The University of Arizona has a long-standing commitment to undergraduate research, with individual faculty, staff, and departments linking undergraduate students to cutting-edge research since the university’s inception. More recently, the university has formally recognized the transformative impact of undergraduate research experiences on students and their academic success. The University of Arizona is now investing in more organized strategies to increase the availability of undergraduate research experiences and facilitate access to these experiences for students in any major and at any academic level.
In 2017, personnel from the Office of Undergraduate Research in the College of Science and the Office of Societal Impact collaborated to form a campus-wide Undergraduate Research Committee to improve campus-wide collaborations. The committee published a white paper that established a plan to institutionalize undergraduate research at the University of Arizona and make these experiences available to students early in their academic career to maximize the benefit of this high-impact practice on student retention and success. In 2018, committee members received funding through the Council on Undergraduate Research’s Transformations Project to support the integration of undergraduate research into course curricula to facilitate and expand access to research experiences for Arizona students. The first Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience faculty training institute took place on campus in 2019, and the establishment of Vertically Integrated Projects launched in 2020.
From 2021-2025, the Undergraduate Research and Inquiry Collaborative (URIC) brought together administrative units across major administrative offices. The URIC consisted of a collaboration between the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) in the Office of Societal Impact (OSI) under the Office of Research & Partnerships (ORP) and Student Engagement and Career Development (SECD) under the Office of the Provost. Together, this alignment coordinated resources to expand access to undergraduate research & inquiry, to coordinate outreach and support, to showcase undergraduate research talent, to provide training, and to enhance the quality of the undergraduate research & inquiry experience with a focus on inclusion for students in any field of study and cultivating success for all students.
With the creation of the Office of Undergraduate Research & Scholar Development under the Provost's Office in 2023 and its formal staffing in 2025, the majority of SECD’s promotional and support efforts transferred to this new office, effectively maturing the URIC into a new collaboration with even broader capacity to implement UR programming across campus. Leadership from each office (OSI and URSD) serve as Co-Chairs of the campus-wide Undergraduate Research Alliance, an organization dedicated to improving communication, resources, and funding to increase access to undergraduate research experiences for University of Arizona students.