Guidelines for Faculty Mentor Letters of Support

All student grant proposals must be accompanied by a letter of support written by a qualifying faculty member.

Eligibility of Faculty Sponsors

At least one of the mentors must be a qualifying faculty member who  

• Has the Stanford title of Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, Senior Lecturer or Senior Fellow
• Has research expertise in a field closely related to the discipline of the proposal
• Is available to offer advice and support to the student researcher throughout the project

For more information on eligibility, see Faculty Eligibility Guidelines.

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Due Date for Faculty Letters

This letter is due within three business days of the relevant grant deadline. It is the student's responsibility to provide their mentor with at least three weeks' notice of this due date.

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Where to Send Faculty Letters

A letter MUST be uploaded directly to your mentee's application in the UAR grant webform, using the URL, login, and password emailed to you by the UAR server. UAR cannot accept hard copies of letters.

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Content Guidelines for Faculty Letters

These mentorship letters are extremely important to the UAR advising and grant review processes. They allow UAR staff to provide vital feedback to grant recipients to help them avoid pitfalls during their research. The most helpful sponsorship letters discuss the qualities of the student. Yet it must also include an honest and critical evaluation of the student’s written proposal, which includes the following:

• a frank, scholarly evaluation of the proposed project, its feasibility in the time indicated and its potential significance
• suggestions on how the plans could be modified or improved
• an assessment of the candidate's ability to carry out the project
• an outline of future interactions between the student and the faculty mentor

If the project involves human participants, faculty should comment on the steps taken to insure safety. The research procedures should be the least risky that can be performed consistent with sound research design.

Furthermore, if the project involves fieldwork away from campus, the faculty letter should assess the student's level of preparation for such work. This includes methodological training and a comprehensive awareness of safety and ethical considerations.

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Feedback from Faculty Letters

The grant application and decision process is intended to be educational for the students.

UAR does not share the specific content of faculty letters. We do aggregate faculty mentor suggestions with those of grant reviewers when giving feedback to students. Candid faculty evaluations are vital to the quality of this feedback process.

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