BURST (Beginning Undergraduate Research Summer Training)
Faculty Mentor Information and Guidelines
BURST (Beginning Undergraduate Research Summer Training) is designed for students without substantial prior training in research or scholarly works, so BURST mentors are expected to commit significant time and effort into mentoring their students. Because of this expectation, BURST mentors will receive a $4000 stipend (higher than the $3000 STAR mentor stipend). Faculty mentors with multiple BURST and/or STAR scholars cannot earn more than $4000. To equitably provide research support for all student/faculty pairs with highly-ranked applications, for the 2026 cycle, each faculty mentor may receive a maximum of 2 BURST awards.
We recommend that you also view the BURST Scholars page to know what is expected of them.
BURST Faculty Mentor Expectations
- Attend a mentor orientation meeting at the end of the Spring semester to discuss the summer program and the faculty member’s role.
- Meet with the trainee in person at least once per week during the 10-week program to discuss progress on their project.
- Set attainable short- and long-term goals, review research/creative work plans, and assess needs.
- Acquaint the trainee with research methods or creative work techniques relevant to their field, including, e.g., literature review, data collection, analysis and interpretation of results, and evaluation of outcomes.
- Provide support and advice to the trainee as they progress through BURST.
- Provide opportunities for the trainee to develop independent research ideas with suitable guidance and feedback, including, e.g., designing experiments, interpreting literature or results, determining the direction of their creative work, etc.
- Stay aware of community-building and professional development activities led by the Office of Undergraduate Research throughout the summer and ensure your trainees participate in the minimum number of required workshops outlined in the BURST contract.
- Expect to plan more frequent meetings and provide more direct guidance compared to STAR students.
How to Apply
All tenure-track, tenured, and full-time contract faculty are eligible to apply and serve as BURST mentors. Students must check with their prospective faculty mentor prior to applying, and faculty mentors are strongly encouraged to confirm with their academic units before applying.
Identify an eligible and interested BURST student
Read more on student eligibility on the BURST Scholars page.
Determine a suitable research project and plan for the BURST scholar
Submit the faculty portion of the BURST application by the deadline
We are currently accepting application submissions until February 20, 2026 at 11:59 pm. Only complete applications (both student and faculty portions) submitted by the deadline will be considered for funding. No incomplete or late applications will be accepted.
The BURST Mentor Application includes:
- General information about yourself
- General information about your student
- A two-page project description and mentoring statement in Arial 11-point font with 1" margins including figures and tables (references are not included in this page limit) with the following components:
- A brief description of the project that includes the following (~ .5 page):
- Clear project goals for the BURST scholar to achieve during the summer period and an explanation of why the project is suitable for a student with no prior (substantial) training in research or creative works
- The significance of the project should be understandable for a general educated audience
- The details of the project are less important than articulating how the project is appropriate for the student’s background
- Clear project goals for the BURST scholar to achieve during the summer period and an explanation of why the project is suitable for a student with no prior (substantial) training in research or creative works
- A mentoring plan that contains the following components (~1.5 pages):
- Explain how the student will be involved in the project throughout the summer. Describe logistics regarding student training, including skills you will help the BURST scholar develop to conduct the project, how often you will meet with the student, the nature of your interactions and meetings with the student (e.g., activities or topics to be discussed), and resources and support you will provide.
- Detail how you will provide opportunities for professional development tailored to the BURST scholar's needs and potential educational/career goals.
- Describe your mentoring philosophy. Explain how your mentorship is tailored to the individual scholar and how you will support the BURST scholar and provide a supportive environment that fosters student growth and success. Show evidence that you have had intentional conversations with the student to learn about their goals, strengths, background, etc. and have thought carefully about how to mentor them to achieve success.
- Dates of any planned summer travel and a discussion of how it will fit into the mentoring plan. You are generally expected to meet with the scholar weekly in-person (at minimum). If you have extensive travel throughout the summer, you would likely not be able to meet the expectations of a BURST mentor.
- A brief description of the project that includes the following (~ .5 page):
- Disclosure of AI Use
- If applicable, attach the group project supplemental document or the interdisciplinary or joint-mentor document. See details here.
