Grants and Writing Resources for the University of Vermont
Nine UVM engineering students from the classes of 2027 through 2029 spent summer 2026 as Richard Barrett Scholars, chosen through a proposal process modeled on applications for outside research funding. An environmental engineering student used a HEC-RAS hydraulic model to test ways of slowing the floodwater that erodes the canyon floor at the Antelope House cliff dwelling in Canyon del Muerto, Arizona. A biomedical engineering senior worked on commissioning and validation for a facility expansion at Edesia Nutrition in Rhode Island meant to triple output of a therapeutic food, from 1.2 million to 3.6 million packets a day, and co-wrote protocols for about 15 process systems.
Research Money for Undergraduates
The Office of Fellowships, Opportunities, & Undergraduate Research (FOUR) sits in the Patrick Leahy Honors College and serves every UVM undergraduate. Its research funding starts small. Mini Grants average about $500 and pay for research expenses only. Travel/Presentation Awards average $700 for domestic trips and $1,100 for international ones, and they cover registration, lodging, transportation and publication fees once a paper, poster or performance has been accepted.
Summer work runs through the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), a $4,500 stipend plus up to $500 for research costs, paired with a one-credit summer research internship course. Simon Fellowships of $6,000 go to three to five students for community-based research that ends in a deliverable for a community partner. Students funded by FOUR present at the Student Research Conference, finished results or not.
FOUR also advises on national fellowships, among them the Truman, Udall and Goldwater, with help on application materials and interview preparation.
Presenting and Publishing
The UVM Student Research Conference is a one-day spring event in the Davis Center, open to undergraduates, graduate students and medical students. Posters run in sessions of up to 70. Oral presenters share a room in groups of four, ten minutes each, then take 20 minutes of moderated questions. A third track takes creative presentations such as 3D models, video and dramatic interpretation.
Doctoral students get 180 seconds. The Graduate College's Three Minute Thesis competition asks Ph.D. students to explain their research to a non-specialist audience, with first place, second place and a People's Choice award.
For poetry, prose and visual art there is The Gist, UVM's literary and visual arts journal, formerly Vantage Point. It takes submissions every semester from students in any discipline.
Graduate Fellowships and Awards
Ph.D. programs nominate newly admitted students for the Presidential Doctoral Fellowships. The Graduate College expects to name about five fellows a year. Each receives $35,000 a year for two years with tuition and health insurance, up to $5,000 for conference travel or training, and three more years of support from the home college.
Graduate students compete for the Graduate College's student awards. The Dr. Roberto Fabri Fialho Research Award supports doctoral research in ecology, evolution, population genetics or animal behavior. The Thomas J. Votta Scholarship gives annual help to graduate students in the Grossman School of Business, the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, and the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. The Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award and the Outstanding Master's Thesis Award recognize finished work.
Writing Centers and the Thesis Rules
The UVM Writing Centers share a desk on the ground floor of Howe Memorial Library, with one center for undergraduates and one for graduate students. Consultants work through conversation and activities that move a draft forward. The Graduate Writing Center is free to graduate students and postdocs. Its Review and Meet appointments take long or technical drafts of up to 20 pages over two sessions with one consultant, and its Thesis and Dissertation Camps offer several hours of writing time with meals.
The Graduate College's ETD Guidelines set a 1.5-inch left margin and one inch on the other sides, with Roman numerals for preliminary pages. Graduate College officials review each submission online, and the finished work is published by ProQuest and by ScholarWorks at UVM. The guide addresses outside help directly. A student who hires someone to prepare a draft should give that person the guide's URL, and the student keeps final responsibility for the language, style and grammar of the thesis. Forms and templates sit on the Graduate College's academic resources page.
Send the link to the ETD Guidelines with your UVM thesis, as the Graduate College asks, and our editors will give it a final edit for grammar and consistency and check the format against the guide. See our University of Vermont dissertation and thesis editing and University of Vermont essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.
From Our Writing Guides
Compiled by James Peterson Brown, PhD, Managing Editor of Editors For Students. Links checked October 2026.
Editors For Students is an independent editorial service and is not affiliated with the University of Vermont, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your UVM writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.