Students from all academic fields and Penn State campuses are encouraged to apply for a 2022 Erickson Discovery Grant to fund student-initiated projects next summer.
Grants provide $3,500 toward living expenses and project costs. Student projects of all kinds are welcome: the arts, engineering, humanities, sciences and social sciences. Projects should primarily be the student's own work, but they can be related to the supervising faculty member's research or scholarly interests.
More details and an application can be found at urfm.psu.edu. A total of 50 grants will be awarded for summer 2022.
Each year, students embark on a wide range of projects with the help of Erickson Discovery Grants. In summer 2021, students in the College of Arts and Architecture took on topics such as place-sustaining architecture, plastic construction alternatives, and kinetic movement in ceramic art.
From the College of Health and Human Development, students studied breast cancer growth and the effect of cortisol in breast milk. Meanwhile, students from the Eberly College of Science earned grants in summer 2021 to study algorithmic randomness, bacterial strain diversity, and box turtle populations.
"Research projects look different depending on the academic field," said Alan Rieck, associate vice president and associate dean of Undergraduate Education. "Each year, we aim to award grants to students pursuing diverse interests and firmly believe that undergraduate research opportunities exist in every discipline."
Students looking for help with their Erickson Discovery Grant application materials should visit Undergraduate Research and Fellowships Mentoring
