Tri-Agency Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA)

Program Link: https://students.ubc.ca/career/campus-experiences/undergraduate-research/nserc-undergraduate-student-research-awards 

Sponsor: NSERC, CIHR and SSHRC

Value: $6,000 + top-up from faculty member (see note below on minimum Faculty pay rates)

Description:

Objectives

To 1) nurture interest by undergraduate students in developing their potential for a research career in health, natural sciences, engineering, social sciences or humanities, and, 2)  to encourage them to undertake graduate studies by providing research work experience that complements their studies in an academic setting.

Award Value and Top-Up Requirement

The USRA award is $6,000 and faculty are expected to top up the award to reflect the Faculty of Education’s minimum recommended pay rate for undergraduate RAs, which is $24/hour. As students are expected to work 35 hours per week over a 16-week term, the $6,000 award must be topped up to a stipend valued at $13,440.

Award Term

USRAs can be held for 16-week terms starting either May 2024, Sept 2024 or Jan 2025. Undergraduate student participants typically do not take classes during the work term.

Student Eligibility

Please refer to the UBC USRA website: https://students.ubc.ca/career/campus-experiences/undergraduate-research/nserc-undergraduate-student-research-awards

Faculty Eligibility

Open to all tenure and tenure-track Education faculty.

Individual Agency USRA Allocation and Eligibility Conditions

SSHRC and CIHR

SSHRC and CIHR have mandated that, at the present time, USRAs are available exclusively to Black student researchers. To be considered student researchers must self-identify as Black in the application. This requirement reflects the Federal Government’s 2022 commitment to provide additional funding to support Black student and postdoctoral researchers.

For SSHRC and CIHR, UBC has a limited number of USRAs available across the University (5 for CIHR, 4 for SSHRC). Thus, student researcher applicants are competing in a University-wide pool for these limited USRAs.

NSERC

There are no limits on the number of Indigenous or Black student NSERC USRA applicants submitted from the Faculty. NSERC encourages qualified Black and Indigenous students to apply for this award and specific award pathways have been established for Black and Indigenous students.  Please visit UBC’s USRA site for more information on pathways for Black and Indigenous student researchers.

There is only one NSERC USRA award available in the Faculty for students who do not identify as Black or Indigenous. This single award allocation is exchanged back and forth between FoE and Faculty of Arts at UBC-O every year (2024 is Education’s year to hold the award).

Process 

Undergraduate students typically contact a faculty member with whom they’d like to work to express their interest in having a USRA work experience. The faculty member can then decide if this is something that they wish to do, and, if they wish to move ahead, they can work with the student to set the objectives and methods of the project. Faculty may already have an undergraduate student candidate in mind. A 1-page Letter of Intent (LOI) is then submitted to ORE by the faculty member that includes a confirmation that they are interested is supervising a USRA student and an outline of the project. The LOI will be checked by ORE for agency subject matter eligibility. With ORE’s go-ahead, full proposals are then developed. NSERC proposals may also be subject to internal selection through ORE (see NSERC above).

Deadlines

Deadlines to submit applications to UBC through the NSERC portal: March 22, 2024

February 9 (Friday)

The faculty member submits a 1-page NOI to Robert Olaj in the Faculty of Education’s Office of Research in Education (ORE), which includes the student’s name, home Faculty and undergraduate program, GPA, confirmation they are Canadian citizen or permanent resident, and a brief overview of the project. Faculty must describe how the proposal fits within the respective Tri-Agency’s mandate and subject matter eligibility guidelines. The NOI should note whether the student identifies as Black or Indigenous.

February 16 (Friday)

Applications will undergo initial evaluation for the eligibility of the student and subject matter within the respective Tri-Agency. Faculty members will be informed of the decision.

March 4 (Monday)

• Full applications from eligible applicants are submitted to Robert Olaj in ORE.
• Applications are reviewed by a small ad hoc committee for eligibility criteria: https://students.ubc.ca/career/ubc-experiences/nserc-undergraduate-student-research-awards
• Applications will be evaluated to create A and B lists. Evaluation criteria are: Academic excellence of the candidate (60%), Research proposal (30%), Research environment (10%)
• For NSERC USRA applicants who do not identify as Black or Indigenous, a decision will be made on which single application will be able to move forward, should there be more than one applicant to this category.
• For SSHRC or CIHR USRA applicants, all applications will be forwarded to the University assuming eligibility criteria are met (e.g., the student researcher self-identifies as Black; the research falls within the specific agency’s subject matter eligibility guidelines).

March 22 (Friday): Full applications are submitted to UBC.

Contact: If you have any questions, contact Robert Olaj in ORE.