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This program seeks to provide undergraduate students with first-hand experience in undertaking an exciting research project under the direction of a qualified faculty mentor/supervisor.

Program Outcomes

• Provide a comprehensive and supported undergraduate student research experience.
• Increase undergraduate student confidence in research fields of interest.
• Pave the way to graduate study and future research careers.
• Provide opportunities for undergraduate students to expand their networks, enhance their student experience, and connect with other student researchers and members of the ÉîÒ¹¸£ÀûÕ¾ research community.
• Help defray the costs in supporting undergraduate student research work.
• Advance research, scholarship, and creative activity across ÉîÒ¹¸£ÀûÕ¾.

Student Objectives

• Co-develop and execute a short-term research project, to be completed in the 16-week program time frame, under the supervision of a faculty member.
• Co-develop a learning and development plan with a Faculty mentor based on institutional and individual needs.
• Learn about open access and ÉîÒ¹¸£ÀûÕ¾’s repository through storage of a copy of the research output in ÉîÒ¹¸£ÀûÕ¾’s Institutional Repository Scholarship@ÉîÒ¹¸£ÀûÕ¾
• In consultation with their faculty supervisor, develop and produce a multimodal research output oriented to lay audiences. Students can select the most appropriate format for their research output based on their summer research project.
  • Options include, but are not limited to, infographics, research poster or other visual representations, blogs, podcasts, short videos, etc. Examples of previous research outputs can be viewed in Scholarship@ÉîÒ¹¸£ÀûÕ¾:
    • 2021:
    • 2022: 
    • 2023: 
    • 2024:
  • Research outputs will be shared during the end of summer virtual exhibition event (more details to follow)
  • Research outputs can be based on incomplete projects and are intended to provide students with an opportunity to begin to think about how to best share their work and learnings to larger audiences.
• Participate in a minimum of four professional development workshops that aid in the creation of their research output and will support the summer research experience. This will be based on individual learning plans co-developed with their supervisors.
• Participation in student reflection opportunities, end of program surveys including a program evaluation and a demographic survey); note that this is a condition of funding

Faculty Supervisor Objectives

• Participate in a summer research program providing mentorship for an undergraduate student that will further enhance research goals and the student's research and professional skills.
• Co-develop a learning and development plan geared towards the needs of your research program and your USRI fellow, with clear expectations to ensure an equitable working environment.
• Participate in at least one EDID workshop shared as part of the Professional Development sessions.
• Support the development of the research output (required deliverable of USRI students) throughout the summer.
• Attendance at the virtual exhibition is highly encouraged and welcomed.
• Participate end-of-program surveys including a program evaluation and demographic survey; note that this is a condition of funding.

USRIs are valued at a minimum of $9,632 for a 16-week term through May to August 2025. ÉîÒ¹¸£ÀûÕ¾ will contribute $7,224 toward each Summer Internship with a required minimum match of $2,408 from other sources (e.g., researcher, department, Institute, and/or Faculty). Supervisors are strongly encouraged to provide all or a portion of the minimum matching funds. FHS will contribute to matching funds on a case-by-case basis.

Students are only allowed to hold one USRI for the summer and the USRI should not be held concurrently with another paid student position. Faculty supervisors are responsible for communicating clear expectations and guidance, including anticipated outcomes and deliverables, and outlining hours per week to be agreed upon in the student's individualized learning plan. Hours should be consistent with the Supervisor's research group members and allow for the successful completion of research objectives.

FHS has been allocated 43 USRIs for 2025. Note that there will not be a separate allocation for cross-faculty application, i.e., undergraduate students from a Faculty outside of FHS counts as a part of the FHS USRI allocation.

March 3, 2025: Deadline for FHS supervisors to apply to the USRI award with their selected student co-applicant.

March 10, 2025: Notifications of FHS USRI awards are released. March 14, 2025: Deadline to accept FHS USRI offers.

May 1, 2025: Earliest start date of the USRI program.

August: Virtual Summer Exhibition, deadline for Professional Development session credits towards USRI certificate, deadline for the student and supervisor program evaluation and demographic survey submission.

August 31, 2025: Latest possible end date of the 16-week internship.

A template for a learning and development plan will be provided by ÉîÒ¹¸£ÀûÕ¾ Research & Student Experience to be distributed to successful USRI fellows and their supervisors. Students will be expected to attend/view a minimum of four Professional Development sessions and/or workshops throughout the summer from the suite of offerings to be posted on the USRI 2025 OWL course. Workshops should complement their learning plan and contribute towards the successful completion of the research output.

A workshop focused on EDID will be available for supervisors to share experiences and develop strategies on how to implement the principles of EDID into their supervision practices with diverse students.

Workshop details will be finalized and provided by the end of April on this site (Suggestions for workshops are welcome): /research/funding/students/usri.html

• To be submitted by the Supervisor
• The application must include a research activity plan with a timeline (250 words)
• Deadline to submit application form: Wednesday, March 3, 2025
• Please complete the Microsoft Forms FHS USRI Application Form 2025 (uwo credentials required):

No. Only supervisors are allowed to submit a USRI application.

Students are not allowed to submit a USRI application. However, FHS supervisors can submit a USRI application for a student not enrolled at FHS.

USRIs are reserved for students registered in an undergraduate program at ÉîÒ¹¸£ÀûÕ¾ in the current year. Preference will be given to students who are planning to return to ÉîÒ¹¸£ÀûÕ¾ in the subsequent Fall semester whether as an undergraduate student or graduate student.

Yes, although preference will be given to students who expect to enroll in the subsequent Fall semester (as an undergraduate or graduate student).

The award is categorized as a fellowship and will be reported to the student on a T4A tax slip (non- employment income) at the end of of the year. There are no statutory deductions required to be withheld from the payments.

A template will be provided which outlines the program requirements. The learning and development plan will help guide the goals for the summer and will encourage students to think about how to integrate what they learn in the workshops into their research output. The learning plan will establish an agreement between the student and faculty supervisor concerning expectations of research activity, attendance, communication, and the final research output.

Yes, a supervisor can oversee more than one student or USRI project during the summer program.

An undergraduate student can only hold one USRI award during the summer. However, the program welcomes returning students who participated in previous summers.

The EDID workshops are not mandatory but given the importance of EDID among research funders and the critical contribution to research creativity and excellence, participation is strongly encouraged.

Undergraduate students working through other summer research opportunities offered at ÉîÒ¹¸£ÀûÕ¾ are welcome to register for any USRI workshops being offered.