Student Belonging and Community Awards

General Eligibility:

• Degree-seeking UAF undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and staff from all disciplines and UAF campuses are eligible to apply. Regardless of applicant status, the project must support undergraduate learning.
• UAF Campuses Include: Bristol Bay, Chukchi, CTC, Troth Yeddha’, Interior Alaska, Kuskokwim, Northwest
• Applicants may only submit one proposal for each request for proposal (RFP).
• Student Belonging and Community undergraduate student awardees may participate each year.
• Student Belonging and Community mentor awardees may only receive the award two out of every three years. 

Student Eligibility:

• Must be a Degree-seeking undergraduate student
  Students of any year of study, from any UAF-affiliated campus, working toward an Occupational Endorsement, Certificate, Associate's Degree or Bachelor's Degree in any discipline are eligible to apply for and participate this award. Middle College students, graduated undergraduate students and graduate students are not eligible undergraduate students.
• Registration:
  • Students must be enrolled in at least 3 credits at any UAF-affiliated campus for the funded award term.
• GPA of 2.3 or higher
  Students with a GPA lower than 2.3 are not eligible.
• Students that have received full funding from another UAF program for the same project are not eligible for additional funding from URSA (for example BLaST, INBRE, EPSCOR, Alaska Space Grant Program, amongst others) .

Mentor Eligibility:

• Faculty, post-doctoral researchers, graduate students, and staff may serve as URSA mentors and apply for the award.
• Mentors must confirm their participation via the URSA Mentor Confirmation form prior to the application deadline.
• Mentor applicants must have at least one eligible undergraduate project participant identified prior to awarding. 

Note for projects pursuing lab or fieldwork:

• Students participating in funded URSA projects may seek out Student Accident Insurance through UAF that will cover them during university-related activities. 
  • To qualify for coverage, student project activities must be: University-sponsored, University-scheduled, and University supervised (by a UA faculty, staff, graduate student employee).
  • Please note that this insurance only picks-up expenses after other insurance coverage (e.g., personal insurance) has been exhausted.
• Apply for Student Accident Insurance through the UA System Office of Risk Services
  • Scroll down to "Just for students" and click on the "Student Accidental Insurance" tab. Scroll down to the Online application form. (Thesis credits F699 can be used as the course name and number on the form)
  • Visit this brochure to determine the type of coverage you may need. 
• Please contact Becca Whitman, Risk Manager, with questions or concerns (rwhitman@alaska.edu; 907-474-5487)

• Awardees must complete a Reflection Form by the end of the award period. Groups need only to complete one joint reflection.
• Awarded applicants will be asked to complete the following reporting requirements:
  • Complete a mid-award blog post/student spotlight for the URSA website (Q&A format);
  • Complete an online student  Reflection Form by the end of the award period. Groups need only to complete one joint reflection.
  • Final products to be submitted via the reflection form include: 
    • Two project photos with captions: one photograph of the awarded student or group conducting research and a photo of choice (action shot, students and mentor, etc.)
    • Final deliverable: a research paper, artwork, a presentation, or other tangible outcome from your funded project.
• Regardless of the applicant, students involved in an awarded project must present their project results at URSA's Research & Creative Activity Day in April of that academic year.

IMPORTANT: Failure to submit a final evaluation, to submit final products, or to participate in Research & Creative Activity Day will make the student ineligible to receive future URSA funding.

 

• FELLOWSHIPS

  • Fellowship payments may be used to pay the awarded student a stipend. 

  • Students must be degree-seeking and registered for per the award eligibility requirements.

  • Fellowships are paid by UA direct deposit. The fellowship is taxable and students will be responsible for payment of any taxes owed.

  • For those currently holding campus employment: In order to receive a fellowship, campus employment tasks and URSA Project tasks must not overlap. Fellowship eligibility will be determined by a final HR review of the student employment and URSA Project descriptions. If you have concerns, please contact the URSA Office.

• TUITION
  To cover up to 4 credits maximum UAF registration costs for courses directly related to the funded project (course fees not included). 

• SUPPLIES/SERVICES
  To support the purchase of consumable supplies or contractual services for the undergraduate research project or creative activity. Funded supplies will remain property of the awardee's UAF Department. For this reason, personal supplies (i.e. personal technology, clothes, etc.) are considered ineligible expenses and their inclusion may impact an application’s eligibility for review. Technology purchases for departments should be submitted with the URSA ITE Award application and are not eligible for Student Project funding. Supply and service funds MUST be spent by June 1 of the awarded fiscal year.

• UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT TRAVEL
  To exclusively support undergraduate student travel needs associated with the funded research or creative scholarship project.
  *Travel to attend a conference is NOT eligible for funding through a Student Project Award. Students wishing to PRESENT, COMPETE, PERFORM at an event must submit a Travel Award application.*

For any given round of URSA funding, 25–70 proposals are submitted.

With limited funding we award between 8 and 12 proposals in each call. The competition is high.

1. When an application period ends, proposals are distributed anonymously and randomly to four members of the URSA Faculty Review Board. These faculty members come from all disciplines in the arts/humanities/social sciences and natural/life and engineering sciences. One of the reasons that we request that students write their proposal for a broad audience is because there is a high probability that several of their reviewers will not be in a similar discipline as the proposal. Please see the Scoring Criteria section for more information regarding URSA’s review processes.
   
   
2. The reviewers evaluate and score the proposals and provide comments using an established rubric.
   
   
3. URSA funds submitted proposals in ranked order until the allotted amount of funding is distributed.

Evaluations are made by a minimum of four faculty members on the URSA Faculty Review Board using the scoring criteria detailed below.

Each of the following are evaluated on a scale from 1 (high/exemplary) to 5 (low/insufficient):

• The purpose of the proposed project addresses one or more of the following: 
  • fostering connectedness, belonging, and sense of community;
  • embracing both commonalities and diversity within the human experience;
  • cultivating kindness, compassion, and gratitude toward each other and ourselves;
  • highlighting connections between community/personal identities and sustainability in the UAF community/environment;
  • sparking dialogue about environmental and social issues that have a disproportionately negative impact on communities of color;
  • providing opportunities for project-based and applied learning for the UAF community
• Intellectual merit and scholarly/creative contribution of the project and its potential outcomes.
• The potential for the proposed project to affect undergraduate student learning or scholarly development
• The written quality of the proposal
• The articulated goals and/or expected outcomes of the project 
• Feasibility of project completion within the given timeline
• Through articulate writing and inclusion of details, the proposed case for funding appears…
• The mentor's role and/or participation in the project

Proposals are also evaluated based on:

• Written quality of the proposal (written for a general audience)
• Detailed budget and timeline
• Purpose of the project or travel with respect to potential for academic/research development for the student
• Potential for student learning and development as a result of the project or travel
• Adequate faculty involvement in the project or travel
• Completion of mentor confirmation form by the application deadline