Gunderson Family Student Research in Coastal Sustainability Summer Award

Award amount: One award of $3,000 to go towards living expenses or research related costs at the student’s discretion

• Please note: this award is processed through the Financial Aid and Scholarships office. All summer project awardees will be automatically enrolled in PBS 198, a free summer course put in place to ensure that awardees can maintain enrollment status during the summer (which, in turn, prevents awards from impacting students’ academic year financial aid packages). You can refer to this important information sheet regarding awards to learn more of how the funds are received and any potential impact to other aid (if any).

• Any undergraduate from any department who is registered and enrolled at UC Santa Cruz, in good academic standing, and will not graduate before the project is completed can apply
• You must propose a research project relating to coastal science and sustainability
• You must have a faculty mentor for your research project

This award is one of several science division summer research awards. You can view each of these research awards and their various eligibility criteria here.

If you have questions, please contact the awards manager at sciawards@ucsc.edu.

Please find complete application instructions below.

**All award recipients will be required to provide a handwritten or typed thank-you note and complete a questionnaire for donor stewardship purposes and may be asked to participate in other recognition events. If for any reason you would be unable to participate in the recognition activities outlined above, we will work with you on an alternative.

The 2024-2025 awards cycle has ended. Applications for AY 25/26 will be posted in early January, and the application deadline will be set in early spring 2026.

• Strength of research proposal (e.g., quality of writing, feasibility of project)
• Strength of faculty recommendation
• Student qualifications (e.g., prior experience, relevant coursework)

The application opens in January 2026 and can be found here.