Applying

Eligibility and Program requirements:

All currently enrolled UNC-Chapel Hill undergraduate students in good academic standing who have completed at least two semesters of academic work before the SMART summer are eligible to apply. Priority will be given to Transfer students who have completed their Junior year. Selected students will be matched to a laboratory based on their interests. Relevant Labs will come from the following fields: Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Science, Geology, Marine Sciences, Math, Operations Research, Physics, Neuroscience, or Statistics.

Anticipated  amount of awards:

We expect to make awards of $3,000 to each SMART student. Students will be responsible for their own housing. The award will be given upon completion of the program after the students  have submitted the required final materials and the materials are approved by the Office for Undergraduate Students (OUR).

Application materials:

Interested students should complete the SMART Application online by February 16, 2024 at 10 a.m.

For any questions about the program or the application , pleas contact Dr. Gidi Shemer at bishemer@email.unc.edu . Finalists will be invited to an interview.

Acceptance Checklist:

Before entering the program, you will need to complete the items listed below by May 13

  1. Award Acceptance and Personal Data Sheet
  2. Waiver of liability form 
  3. Photographs and Photo Releases. A signed photo and video release is required for every identifiable person in photographs that you provide in your final materials to OUR. As we require a photograph of you in your final project, you should submit your photo release now and make extra copies as necessary for your research
  4. Complete an online ethics training module-  https://www.citiprogram.org

You need to register and select the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) course. You need to select the most appropriate: 

( )Biomedical Research

( )Social and Behavioral Research

( )Physical Science Research

( )Arts and Humanities Research

( )Engineering Research

 For most of you, who are not working directly in medical applications, physical science research will be the most appropriate. You will need to  work through those modules and get a combined score of 80 to pass.

You should then either print out or save as .pdf proof that you have completed the work  and to mail the confirmation as well as the documents above to Denise Carter at moogoo@email.unc.eduPlease Cc Dr. Shemer on that email at bishemer@email.unc.edu

Reporting requirements:

At the end of the summer, each student will present his or her work at the closing symposium for program participants. In addition, each student must prepare an abbreviated PowerPoint presentation for display on the OUR website. To view previous PowerPoint displays, please visit the past student projects database and look for projects categorized as “SMART” or “DEBS.”

Finally, this is the checklist for materials you need to deliver by the end of the program: post-SMART checklist

SMART students will be invited to participate in an undergraduate research symposium, the Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research to discuss their results. Students should also acknowledge support from the Office for Undergraduate Research in any publications resulting from the project.