Kansas Research Collective
Our Mission
The mission of the KRC is to foster a research community across the state of Kansas by providing peer mentorship and a platform for students to discuss and showcase their work. We provide two types of support for students:
- We support prospective researchers in their efforts to connect with faculty mentors, develop research questions, and gain insight into the research process.
- We support current researchers in their efforts to improve applications for competitive fellowships, develop conference and campus presentations, and publish their work in peer-reviewed journals.
Upcoming meetings
Our meetings are held in Watson Library at 3pm on Sundays. In each meeting, we will have a short presentation, and the majority of the time will be for you to create, refine, and implement personalized strategies for success. This means that, from each meeting, you can expect to walk away with at least one actionable item that will help you develop your skills and experience as a researcher.
If you have any questions for us, please email us at krc@ku.edu.
Idea Blitz: Sunday, October 11th | 3-4pm | Watson Library's Clark Instruction Center
- Learn about how to format a UGRA or other applications.
- Practice presenting your UGRA idea to other people.
- Answer questions and defend your hypothesis, background, and method.
UGRA Workshop: Sunday, October 25th | 3-4pm | Watson Library's Clark Instruction Center
- If you don't have a draft yet: learn about what a UGRA application looks like, how to format it, and common mistakes to avoid. Create an outline for a UGRA, or just get to know the requirements and read through others' proposals.
- If you have a draft: get constructive feedback from peers and KRC ambassadors.
Grad School & Beyond Panel: Sunday, November 8th | 3-4pm | Watson Library's Clark Instruction Center
- Learn about the many different types of graduate school, including master's degrees, PhDs, MDs, JDs, and more!
- Hear from current graduate students about what a typical day in their lives looks like.
- Ask questions about the tradeoffs of various program types, and plan your graduate school goals.
Our previous meetings include:
- Finding a Research Mentor & Cold Emailing 101
- Becoming a Successful Applicant
- Methods Roundtable
- Creating a Research Question
Office hours
If you have questions about research, please come to office hours with KRC Ambassadors:
- Tuesday 2-4pm in the CURF office (Summerfield 203)
- Wednesday 2-4pm in Nunemaker for help with the Research ELE
- Friday 10am-12pm in the CURF office (Summerfield 203)
- By appointment via GroupMe
Frequently Asked Questions
No matter what your major is, yes! Students of all majors can do research.
To learn about research opportunities in your field, we recommend looking into your department's faculty website to see what research they're working on. Faculty are invested in supporting you, so reach out to them with questions about their work!
For questions about your specific field, please see CURF's guides for STEM majors and social science majors. On these pages, you can learn about what research and funding looks like in your field and find your specific department's current research centers, faculty, and projects.
In addition, please feel free to email a KRC Ambassador majoring in something related to you! We strive to have ambassadors in diverse fields to provide advice to as many students as possible. If no ambassadors are in your major, please join our GroupMe to meet other KRC members who may be interested in conducting research more similar to yours.
When reaching out to potential mentors, you want to come equipped with questions while maintaining open-mindedness to help with their existing projects.
We recommend following these steps:
- Learn about their research from their faculty webpage and Google Scholar. Note whether they manage a lab on campus.
- Identify a theoretical or methodological approach of theirs that is interesting to you.
- Email them to briefly introduce yourself and your interest in their research, and request a meeting.
- In the meeting, discuss their research and ask if they have any open opportunities in a lab or for independent projects, either on a paid or volunteer basis.
Make sure you are confident in your abilities and stay open to assisting them however you can!
If you want to learn more about this process, see the KRC Cold Emailing Masterdoc.
We provide many types of support for students, no matter their prior research experience (if any).
For new/ prospective researchers:
- Reaching out to potential faculty mentors.
- Coming up with a research question.
- Identifying resources to help you get started.
- Connecting with you with other people who can help you.
For current researchers:
- Finding places to present your research.
- Improving presentations and communication ability.
- Identifying relevant fellowships and research training programs.
- Providing feedback on manuscripts and identifying journals to submit to.
- Helping with applications for graduate school and fellowships.
KRC Ambassadors have navigated these processes before, so we can provide helpful tips and tricks for success in developing your research questions and your academic career.