Ferguson Award

The Mary E. Ferguson Memorial Research Grant
Established by Ms. Aileen Ferguson in honor of her daughter Mary E. Ferguson, this award supports undergraduates doing independent research.

Award: $200-600, to be spent within the fiscal year of award

Nomination Deadline: Two application deadlines per year: Oct 16, Feb 21. If a deadline falls on a holiday or weekend, it will be extended by 2 days.

Submission Instructions:

Proposal (maximum of 2 pages): A brief description of the research project including title, summary/scientific abstract, research proposal, itemized budget, bibliography and any figures or tables — the proposal should be written for biologists, by the student, in consultation with the faculty advisor. It should be crafted around the student’s particular research question and describe experiments to be conducted, rather than primarily being a description of what goes on in the advisor’s lab. Where possible, an overview of the advisor’s research questions should be provided.
Lay-abstract (maximum of 150 words): Abstract aimed at a general audience describing the project and how funds will be used. This abstract is for lay-persons and is NOT part of the 2-page research proposal. It should NOT be the same as any summary/scientific abstract provided in the 2-page research proposal because the abstract will be read by non-scientists such as donors or administrators, while the research description will be read by biologists. The lay-abstract should be written by the student in consultation with their faculty advisor.
Letter (maximum 1 page): Letter of support from nominating faculty member.
Compiling: The faculty advisor should create a single PDF document including the above items in the following order: (i) proposal, (ii) lay-abstract, (iii) advisor’s letter of support. The final document should be named as follows: Student Last Name-Advisor Last Name-Grant name-Semester.File type (e.g. Jones-Forsyth-Ferguson-Spring2024.pdf). Please follow these instructions - although they are specific, they will make the job of the selection committee much more straightforward.
Generating merged pdf files: If you do not have Adobe Acrobat, there are a number of free resources for generating merged pdf files on the web including pdfMaster and pdfFiller.
Submitting: The final pdf file, formatted and titled as directed above, should be submitted via email to the current Chair of the Undergraduate Studies Committee.
Proposals that do not adhere to the above formatting guidelines will not be reviewed.
Proposals for other awards, should be submitted separately following guidelines listed in those awards.

Additional Guidelines:

Application deadlines are as indicated above. Please follow instructions provided in the solicitation email sent to Biology instructors. The Feb 21, 2020 deadline includes applications for the summer. Please remember that all funds must be spent within this fiscal year—so plan ahead for summer work!
Grants will be distributed among as many labs as possible
All applications will be ranked by members of the USC
The amount of funds awarded to each proposal will depend on the amount of Ferguson award money available each semester
Depending on ranking, awards are between $200-600 each
Students who do not receive an award may resubmit revised proposals at the next deadline
Priority is given to proposal from first-time applicants and those from labs who have received less than 2 Ferguson awards in a given academic year.
Eligible students include those enrolled in 403, 495, 496, 303, and 201 (303 and 201 students are eligible only if the applicant is planning on conducting summer research) and relevant biology research through other programs’ research sections (e.g. Neuroscience, Marine Science, Environmental Science and Policy).
Late, incomplete, and applications that do not meet the guidelines will not be reviewed
Students and PIs are notified by email about the outcomes of the review, in a timely manner