Due to recent budget cuts implemented by the State of California, funding for the LAEP has been withdrawn, leading to the unfortunate cancellation of the program effective immediately.
The University of California advocated for LAEP's continuation. This program played a vital role in connecting underrepresented students with paid positions and allowed them to gain academic year research work experience aligned with their academic and career goals. It also is part of our commitment to providing a path to a debt-free education. The sudden termination of this program is regrettable and will undoubtedly affect many of our students who relied on it for both financial support and professional development opportunities.
Considering this development, we encourage students to seek alternative opportunities for academic year undergraduate research to support their development. This includes seeking paid and non-paid research opportunities, such as volunteer research positions or independent credit research options directly with UC Merced faculty, to mitigate the impact of this program's cancellation. As new academic year undergraduate research opportunities with financial support become available, we will post them here.
LAEP is managed by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Center (UROC). For questions, please email uroc@ucmerced.edu
The program's success in its inaugural year was highlighted recently in a campus news article with a few scholar stories. News Article
