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What is the Undergraduate Research Program?


The University of Delaware believes that exceptionally capable and well-motivated students should be given a chance, while they are still beginners, to see and have a part in what is happening at the frontiers of knowledge and creative work today.Toward that end, the Undergraduate Research Program (URP), located at 12 W. Delaware Ave, guides undergraduates to work as assistants or junior members of faculty research teams. Advanced undergraduate researchers often continue on to undertake their own research projects and even sum up their undergraduate research experiences by writing senior theses. To learn more at an advisement appointment, please email UndergradResearch@udel.edu.

Who can participate?

The Undergraduate Research Program is open to all interested undergraduates. Undergraduate researchers are typically sophomores, juniors and seniors, although some first-year students become involved as well. Some students are looking to further explore a field or specialty on which they want to focus their courses and careers; others are already making their own original contributions to their chosen fields.

Students from other institutions also engage in research at the University of Delaware, usually during the summer months. For more information about this, contact the Undergraduate Research Program at UndergradResearch@udel.edu.


Why get involved in undergraduate research?

The URP helps to foster faculty-student collaboration at the university. Students have the opportunity to share in a professional researcher's work, to learn how he or she formulates a significant question, evolves a procedure to investigate it, obtains research funding and other resources, gathers and examines evidence, follows hunches, detects loopholes, and evaluates and shares results with the scientific, scholarly, or artistic community.


By participating in research, students have the chance to learn how their chosen field of study is currently progressing, or even about how related fields of study are influencing that progress. Research is also a large part of continuing education, so if students are thinking about applying to graduate school, having already participated in research is a great first step, not to mention a resume booster! If you are already getting started applying to graduate school, our office has compiled a list of application pointers to help point you in the right direction.



How do Students get started doing Research?


The Undergraduate Research Office, located at 12 W. Delaware Ave, is open every day during the week for the convenience of students and faculty alike; feel free to stop by, introduce yourself, and pick up some of our brochures/flyers.

Whenever students are considering getting involved in research, our office recommends that they set up a time to come in for an advisement appointment with one of our staff. These advisement appointments provide general information about a variety of available research options, as well as information on how to identify and approach a faculty researcher with whom the student would like to work. Again, we encourage all interested students to come in for advisement: to schedule an appointment, please email us at UndergradResearch@udel.edu.



In the meantime, this website includes introductory information to almost all of our available research programs, and we encourage students to browse through it. In particular, be sure to check out the faculty project listings, which lists many of the UD faculty who are currently involved in a variety of interesting research and who are willing to work with undergraduates. While there are a number of options for engaging in undergraduate research, the first step is always to locate a faculty sponsor.


What Programs do we offer?


The Undergraduate Research Office offers a wide variety of research opportunities for UD students. The particular program that students decide to participate in depends on their year in school, research interests, what time of year they want to begin doing research, and how much time they want to spend on their research. There are opportunities available for every undergraduate, from the first-year student who wants to simply begin volunteering, to the highly-motivated senior who wants to pursue research in order to complete a thesis. There are even research opportunities outside of the university, both across the US and abroad.

Below is a listing of pages (also found under the Research Opportunities menu on our homepage), which delve further into our different programs. The programs are divided mostly depending on when and where you hope to participate in research. If after reading through the information provided on this website you still have further questions, we strongly encourage you to set up an advisement appointment (email us at UndergradResearch@udel.edu)

  • Summer research

  • Other UD research opportunities(academic year research and UD programs outside URP office)

  • Senior Thesis Program

  • Other US research opportunities

  • International research opportunities


  • How do I apply for the different programs?

    Before applying to any of our programs, you should have set up an advisement appointment through our office (email us at UndergradResearch@udel.edu). At these appointments, you will be given information on how to apply; some of the applications have online portions, but others are paper-based.

    Students who are participating in research as volunteers do not have any kind of formal application. Students conducting research via an independent study also do not require an application: you must only register for the associated course. It is also recommended that you fill out a Titling Form, available in our office or at the Registrar’s website.


    Also, if you are looking to apply for funding, please refer to the Funding page of our website