URSA Grant: Compliance and Guidelines

The Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Achievement (URSA) Research Grant Program is part of the Office of Engaged Learning. Together with other programs, URSA seeks to nurture students and link transformative academic studies to real world opportunities. The URSA program administers grants for students working one-on-one with a research mentor, as well as grants for faculty who are developing course-based research opportunities or mentoring larger groups of students.

Purpose

To promote and expand meaningful research participation by undergraduate students.
To engage students in faculty/student collaborative learning relationships.
To expose students to resources and facilities that may stimulate their interest in pursuing advanced degrees and research careers.

Institutional Compliance

Institutional compliance is required. Baylor's Office of Research Compliance provides support to the Baylor research community to ensure all research activity complies with applicable government regulations, guidance documents, and funding agency guidelines. Projects utilizing human subjects, animal subjects, radioactive materials, or recombinant DNA must have established protocols approved by the relevant institutional compliance committee(s). Funds cannot be dispersed until your protocol is approved.
Any website or online database proposed with College of Arts & Sciences funding must follow the Baylor ITS Guidelines and Policies.

Budgetary Considerations

Travel

Student travel is reimbursed through Student Financial Services and Scholarships since it is included in “Payments, prizes or winnings because of enrollment at the University for the purpose of aiding a student’s study, training or research.”
This process takes around 5-7 days to place a student in the system and requires Direct Deposit information.
Student research travel is an allowable expense only when it is essential to accomplish specific grant objectives.
Student travel to conferences is an allowable expense if the student is presenting research results or exhibit creative works.
Reimbursement for transportation, lodging and meals will be in accordance with current university travel policy.

Equipment and Supplies

Minor equipment requests required for the undergraduate student's research project are allowable. Upon project termination, any equipment purchased with project funds will remain under the jurisdiction of the department of the faculty mentor.
General supplies (i.e. gloves, office supplies, common reagents) are most often provided by the research mentor, but specialty supplies may be requested.

Student Wages

URSA Grants do not typically fund student wages directly, however, in some cases, when a student qualifies for Federal Work Study, proposals to fund student wages will be considered.
When applying for URSA Grants, students may receive wages for research activities. All students in the same department should be paid equitably.
Please remember to budget for FICA (social security) charges of 7.65% if the students are not enrolled in classes, such as for summer projects.
Work-study hours for research follow the same guidelines as other types of student employment. Please determine if students are eligible for work-study before including this in the budget.
Mentors should work with the OEL and their Departmental Financial Assistants to set up Ignite accounts for hiring and paying student researchers.

Duplicate funding

Please report additional funding for this project in your budget. We understand that multiple small grants may be required to support research projects. This type of over-lapping funding is permitted. If duplicate funding is awarded for the approved research after the URSA grant has been awarded, all remaining funds in the URSA grant must be relinquished.

Grant Administration

Awards will be set up as Ignite accounts and administered through the Office of Engaged Learning.
Each justification should refer to the student’s project and use of funds. URSA Research Grant Awards will be for a maximum of 12 months and will coincide with the university fiscal year, from June 1 through May 31.
All project funds must be expended during the fiscal year in which they are awarded.
No-cost extensions are allowed.
Funds may not be requested for the following:
- Faculty salaries and fringe benefits;
- Supplemental pay for full-time Baylor faculty and staff;
- Faculty travel to professional meetings or conferences to present project results;
- Maintenance & service contracts for equipment;
- Expenses incurred prior to the beginning of the project period.

Project Revisions and Final Ownership of Equipment

Awardees are required to conduct the project in accordance with the proposal and budget approved by the URSA Grants review committee.
Any change in research objectives or scope of work or a major budget revision requires the prior approval of the Office of Engaged Learning.
If a student leaves the project for any reason, the remaining funds return to the URSA Grant fund. They do not transfer to the faculty member or to another student or project.
Upon project termination, any equipment purchased with project funds will remain under the jurisdiction of the department of the faculty mentor.

Final Report Guidelines

Faculty mentors are responsible for the Final Report. Awardees are required to submit a final project report to URSA@baylor.edu no later than 60 days after the project expiration date. Faculty mentors will be ineligible for future funding from the URSA grants program until the final reports are received.

List the name(s) of the undergraduate students that were supported by the grant and the role that each student played in completing the work.
Were the Specific Objectives of the grant met? Please explain.
How much of the budget was spent? If less than 100%, please explain.
Were there any publications or presentations that were completed by the undergraduate? Please provide citations or links if available.
Please include any other relevant information concerning the students that were supported. For example, are they continuing in research? If they have graduated, are they in a graduate program?
Please provide a quote or a summary of the significance of your findings with a short video and/or picture with caption of you and your student(s) for a “News Story” or social media posting. (If you have a News story that has been posted or published, please share the link.)

Baylor Student Research Week Participation

URSA Research Grant recipients, both faculty and students, are expected to participate in BSRW in the spring semester. The schedule and details will be provided on the URSA web page. Students may present a poster or give a platform presentation. The research may be preliminary and presented as a poster or a 15 minute presentation. Faculty mentors are encouraged to help grow the research community by serving as judges and participating in sessions.

Acknowledgement

Any published work supported in whole or in part by an URSA grant should acknowledge such support in the publication. Other publicity related to the project, such as Baylor PR articles, should also carry acknowledgment. An example acknowledgement is: “This study was supported in part by funds from the Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Achievement Research Grant Program and the Office for Engaged Learning at Baylor University.”