Eligibility

To be eligible to apply for a SURF Award for summer 2025, students must:

• Currently be pursuing a bachelor’s degree at UConn, and plan to graduate with that bachelor's degree no earlier than December 2025. This includes students pursuing Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of General Studies, Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Science in Engineering, and Bachelor of Social Work degrees.
• Be in good academic standing.
• Be supervised by a UConn faculty member. (You don’t have to conduct all of your project activities on campus, but someone at UConn must be actively engaged in the supervision of your work.)
• Have not received a SURF award in a previous year. (Only one SURF award may be used by an undergraduate during their UConn undergraduate years.)

Students who accept the offer of funding through the SURF Award Program are expected to complete the following program requirements:

• Present their SURF-funded research/creative project findings at a Frontiers poster exhibition event. Students selected for a SURF Award may present at the 13th annual Fall Frontiers Poster Exhibition in October 2025 or at the 29th Frontiers in Undergraduate Research Poster Exhibition in April 2026.
• Complete a summary report of their research/creative activities to the OUR via the online End-of-Summer SURF report form no later than August 31, 2025.

Application Deadline

The 2025 SURF Application is now open. The deadline to submit a complete application is Monday, February 3, 2025. 

The OUR expects to notify applicants of SURF decisions no later than March 14, 2025. Awards must be accepted by April 15, 2025. All weeks of summer research must be completed between May 12 and August 22, 2025.

How to Apply

Applications for a SURF Award are submitted online. The online application is now open. Apply here. The deadline to submit a complete application is Monday, February 3, 2025. Students will submit their application through the Quest portal. For guidance on how to use the application management system, please review the Quest Portal User Tips.

Application Process: Your application will be submitted online and you will have the opportunity to upload PDF documents that present your project proposal, timeline, and budget. Get started by reviewing our detailed information on preparing a successful application, which includes all of the information that will be collected in the online application and what you should include in your PDF proposal document, timeline, and budget. Refer to the SURF Application Outline for detailed information on all questions asked in the online application. All weeks of summer research must be completed between May 12 and August 22, 2025. Note that if you are proposing international travel as part of your SURF project, you will be required to answer an additional set of questions concerning your preparation to conduct research or creative work abroad. A list of the International Travel Questions is available on page 6 of the SURF Application Outline.

Plan to spend time working through your project proposal, budget, and timeline on your own and in conversation with your faculty advisor and other mentors. Starting early and planning ahead will make the process a lot less stressful!

Please be aware that the final question on the application will ask you to certify that you have prepared your application materials in accordance with University standards for academic integrity. Learn more about academic integrity.

If you have questions about the SURF award program or the application process, schedule an appointment via Nexus with one of the SURF program coordinators, Emily Schwab (emily.r.schwab@Uconn.edu) or Jodi Eskin (jodi.eskin@Uconn.edu).

Information for Faculty Project Supervisors

The UConn Summer Undergraduate Research Fund (SURF) Award program supports University of Connecticut full-time undergraduate students who are engaged in summer research or creative projects under the supervision of a University of Connecticut faculty member.

New for Summer 2025: Students must include one letter of recommendation/support from the faculty member supervising the student's project activities.

The strongest SURF applications are those that are written by the student with the guidance and support of the faculty advisor. While the writing of the proposal should be done by the student, the faculty advisor may offer comments and feedback on the research project proposal and references. The faculty advisor should also review the applicant’s budget and timeline for feasibility and accuracy.

It is the student’s responsibility to contact their faculty advisor, discuss the final SURF proposal, and secure their willingness to complete and submit the letter of recommendation by the deadline. Faculty recommendations will be collected electronically.

Faculty advisors, please address the following items in your letters of recommendation for SURF applicants:

• Your knowledge of and familiarity with the research or creative project.
• Your role in the project. Is this a project that was created by the student and you are serving as an advisor? Or is this a component of a larger project that is part of your ongoing research/creative activity? In the latter case, the committee seeks evidence that the student has contributed to the design and development of the component serving as the SURF project.
• Your evaluation of the student’s academic and personal traits which would contribute to a successful SURF experience.
• Your assessment of the student's chances for success and why the student’s project proposal would be important to the field and to the student’s development as a scholar.
• Your plan for supervision and mentorship of the student, including your ability and availability to commit to advising this student throughout the project. If you will be working in a different location from this student, please address your plan for communicating with and supervising this student from a distance.

Please note that project advisors will also be asked a series of questions about the status of research compliance approvals when they submit their letters of recommendation.

Effective supervision is a key factor in a successful SURF experience. Students benefit from the guidance of their mentors when they learn new techniques, encounter and seek to overcome roadblocks, work to interpret their findings, and map out next steps. We recommend that SURF recipients and their faculty supervisors discuss when and how they will communicate (e.g., in person, via WebEx, via telephone, via email updates) over the course of the student's work on the project. These advance arrangements are particularly important when the student and mentor will be working in different locations.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION
Students will request letters via the online application system (quest.uconn.edu). Faculty should follow the link emailed to them in order to upload their letter of recommendation (message from UConn Quest Portal [noreply@mail.smapply.net], subject line "Request for recommendation"). If the student has initiated the letter request, but you cannot locate the email, you can still submit your recommendation via the Quest Portal. Go to the main Quest Portal page, click “Log In” in the top right, select “UConn Single Sign-on” and log in with your NetId and password; you should then see the recommendation task to complete.

Letters should be submitted online no later than Monday, February 3, 2025. 

Criteria for Review and Selection

All SURF applications are reviewed by a committee of faculty members representing various Schools and Colleges at UConn. Primary and secondary reviewers with expertise related to the student’s proposal are assigned to each SURF application.

The review committee uses the Rubric for SURF Applications to assess proposed projects. Applicants are encouraged to review the rubric as they draft and revise their application materials to ensure that they meet the criteria associated with strong proposals.

Recommendations to fund SURF project proposals are made by the SURF faculty review committee. All projects are reviewed based on the following criteria:

Project Description: The proposal identifies a motivating idea, problem, and/or question. It presents a project design with specificity about procedures and methods, including the analytic approach.

Significance: The proposal synthesizes existing, related research or creative work and situates the project within the broader scholarly or creative field.

Goals and Outcomes: The goals of the project are articulated, with specific and attainable products (e.g., presentations, publications, other appropriate outcomes) described.

Feasibility: The budget is clear, appropriate for the project, and consistent with SURF budget policies. The timeline is realistic, detailed, and consistent with the project activities described in the proposal.

Application Quality: The application materials are well written and well organized, presenting the project in a way that is understandable to a professional outside of the project discipline.

Faculty Recommendation: Recommendation provides a positive assessment of the significance of the project, the educational value of the project for the student, and the student's ability to undertake the project. The faculty mentor describes a plan for supervising and mentoring the student during the summer project.

Student Role in the Project: The student will play a central role in project activities, including analysis and dissemination of findings. A higher score is assigned in cases in which the student had creative input in the project's development.

Student Qualifications: The application materials indicate that the student is well qualified and adequately prepared to carry out the proposed project.

Project Significance for the Student: The application demonstrates significance of the project to the student's academic studies, future professional aspirations, and/or personal goals. The student's life experience, background, and/or goals indicate high potential for the summer experience to be transformative.

Overall Impression: The application presents a coherent and compelling project, involving a well-qualified student in a high-potential, well-planned endeavor.