To be eligible for this grant, students must meet the following requirements: 

• They must conduct senior thesis research on an international or global issue outside of the contiguous U.S. or with Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities, locally and globally. 
• They must be an undergraduate student at Northwestern University in an Evanston-based program.
• They must be enrolled in an independent study or thesis seminar for at least one quarter during the academic year.
• They must be in good academic standing.

Please be aware that all students who receive funds for research abroad must meet additional requirements set out by Northwestern's Office of Global Safety and Security. As non-credit travelers, all student awardees must complete the International Travel Registry and purchase travel medical insurance through GeoBlue. Some research locations may require a Travel Permission Request according to the international travel policy for undergraduate students. These requirements must be met before successful applicants will receive funds, and travel to certain countries may be restricted for health and safety reasons.  

If your proposed research involves collecting data from human subjects (including interviews, surveys, etc.), you will need to obtain Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval before you may begin your project.  The (IRB) is a multidisciplinary committee that reviews research involving human subjects to ensure the rights and welfare of human subjects are protected. Students do not need full IRB approval before applying, but must have an application in progress.
 
All Northwestern researchers, including undergraduates, who are involved in the conduct of human subjects research are also required to complete initial human subjects protection training and to re-certify every three years. This training is separate from the application process to receive IRB approval for your research project. Students will need to submit the CITI training completion certification as part of their application.

We highly recommend that applicants also consider applying for the Academic Year Undergraduate Research Grant offered by the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR). While students can typically only receive one research grant during the same funding period, applying to both programs increases the chances of securing funding for your research project. If a single grant is insufficient to fund your project, you may request an exception to combine awards, but this must be disclosed in both the Buffett Institute and OUR applications. In that case, there should be no overlapping expenses in actual costs.

Please know that this grant is considered taxable income.

The 2024 application deadline is October 15, 2024.

Students apply via the online application. The application requires an endorsement from the student’s faculty supervisor to be considered complete. In the application form, students must provide their faculty member's email address. Once submitted, the faculty member will receive an email notification outlining the next steps. Thus, it is important for students to submit their application well before the deadline and to inform their faculty supervisor in advance that they intend to apply for this grant and include details such as the application deadline and a link to this webpage.  

The Office of Undergraduate Research has a robust set of resources to help students understand how to prepare components of a research proposal. If students have questions about the Buffett Institute’s International Senior Thesis Research Grant specifically, please email Program Coordinator Grace Lewis.

This application requires a faculty endorsement. Once a student submits their application, their faculty supervisor will receive a copy of the application along with a link to a short endorsement form to complete. We ask that faculty supervisors submit the endorsement within 72 hours of the application deadline, which is October 18, 2024 for the 2024 application cycle. If you have questions, please email Program Coordinator Grace Lewis.