A new research platform called ForagerOne has recently been launched to support Brandeis students in finding paid research and creative project opportunities. The news was shared in a recent school-wide email from Margaret Lynch, Director of Undergraduate-Faculty Research Partnerships in the School of Arts and Science.
Supported by a grant from the Davis Educational Foundation, the ForagerOne platform has been developed by the Undergraduate and Research Creative Collaborations (URCC) office, which seeks to “support Brandeis students who are interested or engaged in research or creative projects with faculty mentorship,” according to the email. The platform is available for use during this forthcoming academic year.
While Workday lists many research positions available with Brandeis faculty, it is not the only platform where students are able to find on-campus research. Many research opportunities are also cited on Brandeis faculty pages on the school website. The ForagerOne project “extracts and aggregates all paid research opportunities from Workday and displays them with the most recent positions listed first,” the email reads. In doing so, Forager one supplies students with “a single central site through which Brandeis undergraduates can search for and contact faculty,” reads the URCC website.
In addition to finding research positions alongside faculty mentors, students who are already engaged in research can use the platform concurrently in order to find funding opportunities. “No student should be excluded from research due to lack of funding,” Lynch writes in the email. Moreover, the ForagerOne platform supports students who wish to connect with faculty to discuss research in their area of interest, the email describes.
To begin, students must use their Brandeis credentials to make an account. Information such as intended major, minor and year of graduation are used to narrow the scope of research and funding opportunities to cater to the interests of each student. The “Search” tab will navigate to a feed displaying current research positions available for students. Students can then navigate to the “Stipends and Project Related Support” to view opportunities for funding. The site also filters funding for certain criteria, such as the academic department or division, summer funding, senior thesis funding, funding for specific research projects and more.
More information about the ForagerOne platform can be found on the Brandeis URCC webpage. The site also includes information about submitting job applications to faculty listed positions and communicating with faculty about interest in a listed position.
Lynch emphasizes that research is available to all students who are interested: “Brandeis University offers every undergraduate student the chance to participate in original research and contribute to new knowledge,” she writes in the email.
