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Office of Undergraduate Research

Submit a SURF Proposal

Eligibility Requirements

  • Undergraduate or Texas Academy students enrolled full-time (12 semester credit hours, SCHs, or more) at °ÅÀÖÊÓƵ
  • Students enrolled in 6-11 SCHs may be eligible to apply. For this group of students, a justification from the department chair of the student’s major or Dean of Reaud Honors College (for Texas Academy students) must be included in the proposal. 
  • A minimum cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 2.8 and a major GPA of 3.0 at °ÅÀÖÊÓƵ.
  • Must have at least one faculty mentor (tenure, tenure-track or full-time instructor). The faculty mentor will provide academic guidance to his/her student and assume the fiscal responsibility of the awarded grant(s). For any questions on identifying a faculty mentor, please contact The Office of Undergraduate Research through our@lamar.edu or Cristian Bahrim, the Director of O.U.R., at cbahrim@lamar.edu.
  • All research efforts and support must be compliant with IRB guidance (for research of human subjects), IACUC guidance (for animal research), IBC guidance (for research involving biohazards), if the proposed research falls within these domains.

The review of submitted proposals and awarding of undergraduate grants will be conducted based on the intellectual merits and broader impacts. Up to fifteen (15) proposals submitted on or before February 20, 2025, will be funded. Intellectual merits refer to the level of potential to advance knowledge and/or develop solutions. Broader impacts refer to the project’s potential to benefit society and its contribution to the achievement of specific, desired societal outcomes.


Proposal limits

  • Each student may only receive ONE SURF grant in a fiscal year. Receiving an undergraduate research grant does not exclude the recipient from receiving in the future another undergraduate research grant (or URG or SURF). If a student submits a second SURF proposal and both proposals are highly scored, only the proposal with the highest score will be accepted. The student can be co-PI (second writer) on a second successful SURF proposal during the SURF 2025 program.
  • Each faculty mentor can support one undergraduate student awardee in the SURF program and can co-mentor a second undergraduate student on a different SURF project in the current SURF 2025 program.
All questions regarding proposal limits should be submitted in writing to the Director of O.U.R at cbahrim@lamar.edu or our@lamar.edu .

Proposal Components

A proposal layout is provided for SURF proposal submission. For consideration of funding, the proposal must be submitted electronically in one PDF file with the content listed in the instructions below.

Proposal Coversheet: The information on the coversheet will be utilized for determining the eligibility requirements.

Project Description: The narrative portion of the proposal must not exceed 7 pages of letter-size paper with 1” margins and 10 pt. Times New Roman font or larger. The narrative portion of the proposal encompasses items 1–7 of the list below. Item 8, letter(s) of recommendation from mentor(s), does not count towards the page limit. Separate page(s) for references, graphs/tables, and/or appendices do not count towards the page limit.

  1. Title (no more than 10 words) and Abstract (of 250 words or less)
  2. Introduction or Problem Statement
  3. Research Objectives/Hypothesis/Thesis/Purpose
  4. Methodology and research design
  5. Expected Output and Outcome (Note: “output” refers to activity, effort, and/or associated work products related to the objectives that will be produced by the end of the project; while “outcome” refers to the result, effect, or consequence that will occur with the project output.)
  6. Proposed Budget (up to $6,000 per project, including housing in Cardinal Village, research support, and travel related to the development of the SURF project) and budget justification. The allowable expenditures include the research student’s time & effort ($2,700, which will be taxable), research supplies (up to $1,400), and travel related to the project (up to $500). View Sample Budget
  7. Relevant literature to the proposed project with references.
  8. Letter of recommendation from mentor(s). If several mentors are for one project, then each mentor should provide a letter of recommendation and should specify his/her role in mentoring the student. The letter should be on one page and should touch on two points: 1) the benefit for the student in running the research project and 2) the student’s ability to successfully complete the project

SUBMIT A PROPOSAL

Proposal Evaluation Criteria

  • Intellectual merits, clarity in technical language, and originality of the idea (10 points)
  • Methodology, research design, thesis or purpose (10 points)
  • Project output and outcome, including broader impact (10 points)
  • Relevant literature review for the proposed project (10 points)
  • Organization and quality of proposal (10 points)
  • Proposed budget and budget justification (5 points)
  • Letters of recommendation (5 points)

Scoring for each of these criteria will be based upon the Proposal Evaluation Criteria Rubric.

OPPORTUNITY!

A narrative can be submitted at the EXPO 2025 Paper Competition. The submission of the narrative should be approved in writing by the faculty mentor(s).

Final Report

  1. The final SURF report is due at the SURF Symposium, usually scheduled in early September, when the SURF fellows received their certificates of completion of the SURF program.
  2. The student can submit a 6-to-10-page narrative with technical details (including graphics, graphs, tables, survey forms, references, etc.) about the project and outcomes. 

    Format: letter size paper with 1” margins and 12 pt. Times New Roman font.

  3. If a narrative cannot be generated for serious reasons and with mentor(s) approval, the student(s) will submit a brief final report (not to exceed 2 pages of text. Graphics, graphs, tables, or references not included.).
Format: letter size paper with 1” margins and 12 pt. Times New Roman font.
  1. Project title
  2. Student name
  3. Faculty mentor(s)
  4. Project output
  5. Project outcome
  6. Plan of research in the future
  7. Student’s Testimonial

The submission of the narrative should be approved in writing by the faculty mentor(s).

Faculty Mentor Benefit

  1. There is a $1,000 stipend per SURF project offered for the faculty mentor's time and effort. If two or more faculty co-mentor the same SURF project, they will split the $1,000 stipend evenly. This stipend will be received in the paycheck for August or September.
  2. Faculty mentor(s) will receive up to $500 for each SURF project mentored over the summer, during the next university year; i.e., for a 2025 SURF project, up to $500 will be allocated for travel support only for university year 2025-26. No credit will be granted for year 2026-27