Undergraduate Research Awards Criteria and Application

For 2009, completed applications must be received at info@forumea.org by

June 26, 2009.

Criteria

1. Nominations must be submitted by the Forum institutional representative at a current institutional member of the Forum.  Nominating member may be the student’s home institution or program provider.  Each member may submit no more than two nominations.

2. Nominated student must have been

   1. an undergraduate student at the time the research was conducted and

   2. an enrolled student within 6 months prior to the submission deadline.

3. The nominated research project must be completed. It may be conducted in any academic discipline, and collaborative research projects conducted jointly and co-authored by students and faculty are encouraged.

Judging Applications

Applications are judged by the Undergraduate Research Awards Selection Committee, which consists of faculty from a wide range of disciplines. They are nominated by members of the Forum Council and Outcomes Assessment Committee, then selected by the chair of the Outcomes Committee and a committee member chosen by the chair to be the Awards Coordinator. In addition to disciplinary expertise, Selection Committee members are chosen for their experience in teaching or leading education abroad programs.

For the award, "research" is understood in its broadest possible sense as encompassing the full range of excellence in the academic products of an education abroad experience, from complex site-based research, to papers considering a single topic, to projects realized in electronic or traditional artistic media.

Typically, Selection Committee members are assigned applications to read according to their disciplinary expertise.  Each team ranks the applications that they read according to the description of the goal of the Undergraduate Research Awards. If the Selection Committee deems that an application falls outside its areas of expertise, additional Selection Committee members may be recruited. 

Selection Committee members must recuse themselves from judging applications submitted by students from their institution or who have participated in a program with which they are affiliated.

Application Process

A completed application includes:

• Nomination Form completed by nominating member's Institutional Representative

• Student Statement completed by nominated student with:

  • A one-page outline of the research paper.

  • A two-page abstract summarizing the research topic, methodology, results, and relevance.

  • A one-page description of how the international experience contributed to the learning experience.

• Faculty Recommendation, completed by a faculty advisor most familiar with the student’s research.

For each application, all three completed forms should be sent in a single email from the Forum institutional representative, with all documents attached. The Forum is unable to accept forms sent independently of the Forum institutional representative. The email should be sent to info@forumea.org .  Applications, including the abstract, must be completed in English, even if the research was conducted and the project completed in another language. Only complete applications will be considered.  Only electronic submissions will be accepted.

Deadline

Completed applications must be received at info@forumea.org by June 26, 2009.

Timeline

Autumn 2009      Winners are announced.

Spring 2010        Winners present at the Forum conference.

Spring 2011        Winners’ papers are published in Frontiers.