?
    • How has this research experience affected your interests and career goals?
    • What suggestions would you give to a student applying for a SURF in the future?

This should be submitted as a Microsoft Word file (1-inch margins, 12 pt. Times New Roman font, single-spaced). Please include your name and the title at the top of your reflection.

 

2. PowerPoint Slide Deck Prepare a three-slide PowerPoint slide deck designed to be understood by a GENERAL AUDIENCE (i.e., your friends and family, or high school seniors preparing to enter Carolina), which we will post on the OUR website. Use this format:

• • Slide #1:
    • Project title
    • Student’s name and major
    • Faculty advisor and faculty’s Dept.
    • Photo(s). These photos are used for publicity about students’ research. The photo should provide a clear view of the student’s face. In addition, the photo should help portray the student’s research. For example, a student researching water quality in the Neuse river might show them with an image of the river in the background; a student studying in a historical archive might take a picture of themself in or in front of the archive; or a student researching dance performance might show themself dancing. If this is a joint project with another student then you both may be in the photo with a caption indicating the name of each student.

If your project makes it difficult to take an action shot that shows your face and your research at the same time, you may submit two photos: one showing your research in progress, and a second photo for a headshot.

• • Slide #2:

Make sure to use vocabulary appropriate for a general audience. This is not intended to be the same kind of PowerPoint you would present at a meeting of people in your field or to your advisor.

• • What is your research question?
  • Why does your research question matter?

• • Slide #3:

As with Slide #2, you must make sure your vocabulary and phrasing would be understood by the average person. Avoid jargon, unspecified abbreviations, and subject-specific terminology (unless you define it on the slide).

• • What are your results?
  • Why are your results important to your scholarly or research community?
  • Why are your results important to a general audience?

To get an idea of what we need, you can view past projects elsewhere on this website. Please note the following for how to acknowledge OUR support.

3. Evaluation Complete the SURF evaluation after all materials have been submitted.

4. Faculty approvals Ask your faculty advisor to review your PowerPoint slide deck prior to submitting them. We strongly recommend that you send them the description of the requirements listed above along with your PowerPonts slide deck. Before we can issue your final check, we need your faculty advisor to send an email message to our@unc.edu with the current year and name of your program and “approval” (i.e. 20xx SURF approval) in the subject line. They must include the following text in the body of the message: “I have reviewed __________ (student’s name) PowerPoint slide deck and I approve of the content. The PowerPoint summary is suitable for display for general audiences on the OUR website.”

5. Upload your Power Point slides to The Carolina Digital Repository (CDR).  CDR is a secure digital home for the scholarly work of the Carolina community. When you deposit your articles, book chapters, data sets, media files and more in the CDR, we provide stable access for the long term. You decide who gets access – from a few colleagues to the entire world. The University Libraries will do the rest, making sure your work is findable, searchable and available to the audiences you specify. https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/

Last Requirements: Spring Celebration of Undergraduate Research

Part of your responsibility as a SURF recipient is to share your work with the UNC Community. Accordingly, we will be expecting you to present research at the next year’s UNC-Chapel Hill Celebration of Undergraduate Research Symposium which occurs each year in late April.

The PowerPoint you submit will be posted publicly online. If your mentor would like any results to be withheld for any amount of time, please let us know, and we will not post your PowerPoint online until given permission. (We need to be notified of this when you send your materials.) We will also pull anonymous quotes from the summary and evaluation for promotional materials and for donors.

Optional Items

1. Carolina Research Scholar Program
   This program offers several ways for undergraduates to contribute to a community of research, scholarship and creative performance at UNC-Chapel Hill. Participants will be invited to receive appropriate training and serve as peer advisors. Participants will also be invited to register for the OUR Speaker’s Bureau and talk about their experiences during Sophomore Reorientation and other campus venues. Students meeting program requirements will receive the designation “Carolina Research Scholar” on their transcripts.