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About the URF
The Undergraduate Research Fellowship (URF) is an opportunity for students who wish to conduct guided research in their field of study, gaining invaluable experience, unique credentials, and a faculty champion. Students can apply this spring semester to earn a 2025-2026 URF Placement.
The URF rewards students who enter—and show promise of significantly contributing to—faculty-led research environments. Such research will occur in a host of settings—whether in labs, or under individual faculty mentorship. The URF is a campus-wide opportunity open to undergraduate students of all majors.
Students, in joint petition with their professorial research mentors, will undertake competitive application for a URF. If accepted, Undergraduate Research Fellows will spend the academic year participating in research under the guidance of their identified faculty mentor. URF participants will receive a $500 award after presenting their research at the Scholars Day event in the Spring semester of the participating academic year.
Students may reapply for an Undergraduate Research Fellowship on a yearly basis and can earn up to four such awards during their undergraduate career.
Application Processing
While the URF is a campus-wide opportunity, the processing of submissions occurs within the Honors College (students do not need to be Honors College members to apply). Because different disciplines define research and creative expression in varied ways, criteria for admission into research endeavors will remain under the auspices of our several colleges and individual departments.
Students and their research mentors will be notified of the URF application outcome in the summer before the 2025-2026 academic year.
Course Credit (Optional)
The URF program does not require participants to take a corresponding course. If participants wish to earn course credit for their URF participation, they must pursue that option via other departments.
Applicants who are members of the Honors College may choose to earn Honors College course credit for their URF participation by submitting a proposal to join a Honors Mentored Research course (HNRS 2996/3996) for the fall 2025 and/or the spring 2026 semesters. Applicants who indicate on the application that, they would like to be enrolled in a section of HNRS 2996/3996 Mentored Research will be contacted by the Honors College with instructions on how to submit that proposal, if they are accepted to the URF. Please note that students will be responsible for the tuition cost of the course.
For more details about earning Honors College credit for the URF, please reach out to HonorsCollege@unt.edu .
Summary of Eligibility
- Applicants must be UNT undergraduate students, who will not graduate prior to May 2026.
- Incoming first-year TAMS students who have not yet started a semester at UNT are ineligible.
- In cases where faculty mentors already have grants to cover the cost of student assistants, the student may become an Undergraduate Research Fellow, but without further remuneration.
- Students are ineligible if they have already earned three Undergraduate Research Fellowships.
Fellowship Requirements
- URF recipients must consistently participate in their research project, in accordance with the expectations set by their listed research mentor, for the entirety of the 2025-2026 academic year.
- 2025-2026 URF winners must present their research, in the form of a poster presentation, an oral presentation, or a brief performing-arts production (when applicable), on UNT Scholars Day in April 2026.
- Specific expectations of participation will be communicated by the student's research mentor. Continuation of the fellowship will depend on the mentor's assessment of the student's commitment and efficiency.
- Students will lose their URF if they switch research mentors following the application period or if they fail to communicate on a regular basis with their research mentors. Only if a research mentor leaves UNT, or if health-related matters prevent mentors from continuing to supervise their students, will students gain permission to switch mentors or projects.
Application Requirements
- In collaboration with their faculty research mentor, students must submit a 100-150 word statement describing their research project.
- Faculty mentors must participate in the upload application process, indicating their willingness to mentor the student for the 2025-2026 academic year and confirming information relative to the project's IRB, IACUC, and IBC status. This form will be automatically emailed to the listed mentor at the time of the student's application submission.