Research and Sponsored Programs

The call for Applications to go out December 2, 2025 

The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs will host its annual Research & Creative Activity Day (RCAD) on Thursday, April 16, 2026 from 9:30AM – 3:00PM in Sykes Ballrooms. This event highlights student, faculty, and administrator research from all academic disciplines across our campus community. We hope you will be able to join us! 

Applications are due on March 16, 2026. Notification of acceptance will be sent on March 20, 2026. Students will need to identify a faculty mentor to apply. 

Research and Creative Activities Day 2026 Application

Learn more about Research and Creative Activity Day

This opportunity has passed and applications have closed. Please check back in Fall of 2026.

West Chester University invites applications for our Summer 2025 Undergraduate Research Institute (SURI), which will run for 5 weeks from May 26, 2026 – June 26, 2026. Students who are chosen to participate in the program will receive a research stipend of $2500. To be eligible, students must be a WCU undergraduate student who will remain enrolled at the university through the completion of their project and be able to allocate 37.5 hours/week to the program throughout its five-week duration.

To apply, students should confer with their faculty mentor and complete the SURI STUDENT portion of the application. Once students add their faculty mentor’s email address to the application (through InfoReady), the faculty mentor will receive a notification to complete their portion by the same due date.

Please note: Faculty should review program expectations prior to agreeing to serve as a program advisor. Students should review all expectations prior to submitting their application.

SURI Award Application

This opportunity has passed and applications have closed. Please check back in Fall of 2026.

The purpose of the SRCA is to recognize outstanding graduate and undergraduate students who have completed original research or creative projects in collaboration with a faculty mentor. Each SRCA application must be sponsored by a faculty mentor who has read and approved the application. SRCA awards are presented to students who have conducted independent work that is original and substantive, given the standards and objectives of their field. Students must be enrolled at WCU during the Spring 2026 semester to be eligible to apply. 

In order to apply, students will submit their application (available on 11/18/25). Within the application, they will add their faculty mentor information, and the faculty mentor will then receive an email to complete their portion of the application. 

SRCA Award Application

This opportunity has passed and applications have closed. Please check back in Fall of 2026.

OVERVIEW

West Chester University invites applications for our 2026 Spring West Chester Student Undergraduate Research Foundations (previously WCU Undergraduate Creative Activity and Research Experience WCU-CARES). The purpose of WCU-SURF is to:

• Increase the interest in and opportunities for undergraduate research or creative activity in all disciplines.
• Promote scholarly collaboration between students and faculty.
• Promote critical thinking and prepare students for careers and graduate studies.

All WCU students who will be enrolled as undergraduates during the Spring semester of 2026 may apply. These projects must be carried out during the Spring of 2025, under the mentorship of a WCU faculty member.

Up to 20 undergraduate applicants will be chosen to receive a $500 stipend to work on research and creative activity projects under the mentorship of a WCU faculty member for 5 hours/week for ten weeks during the Spring semester of 2026.

All enrolled students were asked to participate in an Experiential Learning Survey & were asked this question:

"Looking back, what was the highlight of your experiential learning – what impacted you the most?"

Here are some of their responses:

• “How research is a vital key in our lives and studies.”
• “Having a close relationship with faculty that allowed me to learn firsthand how to conduct research at the graduate level.”
• “I learn most when doing hands on activities, this research experience has taught me so much because I am actually collecting and analyzing data on my own. As a person who wants to go into research in the future, this is a very important skill to have. Learning this in a class is one thing, but actually doing a project of my own (with guidance from my advisor) has helped me develop these skills in a unique way.”
• “I enjoy being able to participate in research that relates to my passions.”
• “I believe engaging in research with my professor help shaped who I am. They have pushed me past my boundaries to make me stronger in my field. From that experience, I feel like I have created a direct career goal and passion.”
• “Research impacted me the most. I have mentors and peers who share the same interests and bringing academia to life was a life-changing opportunity.”

Ramifications is a student-run, peer-reviewed, open-access undergraduate journal published through the Council for Undergraduate Research at West Chester University. Ramifications publishes journal articles documenting research and creative activities completed by undergraduate students. West Chester University, part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, believes in the importance of student scholarship as an outgrowth of student learning, Ramifications is an expression of that learning.

Current Issue: Volume 3, Issue 1 (2023) Fall 2023

Goats Die, Butterflies Fly: Portrayals of Dominican Dictator Rafael Trujillo (1891–1961) in Historical Fiction and Non-Fiction

Intersections of Violence Against Immigrant Women on the United States-Mexico Border

Addressing Discrimination at West Chester University: A Battle at all Levels