The UC Irvine Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) connects undergraduate students to research and creative project opportunities with UC Irvine faculty, industrial partners, national labs, and other universities. We also provide grants to support UC Irvine faculty-mentored undergraduate research projects and creative activities during the academic year and summer.
Undergraduate research is one of the defining experiences for students at a public research university. Undergraduate research is a well-established, high-impact practice that has been shown to increase retention and academic performance while reducing time to degree. It also provides students with the following important benefits:
- Students get to work one-on-one with faculty and graduate researchers, gaining the benefits of mentorship and building professional and academic networks that can support their future endeavors.
- Students gain important skills that are not always explicitly taught in traditional courses, such as teamwork, communication skills, and solving open-ended problems.
- Collaborations between students, faculty, corporate entities, and government agencies prepare undergraduate researchers for the challenges of tomorrow and inspire them for a life-long passion for discovery and inquiry-based learning.
Summer scholarships that allow students to continue their research outside of the academic year are especially important.
Summer UROP Scholarships are $1,500 per student for summer research and allow students to take maximum advantage of being at a research institution. Your Giving Day gift will directly support student scholarship awards:
- Gifts of $100 can provide student supplies for research
- Gifts of $500 can enable four students to present their research at our annual Undergraduate Research Symposium
- Gifts of $1,500 can fully fund one student research award
Every May, student researchers present their work at our annual Undergraduate Research Symposium. We invite all donors to attend the Symposium, meet the students impacted by your generosity, and experience the great work they have done!
If you are unable to support financially, we welcome you to engage in other ways such as:
- Spreading the word about UC Irvine Giving Day to your friends and your community.
- Submitting updated information or telling us your UROP story.
- Engaging with our UROP social media content by following our accounts, joining our groups, and commenting on/liking/sharing posts that resonate with you.
We deeply appreciate your commitment to shaping the future of our scholars. Please consider donating today!
To discuss additional ways to support UROP, please contact Jennifer Smith at 702-290-6402 or Jennifer.Smith@uci.edu.
| Rank | State | Gifts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | CA | 12 |
| 2 | MA | 1 |
| 2 | IL | 1 |
