Undergraduate Summer Research Internships (USRI)

A broad and collaborative effort across several institutional portfolios, this program seeks to provide undergraduate students with first-hand experience in undertaking an exciting research project under the direction of a qualified faculty mentor/supervisor.

Program Outcomes

• Provide a comprehensive and supported undergraduate student research experience
• Increase undergraduate student confidence in research fields of interest
• Pave the way to graduate study and future research careers
• Provide opportunities for undergraduate students to expand their networks, enhance their student experience, and connect with other student researchers and members of the Western research community
• Help defray the costs in supporting undergraduate student research work
• Advance research, scholarship and creativity across Western

Student Objectives

• Co-develop and execute a short-term research project, to be completed in the 16-week program time frame under the mentorship of a faculty member
• Co-develop a learning and development plan with a Faculty mentor based on institutional and individual needs
• Learn about open access and Western’s repository through storage of a copy of the research output in Western’s Institutional Repository Scholarship@Western
• In consultation with their faculty supervisor, will develop and produce a multimodal research output oriented to lay audiences. They can select the most appropriate format for their research output based on their summer research project
  • Options include, but are not limited to, infographic, research poster or other visual representation, blog, podcast, short video etc. Examples of previous research outputs can be viewed in Scholarship@Western:
    • 2021: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/usri/usri2021/researchoutputshowcase/
    • 2022: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/usri/usri2022/ReOS/
  • Research outputs will be shared during the end of summer virtual exhibition event (more details will be shared)
  • Research outputs can be based on incomplete projects and are intended to provide students an opportunity to begin to think about how to best share their work and learnings to larger audiences.
• Participate in a minimum of four professional development workshops that will aid in the creation of their research output and will support the summer research experience. This will be based on individual learning plans co-developed with their supervisors.
• Participation in student reflection opportunities, end of program surveys including a program evaluation and a demographic survey); note that this is a condition of funding.

Faculty Supervisor Objectives

• Participate in a summer research program providing mentorship for an undergraduate student that will further enhance research goals and the student’s research and professional skills
• Co-develop a learning and development plan geared towards the needs of your research program and your USRI fellow, with clear expectations to ensure an equitable working environment
• Participate in at least one EDID workshop shared as part of the Professional Development sessions.
• Support the development of the research output (required deliverable of USRI students) throughout the summer.
• Attendance at the virtual exhibition is highly encouraged and welcomed.

USRIs are valued at a minimum of $8,680 for a 16-week term through May to August 2023. Western will contribute $6,944 toward each Summer Internship with a required minimum match of $1,736 from other sources (e.g., researcher, department, Institute, and/or Faculty). Supervisors are strongly encouraged to provide all or a portion of the minimum matching funds. FHS will contribute to matching funds on a case-by-case basis.

Students are only allowed to hold one USRI for the summer and the USRI should not be held concurrently with another paid student position. Faculty supervisors are responsible for communicating clear expectations and guidance, including anticipated outcomes, deliverables, and outlining hours per week to be agreed upon in the student’s individualized learning plan. Hours should be consistent with the Supervisor’s research group members and allow for the successful completion of research objectives.

FHS has been allocated 43 USRIs for 2023. Note that there will not be a separate allocation for cross-faculty applications, i.e., undergraduate students from a Faculty outside of FHS count as part of the FHS allocation.

April 5, 2023: Deadline to submit applications to FHS using the Microsoft Forms Application Form
April 12, 2023: Notifications of FHS USRI awards
April 16, 2023: Deadline to accept FHS USRI offers
April 17, 2023: FHS provides USRI list to Western Research
Monthly: FHS provides updated list of continuing interns
May 1, 2023: Start of Internships
May 19, 2023: All student information must be updated in myHR to meet Western’s payroll deadline
Week of August 14, 2023: Submission of student research output
End of August: Virtual Summer Exhibition; Deadline for Professional Development sessions credits towards USRI certificate; Deadline for student and supervisor program evaluation and demographic survey submission
August 31, 2023: End of Internships

A template for a learning and development plan will be provided by Western Research & Student Experience to be distributed to successful USRIs and their supervisors. Students will be expected to attend/view a minimum of four Professional Development sessions and/or workshops throughout the summer from the suite of offerings to be posted on the USRI 2023 OWL course. Workshops should complement their learning plan and contribute towards the successful completion of the research output.

A workshop focused on EDI-D will be available for supervisors to share experiences and develop strategies on how to implement the principles of equity, diversity, inclusion or decolonization into their supervision practices with diverse students.

Workshop details will be finalized and provided by the end of April on this site (Suggestions for workshops are welcome):  https://www.uwo.ca/research/funding/students/usri.html

1. Supervisors Identify a Student:

• Prospective supervisors are required to apply with an undergraduate student.
• FHS supervisors who are seeking a student co-applicant have the option of soliciting expressions of interest from prospective students by posting a brief description of the proposed project and preferred skills through Western Connect under “FHS Research Postings”
  • See below in 'Information for Students' for more information.

2. Supervisor-Student Teams Develop and Submit a Proposal:

• Research activity plans must adhere to current Western University guidance on research activities - https://www.uwo.ca/research/covid19_updates.html
• All research proposals involving ethics (human participants) and/or animal subjects must be approved by the appropriate Western certification committee.
  • It is the faculty supervisor’s responsibility to ensure any disclosure of research output is within the bounds of their approved ethics.
• Supervisors must complete the Microsoft Forms Application Form, which includes a 250 word research activity plan with timeline: https://forms.office.com/r/WYSDsis7zP
• Applications must be submitted by the Supervisor by Wednesday, April 5 at 4:00PM ET.

• Students interested in participating in the program must have a prospective supervisor with whom they will submit a joint proposal.
• Students who do not have a prospective supervisor can express interest by viewing opportunities in Western Connect (under “FHS Research Postings”) and connecting with the supervisor via the email address indicated in the posting.
• After your proposed supervisor submits the application form, you will receive a student form soliciting further information about you (i.e. program, current year of study, Fall 2023 plans, Self-Identification option).

• To be submitted by the Supervisor
• Application must include a research activity plan with timeline (250 words)
• Deadline to submit application form: Wednesday, April 5 at 4:00PM ET
• Please complete the Microsoft Forms FHS USRI Application Form 2023 (uwo credentials required): https://forms.office.com/r/WYSDsis7zP

No. Only supervisors are allowed to submit a USRI application.

Students are not allowed to submit a USRI application. However, FHS supervisors can submit a USRI application for a student not enrolled at FHS.

USRIs are reserved for students registered in an undergraduate program at Western in 2023. Preference will be given to students who are planning to return to Western in the Fall 2023 semester whether as an undergraduate student or graduate student.

Yes, although preference will be given to students who expect to enroll in the Fall 2023 semester (as an undergraduate or graduate student).

The award is categorized as a fellowship and will be reported to the student on a T4A tax slip (non- employment income) at the end of 2023. There are no statutory deductions required to be withheld from the payments.

A template will be provided which outlines the program requirements. The learning and development plan will help guide the goals for the summer and will encourage students to think about how to integrate what they learn in the workshops into their research output. The learning plan will establish an agreement between the student and faculty supervisor concerning expectations of research activity, attendance, communication, and the final research output.

Yes, a supervisor can oversee more than one student or USRI project during the summer program.

An undergraduate student can only hold one USRI award during the summer. However, the program welcomes returning students who participated in previous summers.

The EDI-D workshops are not mandatory but given the importance of EDI-D among research funders and the critical contribution to research creativity and excellence, participation is strongly encouraged.

Undergraduate students working through other summer research opportunities offered at Western are welcome to register for any USRI workshops being offered.