Undergraduate Research

Undergraduate Research

At Mizzou, undergraduate research provides students with opportunities to apply classroom knowledge to make new discoveries. By collaborating directly with faculty mentors on research, students develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and advanced analytical skills that distinguish them as they seek employment following graduation or apply to graduate school. Research experiences allow undergraduate students to explore potential career pathways, gain deeper insights into their chosen disciplines, and create meaningful scholarly contributions.  

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Provost Mentoring of Undergraduate Research Awards

To support and celebrate faculty research mentorship, two awards were created in 2025 to recognize Mizzou faculty who demonstrate excellence in supporting undergraduate students in research and creative scholarship in two areas: 

  • Arts & Humanities and Social & Behavioral Sciences 
  • Life Science, Math, and Physical Science (STEM) 

 

Faculty and students may nominate a mentor for these awards. Read more about the nomination process.

Learn about one of the 2026 winners, Elizabeth King

Launching ForagerOne

Making Research Mentorship Connections

ForagerOne is a platform, launched during Show Me Research Week in 2025, that makes it easy for faculty research mentors and students to find each other based on common scholarly interests. Accessible by single sign on for current Mizzou faculty, staff and students, ForagerOne allows faculty to quickly customize their research profiles. ForagerOne allows research mentors and students to search for each other and browse open research opportunities. Faculty can also indicate their openness to finding other faculty research collaborators. 

As of November 6, 2025: 

  • 1,312 undergraduate students have created a research profile
  • 767 faculty have claimed and/or customized their research profiles
  • 467 total faculty have indicated they are accepting students for research projects or opportunities
  • 43 faculty have posted research projects
ForagerOne
ForagerOne Student Profile

Quick Facts about Undergraduate Research

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Students presented at the 2025 Summer Undergraduate Research Forum

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Students presented at 2025 Show Me Research Week

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Students presented at the 2025 Fall and Spring Research Days

Mizzou students have many opportunities to get involved with research and creative scholarship Read about students making an impact

Research Intensive (RI) Course Designation

In the past year, Mizzou developed the Research Intensive (RI) designation for courses designed to provide undergraduate students with research opportunities. Student ownership of a research project, mastery of appropriate skills, and experience disseminating results are central to RI courses. Research and creative scholarship should account for at least 50% of the course activities. RI courses must be reviewed and approved by a faculty committee. There are now over 20 approved courses with the RI designation. 

Visual Studies RI course Archaeology RI course

Undergraduate Student Research Stories

Undergraduate Research Mentors of the Year

Awardees are mentors Fang Wang and Deborah Finke.

Read about the Mentor of the Year awards

CAFNR Students Receives Funding for Research

Molly Peters joined the Freshman Research in Plant Science (FRIPS) program.

Read about the plant science research

Health Science Student

Platinum Liang’s experiences at Mizzou have given him an understanding of health care from multiple angles.

Read about CHS hands-on experiences

Undergraduate Research By the Numbers

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Students have earned their Student Training for Advancing Research (S.T.A.R.) during the past academic year by attending 5 or more Undergraduate Research workshops and/or professional development opportunities.

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Departments are represented by Faculty Research Liaisons who have volunteered to help students get started in their research journeys.

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Incoming Mizzou students indicated an interest in undergraduate research as of summer 2025.

Where students can get started with research