Grants-in-Aid

What is this? A grant for students conducting research who need materials or have incurred other project expenses
Who is eligible?
  • Students with Sophomore, Junior, and Senior standing
  • Students enrolled in at least one 4998/4999 credit hour during the current academic year
  • Students who have already started their projects and need specific materials or purchases
  • Students who have NOT already received a grant-in-aid for the current academic year
What is the funding? Up to $500
When is the deadline? Rolling (apply anytime between June-April)
How do I apply? Please note, we are putting a pause on honoring funding requests as our allocated budget has been met. However if we identify additional funds, we will honor those requests the best that we can. Click here to apply for the 2023-2024 grant-in-aid.   This document will provide the information to be included on the form as well as other information that will be useful to know about Grant-in-Aids.

The Undergraduate Research program offers grants-in-aid to support undergraduate research projects. Awards generally are made in amounts up to $500. Note that students are only eligible to apply for one grant-in-aid per academic year and they are accepted on a rolling basis.

Research grants may support undergraduate research in any field. They are intended to enable students, individually or in groups, to perform research they otherwise would not have means to do. Grants may be used to purchase laboratory supplies, media supplies, microfilm, software or field materials; fund copying or printing expenses; support telephone, fax or other communication costs; fund travel to a regional library, museum or off-campus field site; or make possible other legitimate research expenses.

The funds must be expended directly in support of the proposed investigation. The funds should not be used for materials more rightly funded by another source, such as departmental equipment, salary, standard laboratory supplies, or travel to meetings.  As a general rule, funding for class-based projects should be made to the appropriate department chair and/or dean rather than to the undergraduate research program.

All equipment and software purchased with research grant funds becomes property of Elon University.  We do not pay students or Elon faculty for their labor (e.g., transcription, inter-rater reliability) but we do reimburse for gift cards for participants and professional transcription.

Barring extenuating circumstances, students who receive research funding from the program are expected to submit an application to present at the Spring Undergraduate Research Forum (SURF) in the academic year the award is given or the following academic year.

A research grant application must consist of the following typed documents:

  • general information form
  • a brief project description
  • a proposed, itemized budget

Note: To receive any support from the Undergraduate Research Program, applicable approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) must be in place before any data collection from human subjects takes place. In alignment with Federal guidelines, beginning June 1st, 2024, all investigators within our institution—comprising faculty, staff, undergraduate and graduate students, principals, and co-investigators—must have completed CITI training. For what you must complete for CITI training, please click here.

Students may not serve as a PI for an IRB study. They should work with a faculty mentor who will serve as PI and be responsible for the oversight of the study. If you have any concerns or questions or want to discuss this policy further, please email the IRB Chair, Marna Winter at mwinter2@elon.edu.

Important Links

Reimbursement Guidelines

“The person I am today is not the same one that started this project three years ago. Working alongside my mentor has taught me to never stop pursuing my passions and to always ask why. I could not be more grateful for this experience.” 
Nathan Hunnicutt ’19, Middle Grades Education major