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Recommendations
A set of recommendations for URCs emerged with a broad base of support
from participants:
-
Increasing student
involvement in real research. URCs should identify and guide students
into real research opportunities (as opposed to
laboratory exercises) appropriate for their age and skill level.
- Focus
on first and second year students. While URCs will ideally embrace
a research community extending from K-12 through postgraduate,
the initial
focus is on expanding and enhancing research opportunities
for students in their first and second years of college.
- Multi-institutional
participation. URCs should bring several institutions together
in collaborations and partnerships of mutual
benefit. “Institution”
is broadly defined to include traditional educational institutions
(undergraduate colleges, research universities, community and
tribal colleges, high
schools or K-12), as well as industry, government agencies
and research laboratories, and local communities. Proposals should
provide a detailed
management plan specifying how inter-institutional relationships
will be negotiated and coordinated.
- Impact on capacity.
URCs should increase the number of students served by both existing
and
new research programs.
- Amount of funding
and duration. URCs should be funded in amounts ranging from $100,000
to $500,000 per year for
a duration
of three to five years.
Five years is preferred to allow time to assess the impact
of early research experiences on students throughout
the course of their undergraduate
career.
- Program administration.
URCs should provide independent administrative staff and resources
for coordinating existing
programs, implementing
new ones, and providing assessment.
- Student, faculty,
and institutional development. URCs should facilitate continuous
development of students
throughout their
academic career (K-12
through postgraduate, or, in the broadest vision,
from “cradle to grave”), ongoing development for faculty
through
workshops
and teaching resources,
and institutional development through the education
of administration about the value of undergraduate
research.
- Curricular integration
of research. URCs should support curricular reform and innovation
to integrate
research
experiences as a key component
of education for all students and to foster an
institutional culture of research. Programs that foster interdisciplinary
approaches to research
are encouraged.
- Program assessment.
URCs should provide staff and resources for effective, ongoing program
assessment
according to
contextually meaningful measures.
- Sustainability.
URC proposals should include plans for institutionalizing long-term
sustainability.
- Planning grants.
A planning grant competition should be provided prior to solicitation
of
final proposals
to enable institutions to explore
opportunities for Undergraduate Research
Centers in their region
and to develop a competitive URC proposal.
This is particularly important
for geographically-isolated institutions,
those with few research resources, or those with
little history
of research.
Workshop participants stressed that these guidelines should be interpreted
permissively rather than restrictively in evaluating proposals. The intent
is to solicit creative and innovative proposals that result in redefining
and expanding the research community, beginning with the inclusion of
undergraduate students in their first and second years of college.
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