Carnegie Mellon University

Undergraduate Research Awards, Honors and Research Grants

Because our students have many opportunities to receive research training, they are highly successful when applying for research grants and fellowships. 

Below are just a few of the research awards available to you.

Ireland Award

Award Amount: $1,500

Awarded to: An undergraduate in their junior year to help support a high-quality research project such as a departmental thesis or a senior honors project.

What you'll need: Students will need to include a CV/Resume, a brief description of how you will use the money, what responsibilities you will take on (about one paragraph), and one letter of recommendation.The award is funded by an endowment from the George and Elisabeth Ireland family.

When to apply: Deadline is April 15

 Past Recipients:

2024: Colin Echeverri - "Testing the Predictive Value of Drinking Motives to Alcohol’s Acute Effects in a Group Laboratory Setting"

2024: Zane Kelley -"Racial Discrimination and Relationship Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis"

2023: Letian Huang - "The Impact of Perceived Stigma Among the LGBTQ Community."

2022: Morgan Boyd - Participated in research to find which social characteristics are the most salient in causing children to make inferences about a person, specifically the foundations of racism and sexism. The research informed the senior thesis which is to write a children’s picture book depicting positive portrayals of Black children.

2021: Shalaya Minor - Seeked to measure if academic performance is affected by coping style, level of social integration, perceived stress, and social identity of minority students.

Robert Glushko Endowed Prize for Distinguished Undergraduate Research

The CMU Psychology Department will award two prizes of $500 to graduating seniors who have made outstanding contributions to research within cognitive science or intelligent systems. When applying, students will need a CV/Resume, a brief description of how you will use the money, one letter of recommendation and a short description of your project and how it relates to cognitive science and or intelligent systems.

When to apply: Deadline is April 15 

Past Recipients:

2024: Molly Niehaus - "How children learn semantic similarities between words"

2024: Anna Keresztesy - "The structure of lexical semantic representations as revealed by semantic verification"

2023: Jess Smith - "Misophonia: How Foley Videos Affect Perceived Pleasantness of Trigger Sounds"

2023: Rohan Pandey - "The Structure of Semantic Composition in Visually-Grounded Language Models"

2022: Omisa Jinsi - "Starting Blurry: The Impact of Initial Sensitivity to Low Contrast Frequencies on Infant Categorization Skills"

Support for DEI Initiatives

Award Amount:  Up to $1,000

Awarded to: An undergraduate to help support a high-quality research project such as a departmental thesis or a senior honors project.

What you'll need: Please include planned start date, total time frame, other potential sources of funding (with amounts) and your faculty advisor. 1000 words

When to apply: Deadline is April 15

 

Small Undergraduate Research Grant (SURG)

Up to $1000 to offset the costs of undergraduate research projects (materials, participant compensation, etc.).  

When to Apply: SURG applications are usually due several months before the semester in which the SURG is set to begin.  SURG applications for the upcoming fall semester are usually due in March and applications for the spring semester are usually due in October.  You should choose a faculty mentor and begin drafting your application at least one month before the application deadline.

Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)

$3500 to support 8-10 weeks of summer research at Carnegie Mellon University.

When to Apply: SURF Applications are usually due in March, the summer before the fellowship is set to begin.  However, you should choose a faculty mentor and begin drafting your application at least one month before the deadline.

Dietrich Honors Fellowship

Up to $6500 to support honors thesis research

When to Apply: Applications are usually due during the semester before the Honors Thesis project is set to begin—March, for projects beginning in the Fall semester and October for projects beginning in the Spring semester.  You should discuss your application and your Honors Thesis project with your faculty mentor at least one month before the application is due.

Fulbright

Funds a research project or an English Teaching Assistantship in a country outside of the United States for a period of 8-12 months.

When to Apply: Students begin preparing their applications in May and June the summer before the application is due.  Applications are usually due on campus in September.

Past Recipients:

Yoobin Chee, Psychology, '19
South Korea

Isabel Bleimeister, Cognitive Neuroscience, '18
Israel

Marshall Award

Funds students to study for a post-graduate degree in the United Kingdom.

When to apply: Students usually begin preparing their applications in April, the spring before the application is due.  Applications are usually due on campus in September.

 Past Recipients:

Sheela Ramesh

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

Funding for students to pursue graduate study in the Sciences, Social Sciences, and Engineering.

When to Apply: Applications are usually due for Psychology students in November, but check the NSF website for exact dates.  You should begin preparing your NSF application in August.

 

Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR)

The Council on Undergraduate Research’s Psychology Division sponsors conference travel awards for psychology undergraduates who are presenting original research at regional or national meetings.

CMU Psychology Undergraduate Travel Fund

The Psychology travel fund is dedicated to undergraduates who need assistance for conference related expenses.  Students must be presenting at the conference and be under the supervision of a member in the department of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University.  The amount can be up to $500 and other forms of funding must be sought out first.  Requests must be made a few weeks to a month before the conference date.  Please fill out an award application.

When to apply: Requests must be made 3-4 weeks before the intended conference date.