Strategically increasing impactful undergraduate research opportunities at Colorado State University

Since undergraduate research can have a significant impact on a student's experience, opportunities for students to get involved in undergraduate research are highly sought after. High quality undergraduate research opportunities typically involve a large investment of time and resources, and thus there are not always enough opportunities for all students who are interested. Furthermore, undergraduate research opportunities are not always accessible; identified barriers to entry include lack of pay, inflexible working hours, and lack of awareness of available opportunities. Staff from the Office of Undergraduate Research and Artistry (OURA) engaged in a mapping exercise to identify the existing ecosystem supporting undergraduate research at CSU. We supplemented this map with existing institutional data to identify gaps in opportunities or student needs. As we developed new programs and collaborations to fit into this ecosystem, we simultaneously collected data to assess impact. Major changes and adjustments grounded in this process include developing new programming that supports students at the very beginning of their research journey and provides increased recognition at the end, increasing peer support regarding research at CSU, and collaborating with administrators to collect institution-wide data on participation in undergraduate research. In this presentation, we will share our process and walk the audience through the data we collected and how it informed decision-making in OURA. We will share the lessons we have learned throughout this process and how the approach may be utilized in other contexts to increase undergraduate research opportunities.