Programs for students

Purpose
Provides support for undergraduate students to become involved in a research project under the supervision of their academic advisor.

Application Details

These one-year Fellowships will be awarded competitively to Undergraduate students in a space related field as defined by NASA who desire to participate in a research project either during the academic year or in the summer. [Field related to space means any academic discipline or field of study (including the physical, natural and biological sciences, and engineering, space technology, education, economics, sociology, communications, planning, law, international affairs and public administration) which is concerned with or likely to improve the understanding, assessment, development and utilization of space.] A faculty member from the applicant’s institution must agree to serve as a mentor and research advisor for the described project. Applicants for these fellowships must be full-time undergraduate students of U.S. citizenship. A brief midterm progress report and a final report will be required.

Apply/Submit:

Undergraduate student applicants must complete the online application here.

Research Plan

Please upload a well-written (easy to understand, with no grammatical or spelling errors) maximum two-page summary of the research plan in your own words, including a statement of the problem, methodology, and proposed timeline. References and budget do not count towards the two-page limit. The document must be in PDF format and single-spaced using Times New Roman (TNR) font size 12, 1″ margin on all sides. This research plan must be reviewed and approved by the applicant’s faculty mentor. Please be aware that reviewers of the proposal may not be experts within your field of study, and the proposal should be written accordingly. Proposals should be written with minimal use of jargon. Mentors may provide editorial and revision assistance for student proposals, but they must be primarily the work of student applicants.

Please note that all proposals must align with one of the NASA Mission Directorates. To read about the latest programs and current interests for the Mission Directorates, please click here. Failure to clearly indicate the alignment with a NASA Mission Directorate will result in disqualification of the proposal and it not being forwarded to the reviewers.

Budget (one additional page)

The amount of these awards is $5,000.

Student stipend must be between $3500 and $4500, $500 for travel to present research should be included, and you can include a maximum of $1000 towards supplies. There are no points taken away or given depending on stipend vs supplies, so if you are able to spend the entire amount on stipend, you should.

NOTE: total NASA budget must add to $5,000.  As examples:

1. $3,500 student stipend, $1,000 for supplies and $500 travel to present
2. $4,000 student stipend, $500 for supplies and $500 travel to present
3. $4,500 student stipend, $500 travel to present research.

In preparing your budget, you should have a section each for stipend, travel, and supplies.

• Stipend: Rate of pay is $15 an hour, so if you are requesting $4500, this is 300 hours; $4000 is 266; $3500 is 233. Stipends are paid out half at the start of the project and half on receipt of final report, so align your proposed timeline with the work and with when you will need the final half of the stipend.
• Travel funds: identify a potential conference to attend (virtually or in- person) and it can be local, regional, or national. Student must provide a copy of presentation/venue information to the Space Grant office before release of travel
• Supplies: Identify what supplies you will need to purchase for your project from the grant, g., $500 for consumables and reagents that are necessary for quantification of soil enzymes associated with the cycling and storage of C, N and P; $1000 is requested for reagents associated with molecular sample preparations (e.g., DNA extraction, purification, and quantification, PCR amplification – research advisor funding). $1000 for Procurement of surgical consumables for dissection and specimen preparation; no materials budget needed. In the case of no materials budget needed, it is assumed and expected that the faculty mentor’s lab will furnish all needed supplies.

Essay

The applicant is required to submit a statement of no more than two-pages addressing the following items:

• Applicant’s motivation for completing the proposed research project
• Applicant’s academic achievements, leadership qualities, extracurricular activities, and/or work activities
• Applicant’s research experience (in and/or out of class), career interests, and professional goals
• Acknowledgment of any prior WVSGC funding and a brief description of previous projects funded.

Education History and Resume

The applicant will also upload their resume (max 2 pages) and an unofficial copy of your transcript or a list of the STEM courses that you took, and the grade associated with the class. Optional text to include, in less than 500 words please tell us if there is anything else you want us to know about your GPA.

Evaluation:

The Consortium will award these grants based on the following criteria:

• Soundness and technical merit of the proposed research (50 points)
• Student’s essay (50 points)

Proposal due date: Tuesday, March 5, 2024 by 11:59 PM (EST)

Mentor Endorsement due date:  Thursday, March 7, 2024 by 5:00 PM (EST)

Award announcement date: Early-May 2024

Anticipated project start date: May 16, 2024

Project duration: One year

Apply/Submit:

Undergraduate student applicants must complete the online application here.