Albright Creative Research Experience (ACRE)

There are two ACRE tracks, as described below.* 

½ ACRE: Student recipients will each receive a $825.00 stipend. Faculty recipients will each receive a $700 stipend. Recipients are expected to expend approximately 20 hours per week for a period of 5 weeks working on the project. 
FULL ACRE: Student recipients will each receive a $1,650.00 stipend. Faculty recipients will each receive a $1,400 stipend. Recipients are expected to expend approximately 40 hours per week for a period of 5 weeks working on the project 

NOTE: Faculty and students do not have to do the same track; however if a student selects the ½ ACRE track, then the faculty member cannot select the full ACRE track. Faculty can work with a maximum of TWO students and are eligible for one full stipend amount regardless of the number of students they are working with (i.e. a faculty member cannot do two full ACRES). If a faculty member is applying with two students doing two related projects, each student must apply separately and each application/project must be a stand-alone project. 

Housing will be available during the period from late May to early July. Please frame your project period with these dates in mind. Board will be available for a five-week duration at those times that the Dining Hall is in operation during the summer. In addition, limited funding is available for expenses associated with the project, such as supplies and travel costs. Student-faculty applicants can apply for up to $500 for project-related expenses. 

*Stipends updated summer 2025 and are subject to change

• One collaborative application should be submitted for each student-faculty team. The application form can be downloaded from ACRE Canvas page. 

• Student must be a freshman, sophomore or junior currently enrolled full-time at Albright and in good academic standing.

• If applying for a full ACRE, a recipient cannot participate in classes during the summer session in which their ACRE takes place. A student or faculty member may take or teach ONE class during the summer session, but then is only eligible for a half-ACRE. 

• Because ACRE applications are due before the summer course schedule is finalized, a faculty member scheduled to teach in the summer may apply for a full ACRE while the summer schedule is finalized. The faculty member will be required to articulate in the application how the project’s scope will be adjusted should the course run and the faculty member’s portion reduces to a half-ACRE. 

• Remember that any proposed work involving human subjects (e.g. interviews, physiological or psychological testing) needs prior approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB). Proposed work involving use of vertebrate animals requires prior or pending approval from the Animal Care and Use Committee (ACUC). The absence of prior approval from the IRB or ACUC requires detailed justification and a time-line for submission of materials to the IRB or ACUC is required with your ACRE proposal. Please be aware, however, that any ACRE funding will be contingent on the eventual approval from IRB or ACUC before the relevant work is conducted. Please find the appropriate forms here. 

• All award recipients will meet weekly during the summer to discuss their projects’ progress and share in each others’ endeavors.

• Student recipients are required to present their project at an Experience Event during the fall session (with other recipients). 

• By the report deadline, each student-faculty team is required to submit an electronic report through the ACRE Canvas course on their project.

• An abstract summarizing the project. This abstract should be no more than 100 words and should be written in a style suitable for the general public for publication in on-campus and off-campus media outlets. 
• A full report on the project, describing what occurred, key outcomes and current status of the project, and future plans concerning project. This report should be no more than 1000 words, excluding any enclosures, tables, etc. 
• A current resume for the student and CV for the faculty. 

• A completed “Release of Materials” allowing the College to catalog your project in the library. 
• A completed, confidential questionnaire evaluating the program. A link to the survey will be sent to you for completion. 

• The learning opportunity for the student. 

• The collaborative nature of the project (note: consideration is given to variation in meanings of “collaboration” across different disciplines of study). Collaboration can mean many different things across disciplines, but the committee considers collaboration to mean research done jointly by the student and faculty, rather than the faculty solely teaching material to the student. 

• The degree to which the project complements and engages existing literature, studies, methods, or creative practices within the field of endeavor. 

• Appropriate scope of the project (Does the scale of the project justify the time and expense claimed in the application? Is successful completion feasible?) 

• The probability of the project resulting in a significant publication, presentation, exhibit or performance for the student. 

• The completeness of the proposal and the extent to which it follows the guidelines specified on the application form. After meeting the fundamental requirements set out in the selection criteria there are secondary considerations that applicants should consider: 

• Prioritization of awards may include consideration of the number of previous ACRE awards (interim or summer). This prioritization would favor applicants who have not previously applied for an ACRE award and only apply when meritorious awards would be denied due to insufficient funds. Exceptions can be made in cases where a student is proposing a fundamentally different project from previous ACRE project(s). 
• In the rare cases where two equally weighted proposals must be decided upon due to funding constraints and one discipline (natural sciences, social sciences, or humanities) is under-represented in any given round then the under-represented discipline can be prioritized.