Student Experience
Fostering undergraduate research excellence
July 2, 2025
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Queen's offers a wide variety of opportunities for undergraduates to learn more about the research process or incorporate their own research projects into their student experience.
Whether they are planning to pursue an academic career in the future or not, undergraduate students can learn a lot from research environments, where they develop critical thinking and other transferrable skills that support their personal and professional growth.
In 2025, in addition to longstanding programs such as the Undergraduate Student Summer Research Fellowships (USSRF) and Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA), the Vice-Principal (Research) Portfolio (VPR) is introducing new initiatives to support undergraduate research.
“Queen’s is home to researchers working across disciplines to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues,” says Nancy Ross, Vice-Principal (Research). "Within this research-intensive environment, students apply their classroom learning to real-world problems and have the opportunity to contribute to transformational research."
New partnerships
Queen’s has partnered with the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) to launch the Queen’s-CNL Undergraduate Research Pathway, a program designed to address a national training gap by introducing students to nuclear-related fields through hands-on learning and mentorship.
The pathway features lectures, expert panels, specialized training in high-performance computing and artificial intelligence, a summer research project co-supervised by Queen’s and CNL researchers, and a site visit to CNL’s Chalk River facility. Students will gain a firsthand view of real-world research challenges, contribute to national research priorities, and build professional networks. As part of the agreement, CNL is funding two annual $7,500 undergraduate scholarships for three years.
Queen’s was also one of the lead institutions on a pilot program under the Matariki Network of Universities (MNU), offering two undergraduate students the opportunity to take part in a $10,000 summer research fellowship at Durham University (UK), which includes hands-on research and an opportunity to present at the MNU Student Poster Summit. At the same time, Queen’s will host two students from Durham University in Kingston this summer.
Queen's Art of Research photo by Ivanna Boras, BASc, Engineering Physics. The image captures the observation of the behaviour of wetting in ferrofluids under different magnetic fields and at different concentrations.
Professional development opportunities
Launched earlier this spring, a introduces undergraduate students to the benefits of research across disciplines. It challenges common misconceptions about who can do research and highlights the value of becoming a researcher. The module also includes information on faculty-specific research opportunities available to Queen’s undergraduates.
Now in its second edition, the Queen’s Summer Undergraduate Research Growth Experience (Q-SURGE) complements academic and faculty-supervised research training with professional development. Through six biweekly, in-person sessions, the program helps students build essential research skills, covering topics such as research design and execution, project management, and research promotion, while supporting their professional growth and helping them translate research experience into future opportunities.
As part of ongoing efforts to celebrate undergraduate research excellence, the 2025 Inquiry@Queen’s conference featured the presentation of the second annual Vice-Principal Research Undergraduate Prize. This year’s recipients, Benjamin Potter (Computer Engineering, Sci ’25) and Wil Taylor (BHSc ’25) were recognized for their top-ranked oral presentations and each received $1,000 for their outstanding research contributions.
“These efforts aim to enhance the undergraduate experience and empower students to explore their passions through inquiry, discovery, and real-world impact,” says Klodiana Kolomitro, Special Advisor, Undergraduate Research. “They are not only academically enriching, but also help students see themselves as researchers and changemakers.”
A summer tradition
For over a decade, the USSRF program has provided Queen’s students hands-on research experience under faculty supervision. The 16-week summer fellowship provides funding and mentorship while allowing students to explore meaningful research as part of their undergraduate journey.
Queen’s also participates annually in the USRA program administered by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). These awards provide full-time, paid summer research placements that help undergraduate students develop as future researchers. To address the underrepresentation of Black and Indigenous scholars in Canadian research, USRA has allocated additional funding to support students from these groups. This year, 146 undergraduate students at Queen’s are participating in USSRF and USRA programs.
Undergraduate students interested in learning more about available programs, resources, and application processes are encouraged to visit the Vice-Principal (Research) website.
