Students as Co-Researchers(ScR) Program

Overview 

Students as Co-Researchers (ScR) program is a collaborative effort between the Office of Research (OR) and the Learning Institute (LI) to support students as co-researchers. The ScR program aims to promote a culture of scholarly activities amongst undergraduate students, who have completed their junior year and are starting their senior year and are interested in pursuing their own research projects, in collaboration with a LUMS faculty member and mentors from industry/partner organizations. The funding for these projects can be used for summer research projects or SPROJs. 

Roles & Responsibilities  

Following are the roles and responsibilities of each department according to the ScR policy and guidelines.  

OR 

• Making the call announcement  
• Pre–Award Management of the grant including responding to the queries of the applicants/awardees, activation of the GAMES account, keep all the records up to date upon receiving the proposals and assistance in case of any withdrawal or any other issue of the application.  
• Making the award announcement.  
• Post Award Management including the opening of the grants in SAP, approving the PRs and other financial aspects of the grants, Stipend Cheque Distribution etc.  
• Preparing ScR closure summary.  

LLI 

• Assisting OR in responding to all the queries of the applicants/ awardees 
• Reviewing of the proposals, thereby assessing the quality of work and making a final decision about which project to fund or decline.  
• Reviewing the final report/deliverables. 
• Preparing detailed report on the proposals, verticals, proposed output, achievement of objectives, outputs, expected outcomes etc.

Purpose 

The primary goal of introducing such a funding opportunity is to make sure that the undergraduate students who are interested in pursuing their own research agenda, with substantive supervision from a LUMS faculty mentor doesn’t have to face any constraints, financial or otherwise.  

Students may choose to engage in basic/applied research activities in collaboration with LUMS faculty and mentors from industry (when applicable) to carry out research that may have publication potential and implications for policymakers, regulators and industry.  Mentors can help students gain a rich understanding of the research that LUMS faculty are currently involved in, including theoretical, field and lab projects involving data design, data collection, analysis and results; scientific innovation in the labs; and discoveries in the theoretical and thematic disciplines. 

Time Frame options 

The ScR program as mentioned above can either be just a summer research project or if the applicant wants can utilize that amount of money and convert it into their final research project. Keeping that in mind, the program has two time frame options: 

• Summer Research Project – For 10 weeks  
• SPROJ – For 6 months 

Eligibility Criteria 

Only the undergraduate students, who have completed their junior and will be starting their senior year are eligible to apply for this grant.  

Procedure for Application of the Grant 

Following is the method for applying for an ScR Grant: 

• Proposals shall be submitted through Grants Application, Management & Execution System (GAMES).  
• To apply for the ScR Program, students log on to https://games.lums.edu.pk/ to access GAMES. 
• They can access GAMES remotely outside of LUMS’ network through VPN.  
• A walkthrough document on GAMES can be accessed here. This link provides a complete walkthrough of GAMES application in a simple yet comprehensive way. 
• The process is very simple. Students may register at GAMES in the User Login section. Once you are registered, Office of Research (OR) will activate your profile within 24 hours.  
• Students may use their LUMS provided email id (example: 00000000@lums.edu.pk) to create an account. They may add up to 3 Co-researchers in the application form. All must register on GAMES before they are able to add them to the application form. 
• Go to Application Management -> Apply for Grant 
• Apply for Students as Co-Researcher (ScR) 
• Complete the Form  
• Submit the form before the deadline.  

Review Process 

• LLI appoints 2 – 3 of its team members to review the proposals at the beginning of the program.
• Once the proposals are reviewed, OR is communicated about the status of student proposals. 
• OR announces the grant and PR raisers are allotted to each ScR participant group. 
• Once the project deadlines end, the students submit the deliverables in the PDF format to the LLI office via email at fatima.iftikhar@lums.edu.pk  by the given deadline. 
• LLI appoints 2 – 3 of its team members to review the submitted reports and deliverables towards the end of the program.
• Once the reports are reviewed, LLI communicates the status of the student projects to the OR and the PRs are raised for the grant release. 

Funds/ Budget Allocation 

As per ScR policy and guidelines, Proposals may be submitted individually or by a group of a maximum of 4 students within or across schools. Each project can request funding of up to PKR 50,000 (Team Stipend: PKR 20,000 & Supplies/Equipment/Travel: PKR 30,000). 

Note: Applicant must provide CNIC and bank account title for the payment of team stipend. However, if you do not have a bank account, you may share the CNIC and bank account title of your guardian. CNIC and account title must belong to the same person. 

Final Report/Deliverable 

A final set of deliverables along with the Form # 14-02-ScR (Available here: http://portal.lums.edu.pk/OSPR/OSP/SRP/ScR%20Final%20Report%20Form.docx) is due within two weeks of the project end date. 

The final report should describe the achievements of the stated objectives, research publications, potential patents, or research collaborations resulting from this grant. Students are required to submit the following deliverables in PDF format at the culmination of the program. 

1. Duly filled ScR Report Template (see here) 
2. A comprehensive report based on the rubric 
3. Marked rubric with Faculty Mentor’s signature  

Focal Persons 

In case of any further questions, feel free to reach out to the following: 

• Hamza Habib (hamza.habib@lums.edu.pk) 
• Sheza Mustasim (sheza.mustasim@lums.edu.pk ) 
• Fatima Iftikhar (fatima.iftikhar@lums.edu.pk)