- For a joint-mentor proposal through the BURST program, the mentors co-write a single project description and mentoring statement. This statement should address how the mentoring will be divided between the faculty, and why circumstances make a joint mentoring situation desirable or necessary. Each faculty mentor should still submit their own Google form. with mentor information,
uploading the co-written document. - A project timeline is no longer required for BURST.
Remind your student to submit their BURST application by the deadline
Your student is responsible for submitting the BURST Student Application by February 20, 2026 at 11:59 pm. Within this form, students will upload their one-page statement.
Additional Guidance
Tips to consider in addition to carefully reviewing the guidelines and rubric above.
What is the question you are answering? Hypothesis you are testing? Original work you are creating? State succinctly in 1-2 sentences
What is the significance? Big picture? Explain to a general educated audience
Why is the project suitable for a student with little to no research experience? Demonstrate feasibility and importance
What are the project goals/objectives that you aim to achieve during the 10-wk period?How will the student be involved in the research? What will they do? What will you do? Will other students be involved?
What skills will the student learn? What knowledge will they gain?
What are the background and needs of the student? Strengths? Weaknesses? How does this information inform your mentoring approach?
How will you train the student in research methods to be successful in the project?What are the student’s career aspirations? How does this information inform your mentoring approach?
What professional development opportunities will you provide? How will they be tailored to the needs/goals of the student?
Are there any presentation and/or publication milestones? Which ones and why?
How are these opportunities and/or milestones suitable for a student with little to no research experience?Describe your general philosophy to mentoring. What are your goals in mentoring this student? How do you aim to achieve these goals?
What are primary aspects of the mentoring plan and how are they tailored to the particular student?
How will you cultivate independence, confidence, and sense of belonging?Does your mentoring plan align with the motivation and potential future goals of student - as described by the student?
Talk to your BURST applicant! Make sure you are on the same page and that your goals and plan align and fit with the interests of the studentEvaluation and Awards
As shown in the BURST rubric, the short-answer research interest statement that the student submits is a small component in the selection process. BURST funding is limited; even excellent applications may not be funded in a given year.
- January 5 - February 20
- February 24 - March 18
- March 20 - March 27
- April 8
Accepting application submissions
Interdisciplinary and Group Projects
If your project involves multiple faculty mentors (interdisciplinary) or requires a group of students to be funded (Group Projects), there are additional required application materials. Please see these additional guidelines.
Program Contacts
Discipline Contacts
FAQs
If the student has no prior faculty-mentored training in research or creative works as an undergraduate, or if their training has been limited to coursework, has been less than 200 hours (e.g, 5 full-time weeks, 4 units of 496), or was before you were enrolled as an undergraduate (e.g., if they participated in a high school experience or PURE), then BURST is mostly likely a better fit.
However, a student with no prior experience is also eligible to apply to STAR, and if you have reason to think that the student would be competitive for STAR and they would be well served by writing a proposal then you can recommend that they apply to STAR instead of BURST. But the same student cannot apply to both BURST and STAR in the same year.
On the other hand, a student with substantial prior experience may still be eligible for BURST if their plan to do research or creative works with you is in a completely different discipline from their previous work. If you think this may apply to your student, please reach out to OUR for guidance.
You must first identify an eligible student before you can apply for STAR or BURST. We recommend that you reach out to the majors in your department or related areas of study and join the OUR-SEARCH (Student Engagement and Access Research Community Hub) database. This is a list of faculty with open research opportunities and students who are interested in a research opportunity.
Yes. But if multiple students apply to BURST (or STAR) under your mentorship, you need to submit a separate application for each student. The mentoring plans and projects for the two students should be distinct and specifically tailored to each student. If it is a group project, the projects will not be unique, but should have unique contributions from each student.
Each student will also have to submit their own portion of the application. You should be prepared to mentor multiple students. If you have multiple students funded through BURST and/or STAR, you will be eligible to receive up to $4000.
No. Although it is great for departments and faculty to encourage students to apply for BURST, you cannot require it as part of a course or as a major requirement. Many majors have a research or capstone requirement that can be met by participating in BURST, but there must be other possibilities for students to meet the requirement since it is not financially or logistically feasible for all students to participate in the programs.