How to Apply
Requirements
- Sophomore or Junior level standing undergraduate student at the time of application. Applicants may be Senior level as long as they remain a full-time student and do not graduate before completing a full academic year in the URCA Associate program.
- Must have and maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or above at the time of application and the entire length of participation in the URCA Associate program.
- Conduct research or a creative project in the student’s major or minor field of study. Must have a full-time, tenured or tenure-track faculty mentor in that field of study.
- Maintain adequate progress toward the completion of the URCA project and attend URCA sponsored meetings and events.
- Enrolled as a full-time undergraduate student at SIUE (minimum 12 credit hours) for the entire length of the participation in the URCA program.
- Obtain necessary approvals (such as with IRB, Animal Care, Hazardous Material or field sites) before beginning the research project or creative activity. The faculty mentor can assist the URCA Associate in this process.
Proposal
Application Deadline: April 6, 2026
Application Packet and Guidelines: URCA Associate Application Packet and Guidelines 2026-2027
Submit by Email to: Amelia Pérez, PhD, RN, CNE (URCA Coordinator)- aperez@siue.edu
Evaluation Process: Submitted proposals will be evaluated by the URCA Board. Each proposal will be assigned two reviewers. Reviewers present their evaluations to the entire URCA board at the evaluation meeting and each board member votes individually on each proposal. Board members will not vote on proposals from their own departments or for which they are serving as faculty mentors. An evaluation rubric will be used by board members for the evaluation process and can be found at the end of the application packet and guidelines document on pages 5 and 6.
Notifications: Applicants will be notified of the decision on their proposal by early May.
All URCA Associate applicants are required to submit a proposal including all the information listed in the URCA Associate Application Packet and Guidelines. Ten students are selected per academic year. Selected students begin to work on their projects during the Fall semester and finish in the Spring semester.
The URCA Associate Application Packet and Guidelines provide a comprehensive guide to help prospective Associates understand the URCA Associate application and evaluation process, required documents to be submitted with the proposal, and the expectations of the URCA Associate role. Be sure to follow these guidelines closely as you develop your proposal. Your URCA Associate faculty mentor is responsible for helping you review your proposal and provide feedback. We also recommend use of the SIUE Writing Center if you would like additional feedback on your proposal writing. The URCA Associate Application Packet and Guidelines includes a checklist that the URCA Associate applicant should go through to ensure that the application packet is complete before submission.
Samples
URCA Associates come from nearly all disciplines on the SIUE campus. Presented below are a variety of proposals that received funding in recent years. These model proposals are available as a resource for future URCA Associate applicants, as well as to demonstrate the full breadth of URCA Associates and their research.
If you are interested in submitting a URCA Associate proposal, take time to view several of the ones presented below, even those outside of your discipline, to get a feel for the variety of ways that they can be written. Pay particular attention to budgets and timelines.
Important Note: Keep in mind that these proposals should serve as samples of successful URCA Associate proposals, and not as templates for new applicants.
