Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship program seeking summer session proposals

Purdue West Lafayette faculty are now welcome to submit project proposals for the summer 2024 term with the Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship program. DUIRI supports faculty-led teams of undergraduates to investigate problems in the strategic areas of global security, global health and global sustainability.

Project proposals should focus on these thematic areas. Each project should involve two or more distinct academic disciplines (represented by faculty from different departments and, ideally, colleges) and two undergraduate students. Student teams will be responsible for pursuing their research projects, culminating with a poster presentation and 1-page abstract/summary of their results. Assuming all requirements are met, each participating student will earn a $5,000 summer scholarship from the DUIRI program. This will consist of $1,666 in cost sharing from the faculty project supervisor(s), as well as $3,334 in support from DUIRI.

Interested faculty can submit abstracts for individual projects at the DUIRI website, using their Purdue career account credentials to log on. The faculty deadline for proposal submissions is Feb. 9. 

Faculty will be notified of their project selection by Feb. 16. Undergraduate students may then apply for one eligible project from Feb. 19 through March 4. Faculty project supervisors will review all eligible student applications before making final selections. The deadline for selecting students is March 22.

This summer, DUIRI will partner with the Institute for a Sustainable Future. ISF will sponsor select projects in global sustainability that align with its current research areas. Projects suitable for partnering with ISF should explicitly state “ISF” in the title. Faculty actively engaged with a partnering institute will receive priority consideration in sponsored research areas.

More information is available on the DUIRI website. Faculty should direct any questions about the program to Peter Bermel at pbermel@purdue.edu. Students with questions should contact Kate Mitsch at kmmitsch@purdue.edu.