Dear Colleagues,
Faculty are eligible to apply for student wage grants through the Faculty Research Council during the academic year as well as over the summer. We are writing to provide additional guidance on student wage applications for the upcoming 2026 summer. This Research Council program allows faculty to apply for up to 150 hours of student wage support per semester and up to 200 hours of student wage support during the summer to allow students to assist with tasks related to a specific faculty research project. These student wage grants are beneficial because they provide faculty with support for important research tasks while allowing students to gain valuable research experience and technical skills.
Over the past several years, requests for student wage grants have grown dramatically and this category of award now accounts for the vast majority of funds expended by the Research Council (including discretionary grants, publication grants, major grants, etc.). In response to this increasing demand, the Research Council budget has been increased over time and has nearly doubled since the 2016-2017 academic year. In spite of this increase in funding, the Research Council budget has been overspent by ~$150,000 for the last two academic years due to the growth of student wage requests and this trend shows no signs of abating. Should this dramatic growth in student wage grant requests continue, it will hinder the Research Council’s ability to fund faculty research across the full range of the program.
Given this situation, we are providing some additional guidance on applications for summer student wage grants for 2026. We ask that summer student wage requests be submitted by Friday, May 1 to receive priority for funding. Requests submitted after that date will still be considered but funding may be fully allocated after that date. Should your project require fewer hours than the 200-hour maximum, please note that in your application. Requests for summer student wage grants will be prioritized by the Research Council based on the fit of the proposal to the program guidelines, how the proposed activities will advance faculty research, and whether the faculty member has recently received Research Council student wage awards or other forms of summer student support.
Summer student wage grants through the Research Council are related but distinct from Summer Research Fellowships awarded by the Office of Undergraduate Research. Summer Research Fellowship awards are characterized by student-centered experiences that involve sustained student-faculty collaboration at a high intellectual level, whereas Research Council Summer Student Wage grants generally focus on research tasks that need to be accomplished largely for the benefit of faculty research. As such, wage grants are not intended to replace or supplement Summer Research Fellowship awards, since they are different programs with different purposes.
Research Council guidelines and the link to submit a request for Research Council Student Wage grants are provided below.
We appreciate your help to make Research Council support for faculty research more sustainable, equitable, and to maximize its impact.
Martin Wong
Associate Provost for Administration and Planning
David Robinson
Chair, Faculty Research Council