BPF Undergraduate Research Grant Award
The BPF Undergraduate Research Grant Award is a summer grant award for Statistics or Data Science majors and/or minors who are in their first-year, sophomore, or junior year. The award provides up to a $4,000 stipend to cover eight weeks of full-time research on an applied statistics and/or data science research project conducted during the summer. The projects are done under the supervision of a faculty member or members, at least one of whom must be faculty in the department, who agree to mentor the student’s work. Interdisciplinary projects that integrate the knowledge, methods, and perspectives of statistics and/or data science and another academic discipline are encouraged.
To be eligible for a BPF Undergraduate Research Grant Award, students must meet the following conditions:
- They are an undergraduate student with a declared major or minor in the Department of Statistics and Data Science.
- They are not graduating any earlier than the end of the upcoming Fall term.
- They must be in good academic standing.
- They may not be enrolled in summer classes at Northwestern or elsewhere during the eight-week research period.
- They must not accept any other research grant that covers the eight-week research period.
In accepting a BPF Undergraduate Research Grant Award the student agrees to abide by the eligibility requirements for the duration of the research grant period; violation of these requirements may result in retraction of the award.
Application instructions which include proposal guidelines and instructions for submission as well as the deadline for submission are posted to the Canvas page for department majors and minors when the application period opens in winter quarter.
The student must have faculty mentors who have agreed to supervise their project before applying for a BPF Undergraduate Research Grant Award.
Proposals are reviewed by a faculty committee and students can expect a decision on their proposal typically within two weeks after the application deadline. Proposals must be submitted by the published deadline to be considered.
Although it’s not required, students are strongly encouraged to apply for an Undergraduate Research Grant (URG) Summer Grant through the Provost's Office first before applying for an undergraduate research award from the department. Applicants are required to disclose whether this project has been submitted to other programs for consideration of funding and current status.
Students with questions about the BPF Undergraduate Research Grant Award should contact stats@northwestern.edu
Summer 2025 BPF Undergraduate Research Grant Award Recipients
Isabella Toth
Project: “Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy: Sociodemographic, Geographic, and Health Determinants of Immunization Against Respiratory Illnesses in U.S. Adults”
Sarah Villamil
Project: “How Do Ticket Prices Impact the Demographic of Theatre Audiences?”