Botanical Society Undergraduate Student Research Awards

Purpose and Eligibility
This award is designed to promote undergraduate student research in the botanical sciences in conjunction with our efforts to highlight the plant sciences as a study and/or career option. We see this as a simple and effective way of promoting your research, your lab, your university and your passion for the botanical sciences. It is meant to be a fun and informative activity.

To be eligible, one must be a student member of the Botanical Society of America (BSA), a registered undergraduate student, have a faculty research advisor who is also a member of the BSA, and not have won the award previously. Please note: Award Recipients will be eligible to participate in the BSA Graduate Student Research Award program as a Graduate Student.

Award Level and Announcement
It is anticipated that 10 awards will be given this year. The award will provide $200 to support each recipient’s research proposal. Up to three "proposals of excelence" may be eligible to receive $500. The award winners will be posted online, noted in the Plant Science Bulletin and announced at the BSA banquet held in conjunction with the Botany 2013 meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Please note: All winning proposals will be peer-reviewed for accuracy and placed online as part of the BSA "BOTANY - science from students' perspectives" portfolio. Judges will make decisions on proposals as they come in. Winning proposals will go online immediately following peer review.

Proposal Guidelines
The application shall consist of:

Title page - must include: title of proposal, name of student, student’s institutional and departmental affiliation, year of student’s study, and student’s sectional affiliation within BSA.
A narrative - must be between 1,200 - 2,000 words, which includes a description of the research, including appropriate conceptual background, purpose or objective, brief outline of methodology, the potential contribution or significance to an area of the botanical sciences, and a bibliography. The narrative should be written in Microsoft Word in Times New Roman 11 point font.
Images/Videos - As successful applications become part of the "BOTANY - science from students' perspectives" portfolio, we strongly encourage you to support your written narrative with images. Images are to be emailed directly to the BSA office and must be of high quality in a size range from 1-5 MB. We will also support links to videos placed on YouTube. In fact, we encourage you to use a multi-media approach to show the wonders of science.
Budget - (one page maximum) detailing how the funds would be used.
A letter of support - (one page maximum) from the student’s research advisor.

Submissions
Proposals and supporting letters must be received between January 1 and March 15, 2013.
Submit required materials by email as a PDF file(s) to ugsra@botany.org.

The SUBJECT line must read: 2013_UGSRA_YourLastName_YourFirstInitial (I.e. 2013_UGSRA_Jones_J)
Please ensure your advisors and/or those writing support letters to use your subject format and the ugsra@botany.org email address.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions - bsa-manager@botany.org.

Student members are encouraged to contribute to the Undergraduate Student Research Award program through the BSA web site. Please contact the Executive Director for further details (WDahl@Botany.org).