The Office of Undergraduate Research facilitates opportunities for students to engage in mentored research on campus and, soon, off campus! Mentored research opportunities allow students to apply content knowledge in innovative ways, explore a variety of academic and career pathways, build their professional network, and enhance their resume for both industry and graduate school preparation.
While any internship will provide students with hands-on training in a specific professional environment, the goal of a research-based internship is for students to engage in and apply scholarship and creative inquiry to problem solving in that professional environment. While research looks different in every discipline, some core components should include understanding the context of a problem, gathering information and data about the problem, analysis of that data to formulate a solution, and sharing your findings.
OUR Scholars are made up of students from nearly every college at UNC Charlotte. We encourage mentors to consider a variety of academic backgrounds to join their team, from students who are studying to be in your field specifically to students whose academic expertise may be unrelated to but complement the tasks you’re aiming to accomplish. It is up to mentors to determine both required skills and preferred skills for their project proposal.
Two approaches to engaging undergraduate researchers
The office will begin accepting proposals this spring from community partners to serve as mentors for undergraduate researchers for the 2025-2026 academic year. OUR Scholars will work between 5-10 hours per week and will be funded through OUR to complete research-oriented tasks in a professional industry setting.
This program is open to non-profits and NGOs.
If you already have a research based internship or other similar learning experience available at your organization and want to explore candidates from our university, you can get started now!
- Create an account
- Post your opportunity as an internship - use the title "Research Internship" so that students can see them clearly
- If you would like to consult with a member of the OUR on project scope, email undergradresearch@charlotte.edu