top of page
official-icon-IRIE.png

A faculty-mentored research internship experience that helps students develop broad research and professional capacities.

​

Call for Campus Graduate Student &

Faculty Partner Proposals​

ABOUT IRIE

The OUR Immersive Research Internship Experience (IRIE) is a summer undergraduate research internship program available to all UMD undergraduate students.  The program is operated in collaboration with our well-established undergraduate research program, the First-Year Innovation & Research Experience (FIRE). 

 

The IRIE program has been in operation for four years (Summers 2022 through 2025), typically enrolls nearly 150 undergraduate students, and often has a waitlist of more than 500 students.

 

Students participating in IRIE:

  • Enroll in a summer course - OURS199 - Research Internship (3 credit course).

  • Engage in eight weeks of campus-based research.

  • Engage in fifteen hours of campus-based research each week.

  • Present their final research results at the Summer Undergraduate Research Conference.​

​​

Students participating in IRIE are placed with a specific IRIE Research Group.  Historically, most IRIE Research Groups are based on existing FIRE streams.

​

This call for proposals seeks to expand IRIE's capacity by collaborating with graduate students and faculty partners to create and host new IRIE Research Groups across campus.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Submission Launch: February 2025

Submissions Close: February 28, 2025
​​

Our annual IRIE Call for Proposals supports graduate students and faculty partners who wish to host and operate a newly created IRIE Research Group.

​​​

A proposed IRIE Research Group requires the following three components:

  • An IRIE Research Mentor (the graduate student).

  • An IRIE Research Advisor (the faculty member).

  • An IRIE Research Environment that hosts participating students.
     

IRIE Research Mentors​

Description:

The IRIE Research Mentor role is for a graduate student who seeks to grow as a research leader, educator, mentor, and higher-education professional.​​  IRIE Research Mentors will receive a stipend of $6,000 for the eight-week appointment.​

​

Requirements:

  • IRIE Research Mentors dedicate 20 hours per week to mentorship of IRIE students.

    • Work directly with IRIE students in a campus-based research environment on all aspects of research methods training, processes, and targeted outcomes.

    • The required in-person contact time (20 hours per week) with IRIE students is essential to provide the mentorship experience and research outcomes promised to IRIE students, and cannot be reduced or supplemented with virtual engagement.
       

  • IRIE Research Mentors are the instructors of record for the OURS199 course.  

    • Work collaboratively with IRIE program leadership to prepare an OURS199 syllabus derived from a standardized template and augmented to support the research training and goals of the IRIE Research Group.

    • Provide IRIE students with timely written feedback and grades on all OURS199 course formative and summative assessments.

    • Work collaboratively with IRIE program leadership to fulfill specific standardized portions of the OURS199 course experience throughout the 8-week experience.

    • Submit final grades by the required dates.

​​​

Benefits:

​

​

IRIE Research Advisor

Coming soon!

​

IRIE Research Environment

Coming soon!

COLLABORATING WITH CAMPUS PARTNERS TO FORM
NEW IRIE RESEARCH GROUPS

We work with campus partners to define and launch new IRIE Research Groups each year in a manner that allows academic units, research centers, and campus faculty the opportunity to work with motivated IRIE students. 

​

There are several benefits to starting an IRIE Research Group:

  • Leveraging the support of students to drive your summer research agenda.

  • Establishing relationships with UMD undergraduates interested in continuing research.

  • Empowering the IRIE Research Mentor to develop mentoring skills through the mentorship of undergraduate researchers.

​

OUR drives this collaboration by providing required resources and processes and campus partners supplying other assets.

PROVIDED BY OUR

Student Recruitment

  • OUR oversees all advertising and recruiting processes.​

  • OUR manages all student applications and waitlists.

​​

Course Scheduling & Resources

  • OUR manages the scheduling of OURS199 course sections.

  • OUR manages instructor assignments for sections of OURS199.​

  • OUR provides a template OURS199 syllabus to all IRIE Research Mentors and offers academic support for curriculum and pedagogy.

​

Student Enrollment 

  • OUR manages communications with students and ensures enrollment in the correct section of OURS199.

  • OUR manages course-based waitlists and student communication issues.​

​

IRIE Research Mentor Appointments

  • OUR works with campus partners to understand how to manage appointments for designated IRIE Research Mentors.​

  • Individuals in 12-month appointments can take on this role as a part of their defined workload.  Overloads are not offered due to the time required by the role (25 hours weekly).

  • Individuals on 9-month appointments will receive an instructional contract connected to OURS199 and all aspects of the IRIE Research Mentor role.  The compensation provided is $6,500.

​

Seminar Series

  • OUR provides all infrastructure and content for the IRIE professional development seminar series.

​

Summer Conference

PROVIDED BY PARTNERS

IRIE Research Environment

  • Campus partners must have a campus location where an IRIE Research Group can safely and effectively engage in research. 

  • While each IRIE Research Group has approximately 10 students, the research environment does not need to have the ability to host all students at once as long as scheduling will allow students to complete 15 hours of on-site work per week.

  • The research environment must have the equipment and consumables to engage in the targeted research.  OUR is not able to provide funding for research costs.

​

IRIE Research Mentor

The campus partner must have an individual who can serve as the IRIE Research Mentor.

​

This individual will need to:

  • Work collaboratively to finalize a syllabus for OURS199 (based on the OUR template) that outlines research objectives, expectations, and assessment deadlines.

  • Develop research-centered learning outcomes and ensure student engagement in the research aligns with those outcomes. 

  • Communicate announcements, assignments, and grades on ELMS.​

  • Facilitate the active mentorship and research activities of approximately 10 undergraduate students assigned to the IRIE Research Group. 

  • Engage students in active mentorship and research in the designated research environment for 25 hours per week in a manner that enables all IRIE students to conduct on-site research for 15 hours per week (each student). 

  • Prepare students for presentations at the Summer Undergraduate Research Conference (SURC).

PROPOSING A NEW IRIE RESEARCH GROUP

Interested in hosting an IRIE Research Group?

​​

Please see the guidance for submitting a proposal below.  Our capacity is limited for Summer 2025, and we do not expect to be able to launch all new proposals during this first year of collaborative operation with the campus research community.

​

Should you have any questions or issues submitting your IRIE Research Group Proposal, please contact us at our-office@umd.edu.

​

Components of the Proposal

​

  • Primary Mentor Name, Contact Information, and Affiliation 

  • Proposed Instructor of Record Name, Contact Information, and Affiliation

  • Project Description

    • Brief Research Project Description (1250 characters or less)

      • Please provide an overview of the research problem(s) or question(s) you aim to address with your IRIE Students,  any methods and approach you aim to use to address these questions and provide the expected outcomes or impact associated with the proposed research. 

    • Learning Objectives (500 characters or less)​

      • Please provide 2-3 learning objectives should IRIE students participate in your proposed research group. For example, "By the end of IRIE, students in my research group will be able to. . .". 

    • Research Location Information (500 characters or less)​

      • Please describe the physical location (building, research lab, etc) in which you will host your IRIE Research group. Please address if the proposed research location and the equipment therein are able to facilitate the project as described.

bottom of page