Requests for UROP direct funding exceed available budget by over $1.4 million for Spring 2025
Changes to federal funding did not have a direct impact on Spring 2025 UROP direct funding
Requests for direct funding from the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) Office exceeded the office’s available budget by over $1.4 million for the Spring 2025 semester. According to Michael Bergren, Associate Dean and Director of UROP, the UROP Office budgeted $2 million for the spring while receiving around $3.4 million in direct funding requests.
“The UROP Office always receives more requests than its direct funding budget can accommodate,” Bergren wrote in an email to The Tech. In Spring 2024, requests for direct funding exceeded the budget by $1.36 million, similar to this semester’s number. In previous years, however, excess demand was less than $1 million due to “lower application numbers, hourly rates, and maximum request amounts.” According to the 2024 UROP Impact Report, 80% of UROP projects were paid in the 2023-2024 academic year. Budget constraints prevented funding for approximately 15% of students who requested UROP funding that year.
Bergren clarified that changes to federal funding did not have a direct impact on UROP direct funding allocations. The overall annual budget for the 2024-2025 academic year has not decreased; in the 2023-2024 academic year, the UROP Office allocated around $7.65 million in direct funding, and they plan to allocate about the same amount for this academic year.
The UROP office administers direct funding and does not have oversight over sponsored funding, as departmental faculty members decide how to allocate their funds. $8.15 million of UROP funding came from faculty and departments in the 2023-2024 academic year, making the total around $15.8 million.
Although the number of direct funding applications for the spring semester decreased slightly from 1,563 in 2024 to 1,487 in 2025, Bergren stated that “overall demand for UROP direct funding has steadily increased over the past few years” across fall, spring, and summer terms. The dollar amounts requested were higher, which was partly due to the increase in the minimum hourly rate from $15.50 per hour in 2024 to $16.00 per hour in 2025.
As of time of publication, the UROP Office approved about 58% of Spring 2025 direct funding requests. 26% of requests became sponsored funding, and another 5% became credit UROPs. Of the remaining 11% of requests, 10% cancelled or did not take on the requested UROP, while 1% undertook another UROP. The UROP Office bases their direct funding decisions on various factors that include the “quality and timeliness” of the proposals and the guarantee that students who receive MIT Scholarships from Student Financial Services will receive at least one term of funding. Furthermore, the UROP Office works with principal investigators to “support as many students in as many departments, labs, and centers across the Institute as possible.”
“We work hard to fund as many MIT students as possible, given growing demand,” Bergren wrote. “We want students to know that the UROP office is your chief resource for all UROP-related questions and concerns.”