Penn offers many resources for students conducting research. Please note that funding options are often specific to particular kinds of research, fields of study, grad year, etc. Also, CURF funding is reserved for research conducted under the mentorship of a Penn faculty member.
Use the Funding Opportunities database (below the highlighted opportunities) to identify research programs, grants and opportunities at Penn, elsewhere in the US and abroad. While CURF strives to maintain a thorough and up-to-date website, these listings are not comprehensive and students are encouraged to conduct their own funding searches.
Highlighted CURF Opportunities
Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program
PURM provides students completing their first or second undergraduate year the opportunity to spend a summer conducting cutting-edge research under the guidance of a standing Penn faculty member. No prior experience is required.
Learn more about PURM
Summer Humanities Internship Program
Each year the College of Arts and Sciences and CURF fund approximately twenty-five summer research internships for students in the humanities and social sciences. Internships provide undergraduates with the opportunity to work in a cultural, historical, or archival setting.
Learn more about SHIP
Independent Research Grants
Undergraduates pursuing an independent or semi-independent research project with a Penn faculty member can apply for funding to offset research-related expenses. Multiple opportunities are available each fall and spring. Click below and then scroll down to see a filtered list of CURF-administered research grants.
browse CURF grantsWilson Center Research Assistance Internship
Deadline: 12/08/25 (Tentative)Research Assistant interns have the unique opportunity to work directly with experts at the Wilson Center, as they examine issues of contemporary public policy or explore topics that provide the historical context behind today’s pressing policy debates.
Penn Global Research & Internship Program (GRIP)
Deadline: 01/08/26 (Tentative)The Global Research & Internship Program (GRIP) offers outstanding undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to intern or conduct research with a variety of organizations and companies abroad for 8 to 12 weeks over the summer.
Undergraduate Clinical Scholars Program (UCSP)
Deadline: 01/10/26 (Tentative)The Undergraduate Clinical Scholars Program (UCSP) is a 9-week rigorous summer research enrichment program for undergraduate students with an interest in clinical/epidemiologic research, with an eventual goal of MD, PhD, or MD-PhD degrees.
Penn Undergraduate Urban Research Colloquium
Deadline: 01/15/26 (Tentative)The Undergraduate Urban Research Colloquium facilitates faculty- and doctoral student-mentored, urban-focused research through funding support and a semester-long, credit-bearing seminar (CPLN 528/URBS 428).
RealArts@Penn Internships
Deadline: 01/20/26 (Tentative)RealArts@Penn Internships help students jumpstart their chosen artistic lives and career paths through paid internships with creative professionals across the country.
Grants for Faculty Mentoring Undergraduate Research
Deadline: 01/20/26 (Tentative)Grants for Faculty Mentoring Undergraduate Research will be awarded to offset undergraduate research expenses, such as to provide stipends for undergraduate students or for any other expenditure necessary to facilitate continued support of undergraduate research.
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) Program
Deadline: 01/21/26 (Tentative)The MMUF Program at Penn provides a small cohort of extraordinary Humanities and Social Sciences undergraduates with an intergenerational, intellectual family that nurtures their disciplinary aspirations.
Penn Program for Public Service Internship Program
Deadline: 01/26/26 (Tentative)The Penn Program for Public Service (PPPS) Summer Internship is an 11-week multi-faceted summer program that immerses undergraduates in real-world problem solving in the West Philadelphia-Penn community.
Department of Medicine Undergraduate Student Scholars Program (USSP)
Deadline: 01/31/26 (Tentative)Summer program hosted by the NIH Center for Molecular Studies in Digestive Liver Diseases at Penn that combines summer lectures and presentations with research experience in an affiliated laboratory.
Quantitative Research in the Life and Social Sciences Program (QRLSSP)
Deadline: 01/31/26 (Tentative)The Quantitative Research in the Life and Social Sciences Program (QRLSSP) is an intensive summer research experience hosted at Arizona State University that prepares undergraduate students for the rigors of graduate level research at the interface of mathematics, statistics, and the natural and social sciences.