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Early Career Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship

Early Career Undergraduate Apprenticeships

The Alaska Space Grant Program (ASGP), a participant in the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, invites applications from Faculty interested in providing a Research or Engineering Apprenticeship for an early career undergraduate student. This solicitation is intended for a faculty member to develop a defined science or engineering investigation for one to two undergraduate student participants. The students will receive a stipend directly from Alaska Space Grant Program for their efforts. The faculty proposer will select the students. Student participants should be engaging in their first substantial research and/or engineering experience.  Student researchers must be U.S. citizens.  Preference is given to projects directly related to NASA's interests.  Stipends available under this announcement are limited to students attending Alaska institutions of higher education.

Women, faculty from underrepresented groups (Alaska Natives, Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, Pacific Islanders, and persons with disabilities) and early career faculty are strongly encouraged to apply.

 

Dates | Deadlines

Application Deadlines 

All application materials, including supporting documentation, must be received at the ASGP office by the stated deadline. No late applications will be accepted. If any date falls on a weekend or holiday, the due date shall be the following business day. 

  • September 15 for Academic Year Applications 
  • March 1 for Summer Semester Applications

Award Announcement Dates

Applicants will be notified of award decisions by email. ASGP will provide the student stipend awards directly to the students. Award information will be reported to the appropriate Office of Financial Aid and may affect the student's financial aid package.

  • October 1 for Academic Year Applications
  • April 1 for Summer Applications

Eligibility and U.S. Citizenship Requirement

Faculty must recruit an undergraduate student who meets the following eligibility criteria. 

  • Enrolled at an Alaskan institution of higher education during the period of the award.
  • Good academic standing
  • U.S. Citizen

 

Review | Selection Process

The ASGP office evaluates the eligibility of all applications received. Qualified applications will be reviewed by a state-wide committee that makes recommendations for funding to the ASGP Director based on the quality of the applications as reflected in the review criteria. The final award decision will be at the discretion of the ASGP Director. Preference may be given to women and individuals from under-represented groups.

 

Review Criteria

Applications are ranked based on the following criteria:

  • Proposed project merit
  • Degree to which proposed project will provide an early career student with an authentic research and/or engineering experience
  • Strength of student recruitment plan
  • Faculty mentoring experience
  • Relevance to NASA

Requirements

Award recipients agree to:

  • Faculty will be required to support their student(s) in presenting a poster of their project at the Alaska Space Grant Symposium. The symposium is typically mid to late April.  Please contact the ASGP office for location and dates.  Travel costs for student presenters, if necessary, will be provided.  Should the student be unable to attend the Symposium, faculty should support their student(s) in arranging to present their project in an alternative public forum at some point during their apprenticeship period.
  • Faculty must ensure that their student(s) submit their poster to the ASGP office. Both the written report and/or poster will be posted on the Alaska Space Grant Program website. The report/poster should include results of the project and a list of any other presentations and papers published. Report/poster must be submitted by May 1 for academic year awards and September 1 for summer awards in PDF format.
  • Grant permission to release and/or publish requested recipient information to NASA or other appropriate parties.
  • Acknowledge Alaska Space Grant Program support in any presentations or publications that the student develops as a result of his/her Space Grant-supported research project. This acknowledgement should state that: "This material is based in part upon work supported by NASA through the Alaska Space Grant Program (80NSSC20M0070).”

In addition, students must agree to:

  • Notify ASGP of any changes in mailing address, e-mail address, or telephone number for purposes of progress reports.
  • Additional survey/questionnaire documents will be sent periodically to student awardees via email to conduct longitudinal tracking of students supported by ASGP funding. The longitudinal tracking survey/questionnaire in an on-line document and the email message sent to the student will give instruction on how to access it. This will also assist in improving the quality of the Consortium’s student award program.

Funding

Awards are subject to availability of NASA funding.

Funds will be paid directly to the student via their student account or as a direct pay for students outside the University of Alaska system.

Full-time or part-time students are eligible participants for this award stipend. Students will be awarded up to $3,000 (200 hours of expected participation) which will be provided in two portions – one-half at the start of the award period, and the second-half following mentor confirmation of satisfactory student progress at approximately half-way through the award period. 

Stipend amounts will be determined by the estimated hours of participation as determined by the faculty mentor in the submitted proposal. Award amounts will be based on estimated duration of the project.  Awards will be provided $15 per hour of estimated participation.  For instance, if a student is doing a research experience that is estimated at 40 hours of participation, the student will be awarded a $600 stipend. By allowing the rigor and duration of the project to be determined by the faculty mentor, ASGP hopes to encompass a diversity of projects that may benefit from supporting undergraduate early career students with authentic research opportunities.  The objective of this solicitation is to provide early career students with potentially their first research experience and hopefully inspire them to pursue a STEM major and/or ultimately feel confident to propose to an Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship or attend a NASA or Alaska Industry internship supported by the Alaska Space Grant Program. As such, students need to be enrolled in a STEM class during the award period.

Completed applications must be submitted in ONE PDF document to the Alaska Space Grant Program office (uaf-spacegrant@alaska.edu) by the application deadline.  You should receive an e-mail confirming receipt of your application within two business days, if you do not receive this confirmation please contact our office.

For More Information Please email us at uaf-spacegrant@alaska.edu or call us at 907-474-6833.