UCLA’s Student Research Program (SRP) assists undergraduates in formalizing their research and becoming part of the larger university research community. SRP-99 is an independent research course that allows undergraduates to receive university credit for engaging in entry-level research experiences under the supervision of a UCLA Faculty Mentor. This course particularly suited for lower-division and first-quarter transfer students.
SRP (COURSE 99)
Students receive 1 unit of lower division credit for 3-5 hours of work per week or 2 units for 6-10 hours of work per week. Students in the College of Letters and Science may enroll in up to 10 units of SRP-99 credit throughout their undergraduate career. However, only 6 units will count towards the 180-unit graduation requirement. Students who have completed 6 units of SRP-99 may enroll in an additional 4 units without credit applied toward their degree. Each student can only submit one SRP-99 contract per quarter. For Summer 6-week sessions: 5-8 hours of work per week is the equivalent of 1 unit. For 2 units, 10-16 hours of work per week.
Eligibility
- Must have a current research project with a UCLA Faculty
- Must be in good academic standing
- Must have full time status prior to enrollment (not applicable during the Summer )
- Students in Clinical Research: UCLA SRP 99/199 students in clinical research settings must receive clearance before they can be enrolled in SRP 99. Anyone accessing any of the following will need to be processed: Identifiable data or clinical data (i.e. patient information, test subject information, etc.); human Test subjects (study participants) or patients; clinical areas: clinics, hospitals, patient care areas. For more information about how to be processed, please contact Lily Zhang at lilyzhang@mednet.ucla.edu or UCLA Health – Direct Referral Program .
Enrollment
Students are enrolled in SRP-99 only after submitting their faculty-signed contracts to the Undergraduate Research Center – Sciences by the quarterly deadline, with the required hardcopy Certificate of Completion for Lab Safety Fundamental Concepts if required. All SRP-99 contracts are due at Friday 5pm of Week 2 for each quarter.
Note: For Summer Sessions, students may only enroll in SRP units for one session (6-weeek Session A, 10-week Session A or 6-week Session C). Deadlines for SRP contracts are 5 p.m. of second week for each session.
Grading
SRP-99 is a Pass/No Pass course. At the end of the quarter, the faculty mentor certifies that the contract has been completed and submits a grade. Grades are submitted by the faculty mentor within the last week of the quarter after final exams. Students are not required to complete an evaluation or assignment at the end of the SRP course. Completing an evaluation form for the course is optional.
Transcript
The student’s transcript will read as follows:
Student Research Program, Honors Content – Course 99
Please also visit the SRP Frequently Asked Questions page!
Do not fill out the contract until you have a faculty mentor that has agreed to accept you into his/her lab.
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:
- Late contracts will NOT be accepted
- Contracts stating an LSFC must be attached when submitted will NOT be accepted if it is submitted WITHOUT proof of completion for the Lab Safety Fundamentals Course
- Contracts without a signature from the faculty mentor sponsoring the contract will NOT be accepted
- Contracts signed after the deadline will NOT be accepted
- Contracts with less than 3 sentences describing the research plan will NOT be accepted
- *Note for Engineering Students: Counseling approval is no longer required for engineering students (as of Spring 2016).
SRP CONTRACT INSTRUCTIONS
- Logon to MyUCLA
- Click on Contract Courses under the Classes tab.
- Select ‘Submit a new contract’
- Read and click ‘Continue‘
- Select year and term
- Choose ‘Student Research Program (SRP) (99)’
- Select the ‘Subject Area’ for your SRP. (The ‘Subject Area’ is the same as your faculty mentor’s department.)
- Choose faculty mentor and select number of units
- In the ‘My Research Plan’ organize your paragraph according to the following sentence structure:
- Introductory sentence providing background.
- Sentence clearly stating the hypothesis of the project.
- Sentence describing the methods/techniques you will use to test your hypothesis.
- What do you expect your data to show relative to your hypothesis?
- What will be the significance of your results?
‘My Research Plan’Â example: Infection with the STD Chlamydia results in upregulation of cytokines, proteins that are important for immune responses. I hypothesize that tissues taken from Chlamydia-infected mice will have higher levels of the inflammatory cytokines TNF-a and IL-6. To test this, I will measure TNF-a and IL-6 levels in homogenized tissues of control and Chlamydia-infected mouse genital tracts by ELISA. These data will provide insights into the mechanism whereby animals can naturally fight Chlamydia-infection
- Print contract
- Verify if completion of Laboratory Safety Fundamental Concepts Course is necessary. Contracts will read “Proof of Completion of the Laboratory Safety Fundamental Concepts (LSFC) Course is required for participation in research with this mentor”
- Have your faculty mentor sign it
- Attach proof of successful completion of Laboratory Safety Fundamentals Concepts course, if applicable (LSFCs certificate or UCLA Worksafe-transcript print out) to your SRP 99 contract
- SRP contracts are due Friday of 2nd week at 5pm to 2121 Life Sciences Building.
OBTAINING LSFC PROOF OF COMPLETION
- Go to https://worksafe.ucla.edu  and log in to access your training history.
- Click on “My Transcript” from the left side menu.
- Click on the print icon at the top of the page.
- Attach printed page to SRP 99 contract.
- Submit completed contract packet to URC–Sciences office at LS 2121 before deadline.