Summer Research Initiative

The Summer Research Initiative (SRI) was created in 1999 by the Office of the Dean in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS). The program is designed to encourage and enhance the diversity of scholars working in social and behavioral science, practice, teaching, and policy fields. We are most interested in students who plan to pursue doctoral degrees in the behavioral and social sciences. A diverse science workforce enables us to improve the science, broaden its application, and facilitate novel and creative innovations and solutions by including scholars with unique backgrounds, life experiences, language skills, understandings of and access to underserved communities, diverse perspectives, etc.  Supporting diverse cohorts of students also enriches learning environments and is consistent with our university’s overall mission.  In that spirit, we are also especially interested in receiving applications from a broad spectrum of minoritized students, especially African Americans, Hispanic/Latine students, American Indian/Alaskan Natives, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, as well as from students whose research interests focus on and benefit diverse and underserved communities, or from any student who demonstrates that their particular diverse perspectives add to efforts to improve social and behavioral science.

The program provides rising juniors and seniors with an 8-week intensive experience to develop research skills, learn about doctoral training, and increase graduate training readiness. Departments involved in the SRI  include African American and Africana Studies, Anthropology, Criminology & Criminal Justice, Economics, Geographical Sciences, Government & Politics, Hearing & Speech Sciences, Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, Psychology, and Sociology. 

The general goals of the SRI are to:

• Increase the general knowledge of, and interest in, doctoral-level training in the social and behavioral sciences among our participants and to;
• Provide rising juniors and seniors an opportunity to learn about graduate studies and the range of research and scholarship in the social and behavioral sciences specifically here at the University of Maryland.

We achieve these goals by:

• Providing laboratory or research experiences that enhance the basic research knowledge and skills of the participants;
• Providing lectures, workshops, didactic exchanges, and other programming to enhance students' knowledge of the graduate application process, negotiating the academic rigors and professional and personal challenges encountered in graduate school, and developing career paths in social and behavioral; and,
• Providing mentoring and professional networking opportunities for students to advance their training in the social and behavioral sciences.

The SRI is part of the UMD’s College of Behavioral and Social Science’s long-standing commitment to increasing the number of diverse students who pursue graduate degrees in the social and behavioral sciences.  According to the NSF 2022 Survey of Earned Doctorates, of the 6,670 recipients of doctoral degrees in the social sciences and psychology, only 20% were URMs. This 20% of URMs can be broken down as follows: 10.9% Hispanic/Latine, 8.7% African American, and 0.4% American Indian or Alaskan Native.  The BSOS SRI contributes to this effort by recruiting more students into our doctoral training programs and helping students gain entry into other programs beyond Maryland.  We have an excellent training environment.  A 2021 report in Diverse Issues in Education, UMCP ranked #18 in conferring bachelor’s degrees to diverse students in the social and behavioral sciences and 30th in the number of doctoral degrees conferred to diverse students.  

Please direct any questions or concerns to the SRI Coordinator, Brittney Robinson at (brobins7@umd.edu)

Applications are closed for the 2025 SRI. Please check back in the fall for information on the 2026 program.