The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) is disseminating information about an effective educational practice: undergraduate faculty-student collaborative research. The project is using CUR's multidisciplinary membership and infrastructure, demonstrated expertise in hosting effective workshops, and strong foundation of services and publications focused on faculty development and institutional reform to share successful best-practice models and strategies for establishing, enhancing, and institutionalizing undergraduate research. This project is an expansion of CUR's Institutionalizing Undergraduate Research workshop, an annual, national-level workshop, to a regional focus. Workshops are being held in eight geographic regions with participants representing all types of institutions, including two-year, baccalaureate, masters, doctoral, and research-intensive institutions. These institutions include Hispanic-serving, Native American-serving, and historically black colleges and universities, as well as institutions in regions that have not previously been served by CUR workshops. The regional focus is supporting 1) broader participation by institutions that otherwise would not attend a workshop focused on undergraduate research, 2) increasing dissemination of models and best practices, and 3) providing critical post-workshop, follow-up interactions to increase the likelihood of implementation and sustainability on participants' home campuses. The regional model focuses on developing communities of scholars at each participating campus. Specifically, the proposed project is improving the quality of undergraduate STEM education by achieving four linked objectives: (1) helping academic departments and institutions establish and eventually expand undergraduate research opportunities; (2) facilitating the documentation of best practices among a wide variety of institutions; (3) documenting and disseminating models of how to integrate undergraduate research into the curriculum; and (4) encouraging and supporting regional faculty networking and sharing of ideas. Broader impacts of this project include the support of STEM faculty in their implementation of undergraduate research as an effective pedagogical tool and enhancement of the research culture on their campuses.
