Faculty Request for Summer Research Support

Faculty are invited to request funding for students and themselves to do research during Summer 2025. Funded faculty in Math, Computer Science, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics are expected to devote 400 hours (equivalent to 40 hours per week over 10 weeks) to summer research. Funded faculty in other departments are expected to devote 250 hours to summer research.

NEW POLICIES FOR 2025 - Participation in summer research has increased so much that we can no longer fund all submitted proposals. It is exciting to have more students and faculty participating, and the Undergraduate Research Advisory Board has worked to create a transparent process for proposal submission and assessment. Please read the following guidelines carefully, even if you have submitted proposals for summer funding in the past.

• Faculty are invited to submit a less than 500 word proposal which includes the significance of the work to the faculty member’s overall research plan and explains how a student will be involved in and ultimately benefit from working on the project. Faculty may split their funding among multiple students if they choose.
• Faculty must identify students when submitting proposals. This is a new requirement. The funds that support summer research come from many sources, and many of those sources can only be used to support students with specific majors. Therefore, we need to know which students will be participating before we can make funding decisions. Faculty are welcome to recruit students outside of their own discipline. Donors have provided dedicated funds for students in many majors.
• Students must be enrolled in Xavier for Fall 2025.

It is expected that participating student researchers will:

• Present a talk at the annual Summer Research Symposium to be held in August.
• Submit a short project report (1-2 pages) at the end of the summer.

Faculty members receiving the stipend are expected to make every effort possible to attend the Summer Symposium.

Proposals will be assessed by the Undergraduate Research Advisory Board. Scores will consider clarity of proposals, significance of the proposed work to the faculty member's overall research plan, the impact of the experience on participating students, past student symposium participation and project report submission, and the rank of the faculty member. Junior faculty will be prioritized, as we support their work toward tenure. Tenured faculty are still encouraged to apply. We expect to have enough funds to support the majority of proposals, and are instituting these new policies to ensure that proposals most impactful for students are funded.

The deadline for proposal submission is Friday, February 28, 2025, at 5 p.m.  Decisions will be announced by mid-March.

Please contact Kat Morris with questions.