The Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA) program is administered jointly by Canada’s three research granting agencies: 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). Through these awards, professors can receive a wage subsidy of $6,000 to hire a Canadian/ permanent resident undergraduate to work on research and development in your lab. You gain valuable help in furthering students’ research while supporting them in their learning.
These awards can be held in the summer (May – August 2025), fall (September – December 2025) or winter (January – April 2026) terms.
The internal LFS deadline for the undergraduate research awards (USRA) program is 5 pm, Friday February 14, 2025 (Deadline for students who self-identify as Black or Indigenous is March 7, 2025). The LFS evaluation criteria and process are available on the LFS Research Support website.
Program requirements
- As part of UBC’s requirement, eligible faculty will need to continue holding an active NSERC grant from the Research Grant list. Faculties/Schools have the ability to endorse non-NSERC grant holders to apply for the award, on the approval of the Associate Dean or appropriate designate.
- Work terms are required to be 14-16 weeks long. Under exceptional circumstances, students can work less than 14 consecutive weeks (prior approval from NSERC is needed).
- Full value ($6,000) of the award will be honored once application is approved by NSERC.
- For the student’s salary, BC’s minimum wage requirements must be met. In addition, supervisors are required to fund benefits (CPP, EI, WCB) amounting to approximately 7.48% of the monthly wage.
- The USRA research is a full time activity (35 hours paid hours/week). Students are allowed to take a maximum of two (2) courses during the tenure of award.
- CIHR USRA and SSHRC USRA are exclusively for Black student researchers.
Additional information about the program can be found on the Faculty and Staff webpage. Student eligibility information is available on Student Services website.
Please contact LFS Undergraduate Student Research Awards lfs.nserc-usra@ubc.ca if you have any questions.