For many undergraduate students, winter break is the time to start thinking ahead about research opportunities for the coming summer. Hands-on research experience is a great way to supplement their coursework, and summer is often the only time that students have more than a few hours a week available to spend time in the lab.
For a lot of students, it’s also really important to find a summer research experience that includes a stipend or other payment, because otherwise they would need to get a “regular” job instead. (Academic research experiences are not the same as work internships, but they are similar in many ways. For an interesting article about the Department of Labor’s “six factor test” for whether an internship can be unpaid, click here.)
The Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology has two summer programs for undergraduate research: the Research Experience for Veterans (REV) program that we wrote about here, and the broader Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. Both of these programs are now open for applications, with a deadline of February 15, 2016.
The CSN is one of nine Centers for Chemical Innovation funded by the National Science Foundation, and most of the Centers offer summer research programs for undergrads. You don’t always have to be a chemistry student – click on the links in the table below for more information on these opportunities. All of them offer stipends, and some can also pay for housing and travel if you aren’t local.
| Center | Application Deadline |
| Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment (CAISE) | Feb 1, 2016 |
| Chemistry at the Space-Time Limit (CASTL) | Feb 12, 2016 |
| Center for Chemical Evolution (CCE) | Feb 15, 2016 |
| Centers for Enabling New Technologies Through Catalysis (CENTC) | Feb 8, 2016 |
| Center for Innovation in Solar Fuels (CCI-Solar) (app link here) | Feb 22, 2016 |
| Center for Selective C–H Functionalization (CCHF) | Feb 8, 2016 |
| Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology (CSN) | Feb 15, 2016 |
| Center for Sustainable Polymers (CSP) | Feb 1, 2016 |
There are a ton of other summer research opportunities out there, of course! Here are just a few sites to help you start your search:
- National Science Foundation REU sites
- American Chemical Society undergraduate research information
- Collected Internet Resources for Research by Undergraduate Students (CIRRUS)
- Scientific American blogger DNLee compiled a list of summer research opportunities in STEM last year. Some links may be out of date now, but it’s a great place to start.
Have another suggestion to add to the list? Tell us in the comments!
Updated Dec 7 to add CCI-Solar due date and CASTL information.
Sustainable Nano 
Yaaaaaaa I totally agree with you that this the best time for research, all though little difficult when think about christmas. Hopefully we can see new research and inventions in the coming future.