URS cannot provide assistantship grants to hire hourly workers working outside of North Carolina, because our office is not set up to be in compliance with other states’ non-exempt payroll and tax laws.
URS Assistantships provide wages to a student who are being mentored by a faculty on a research project. Funding is available for all disciplines.
Applications are open to Duke undergraduates for summer, fall and spring funding. The student must be a currently enrolled Duke student to be eligible for the URS Assistantship. Applications for Spring 2024 are now closed.
URS Assistantships can only be awarded if the research project is completely separate from a course or course credit.
Students are encouraged to explore using work-study to pay their wages to conduct research. URS Assistantships can be used to cover the wages for the employer that is not covered by the work-study program. For more information, please see the resources here.
Fall and Spring Academic Semesters:
The amount of an assistantship will vary according to the student's individual situation. For students using work-study for wages, the URS Assistantship will cover the gap in funding that is not covered for the employer by the work study program, typically $275-550/semester in the fall and spring.
Summer Terms I and II:
For students who are enrolled in courses during a particular summer session, they may be eligible for work-study. In these cases, the URS Assistantship will cover the gap in funding that is not covered for the employer by the work study program (25-50% of the wages up to the work-study award amount). This amount will vary for the summer term for each student. Students should work with financial aid to understand their summer work-study awards.
For students who are not enrolled in courses during a particular summer session, they are eligible to apply for a URS Assistantship of $400 for the summer. This is meant to help offset the cost of wages for the mentor or whichever funding source is being used to pay the student. For a full fellowship for the summer, students should apply to the Deans’ Summer Research Fellowship.
Note for All URS Assistantships:
URS Assistantships are wages for employment: they are not academic fellowships. The department is responsible for hiring the student and setting up payroll.
Updated 8/28/23
Spring 2024 Applications are now closed.
Please Note:
- URS cannot provide assistantship grants to hire hourly workers working outside of North Carolina, because our office is not set up to be in compliance with other states’ non-exempt payroll and tax laws.
- This application requires that students have completed CITI Training. URS requires URS grant applicants to complete the “Research Misconduct (RCR-Basic) (ID 16604)” course offered through Duke CITI Training in order to be eligible to receive the grant. Find directions for the training and for downloading the certificate here.
- Project descriptions should be in the student's own words.
- Project must be completely separate from a course or course credit.
Application Status: CLOSED