Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowships and Holstrom Environmental Research Fellowships

The Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowships and Holstrom Environmental Research Fellowships support undergraduate research done in collaboration with UW-Madison faculty or research/instructional academic staff.


Eligibility Criteria
Applicants must have at least a junior standing at time of application and be planning to graduate after May of the application year. Apply spring semester to fund work on the project during the summer or following academic year. Must be in good academic and disciplinary standing to apply.


How to Apply
Applicants must submit a 5-page project proposal, letter of recommendation and transcript.


Selection Criteria
Selection criteria: Evidence of the student’s intellectual contribution to the research (may include, but is not limited to, student’s contribution of preliminary data to the proposed project); significance of the research (originality, impact on the field); degree of meaningful collaboration with a faculty research mentor; extent to which research objective is achievable within the proposed timeline (may also include evaluation of the student’s academic record).

Award Information
The student researcher receives a stipend, and faculty/staff research advisor receives a stipend for costs associated with the research (e.g., supplies, faculty or student travel related to the project). If projects have more than one student or one faculty member together, the stipend levels will vary. Approximately 100 Hilldale Fellowships are awarded each year.


Conditions of Award
Fellows are required to: Have the research protocol(s) approved by the appropriate Human Subjects and/or Animal Care and Use Committee(s) if using human or animal subjects in consultation with the project advisor (does not have to be approved at time of application but must be approved before start of research); comply with UW-Madison’s international travel policy if you plan to conduct research abroad; present research findings at the Undergraduate Symposium (in April of the following year), or at another presentation venue; write a thank you note to the donors; submit a final or progress report of approximately 500 to 1,000 words; not accept other undergraduate research funding for the same research project during the term of the Hilldale fellowship.

Visit program site

Award
$3,000
Organizations
Undergraduate Academic Awards
Deadline
02/21/2024
Supplemental Questions
  1. Eligibility Questions:

    Please note: Students may not apply for a Hilldale/Hostrom Fellowship and a Sophomore Research Fellowship in the same year. Previous recipients of a Hilldale Fellowship or a Holstrom Fellowship may not apply for a second award of the same type.

    • a. Please indicate which award you are applying for. (If you apply for but do not receive a Holstrom Fellowship, you will automatically be considered for a Hilldale Fellowship.)
    • b. Have you applied for a Sophomore Research Fellowship this year?
    • c. Have you ever received a Hilldale Undergradauate/Faculty Research Fellowship?
    • d. Have you ever received a Holstrom Environmental Scholarship?
    • e. The McPherson Eye Research Institute will sponsor four additional Hilldale Fellowships for vision based research (including bioengineering, imaging, data visualization, cognitive psychology, ophthalmology and general biology of the eye). Does this describe your project?
    • f. The UW-Arboretum will sponsor one additional Hilldale Fellowship for research that is relevant to the Arboretum mission (including ecology, biology, botany, forestry, wildlife, soil science, horticulture, environmental engineering, invasive species, and storm water), with a significant portion of the work being conducted on Arboretum property. Does this describe your project?
  2. Academic field of proposed research:
  3. Title of proposed research project:
  4. Support requested to begin:
  5. Are you applying for, or have you received, other undergraduate scholarships/fellowships to complete the research proposed in this application?(If you are awarded and accept a Hilldale or Holstrom you may not accept funding from other sources for the same research project during the same time period. For example, if you plan to apply for summer funding from another source you may want to apply for the Hilldale or Holstrom for the academic year.)
  6. If yes, please describe. (For example, 'Applying for summer research funding through the Chemistry Department.')
  7. Expected date of graduation (Month/Year):
  8. Project Advisor (Answer all 5 questions below.) Please Note: Graduate students are ineligible to serve as the project advisor.
    • a. Project advisor's name:
    • b. Project advisor's UW-Madison email address:
    • c. Project advisor's title (Professor, Research Scientist, etc...). Please Note: Graduate students are ineligible to serve as the project advisor.
    • d. Project advisor's department (Sociology, Botany, etc...):
    • e. REQUEST REFERENCE: To request the letter of reference from your project advisor click on "Add a New Reference" below, enter their name and UW-Madison email address and save. The WiSH system will send an email to your project advisor with a link to upload their letter. You are responsible for ensuring your project advisor completes this reference request.
  9. Project Proposal
    Your proposal should be no more than five double-spaced pages (including abstract and references), and should follow disciplinary guidelines. Please use at least 1 inch margins and a font size no smaller than 11pt. If you are uncertain about how to format your proposal, talk to your project advisor.

    All proposals should contain the following:
    * An abstract of the proposed research (200 words or less, may be single-spaced)
    * Introduction and literature review, detailing the originality and significance of the proposed project
    * Methods section, describing plans for data collection and analysis
    * Timeline for completion of project
    * Conclusion/future directions
    * References (may be single-spaced)

    Please upload your project proposal in pdf format, and name the file like this: Last name_First name (EX: Badger_Bucky).
  10. Talk with your project advisor about what you will do if pandemic conditions necessitate restrictions on in-person research activities during summer 2024 and/or the 2024-2025 academic year. Briefly describe how you might modify your proposed research so you can work remotely if needed. (Enter N/A if your proposal would require no modifications.)
  11. I attest that I wrote this proposal with no more than minimal edits from my research mentors or others.
  12. Please upload your most up-to-date unofficial transcript. For instructions on how to do this, go to Request unofficial transcript
  13. Conditions of Hilldale or Holstrom Award
    Students must:
    1) Apply for and receive approval from the Human Subjects and/or Animal Care and Use Committee(s) if research uses human or animal subjects.
    2) Comply with UW-Madison's international travel policy if you plan to conduct research abroad.
    3) Present your research findings at the Undergraduate Symposium in April of 2025, or at another presentation venue.
    4) Write a thank you note to the donors.
    5) Submit a research report of approximately 500 to 1,000 words upon completion of research.

    I have read and accept these conditions (Y/N).
  14. I understand that to apply for and receive the Hilldale Fellowship or Holstrom Fellowship I must be a student in good academic and disciplinary standing. I further understand that to be eligible for these awards, I must disclose to the Undergraduate Academic Awards Office past university disciplinary action for academic or non-academic misconduct. Records may be requested to verify the circumstances of any disciplinary infraction.
  15. If awarded a fellowship, I give consent to the Office of Undergraduate Academic Awards to have a copy of my research proposal (with name removed) retained and made available to future applicants for them to review (but not copy or reproduce) as they prepare their own applications.
  16. Should you receive the fellowship, how would you like your full name listed in the official award letter, certificate, and award program? (EX: you go by Bucky Badger but you want Buckingham Badger listed.)
  17. Show 11 more