Active Funding

An active Student Research Program at Norwich provides considerable support for student research fellowships, both from internal sources such as the Chase Endowment for Academic Excellence and the Weintz Research Fellowship Fund, but also from externally acquired grants. At present there are two active external funding opportunities, one is the Mentored Undergraduate Research program through the National Atmospheric and Space Agency (NASA) and the other is also for mentored research supported by the Vermont Genetics Network that is funded through the National Institute of Health. Two Norwich students received fellowships last summer from each these two sources, complementing the work being done throughout the summer by 13 research fellows and their faculty mentors who were supported by Norwich’s endowed funds.


NASA Mentored Research

NASA Fellowships—Mentored Undergraduate Research at NU

Computer Assisted Drawing of NU’s robotic submarine.

Courtesy of the David Crawford School of EngineeringA CAD drawing displaying the top, rear section of the autonomous underwater vehicle that Norwich students will take to San Diego next summer.See related story »

Norwich received $45,000 from the National Space Grant Program to fund summer research over the next four summers as part of Norwich’s Summer Research Program. The title of this NASA grant is Mentored Undergraduate Research at Norwich University. Prof. Joe Byrne is the Principle Investigator, and the Student Research Committee is responsible for implementing and operating the program. You can visit the Vermont Space Grant Consortium & NASA site for background information and related links. At that site, they describe two distinct purposes of the research they support.

  • To provide funding to encourage faculty research and mentored undergraduate summer research in NASA-related disciplines at Vermont’s primarily undergraduate academic institutions.
  • To fund competitive proposals for mentored undergraduate research projects in NASA-related areas.

There are some constraints on the research proposals.

  • Both the student and faculty will need to be US citizens to receive this funding.
  • As the purpose of this funding is workforce development and promoting ties to NASA, the research topic need to be something of potential interest to NASA, and the project budget must include travel funds for the student and faculty to visit a NASA facility and make contact with NASA researchers.
  • A final report will need to be submitted to the Director of Student Research within 30 days of the end of a funded project.

On the other hand, there is considerable flexibility in the scope of proposed projects. The Committee will consider proposals anywhere between the two limits described below.

  • The upper limit is for joint faculty/student proposals for a Faculty NASA Fellow and a Student NASA Fellow who apply with separate coordinated proposals to work full time for 10 weeks during the summer on tightly related research projects. Stipends would be $8,000 for faculty and $4,000 for students. Because Norwich is required to provide matching funds for this program, faculty are encouraged to prepare and submit a Charles A. Dana Fellowship proposal (see AM#14) to the Faculty Development Committee by Feb. 1, 2008. The faculty stipend would be funded by a combination of the Dana award and funds from the NASA grant; the student stipend, travel funds to visit a NASA facility, and funds for equipment, expenses, etc., would come from the NASA grant.
  • The lower limit is a proposal for a Student NASA Fellow with a faculty mentor, to carry out a summer research project. Stipends would be $4,000 for the student and $1,000 for the mentor for a 10-week project, and scaled back for anything briefer.
  • Proposals with intermediate scopes are encouraged, although projects of greater magnitude will be given preference. Student Research Program Appendix D is the main format for proposals (or AM#14 Appendix D for faculty if previously completed).

Vermont Genetics Network

Vermont Genetics Network

Two Norwich students received VGN Summer Research Fellowships for the summer of 2007. Charmaine Morris worked with Prof. Kevin Fleming of the Psychology Department on a project titled “Perceiving the Face of Evil: Event-Related Potentials in the Margaret Thatcher Illusion,” while Timothy Blood worked with Prof. William Barnard of the Biology Department on a project titled “Analysis of Vermont Freshwater Sponges Based Upon Gene Sequences of CO1 mtDNA and ITS2 rDNA.” For additional information about the Vermont Genetics Network program at Norwich contact Prof. Ed Carney (carneye@norwich.edu) or visit the VGN Web site to learn how to apply.