Real Stories of Undergraduate Research Made Easier with InfoReady

Running undergraduate research programs is a rewarding yet demanding responsibility in higher education. Between growing student interest, limited administrative support, facilitating cross-campus collaborations and scrutiny from leadership, program managers are often caught between impact and overload.

But three institutions—University of California, Irvine, Oklahoma State University, and University of South Dakota made strategic process improvements that transformed how they supported students and faculty with the help of InfoReady.

Here’s how they did it.

University of California Irvine: Scaling a Culture of Undergraduate Research

At a large R1 institution like UC Irvine, building a robust undergraduate research culture requires infrastructure that can support thousands of participants and projects. For Sharon Parks, Director of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), that meant retooling how to manage recognition, funding, and symposium logistics when a homegrown system needed to be replaced.

“We had about 1,550 students awarded this year through our calls for proposals,” Sharon explained. “That represented around 580 unique projects. We also had over 1,000 students present at our undergraduate research symposium.”

To support that scale, Parks and her team turned to InfoReady to streamline proposal collection, review, and funding decisions. The platform’s flexibility allowed them to manage both individual and group submissions while providing clear visibility into application statuses for all stakeholders.

“We also used InfoReady’s Engagement Hub to highlight student presentations online and support the in-person symposium,” said Parks. “That really helped us pull off a major event with over 2,000 attendees.”

Sharon’s team didn’t centralize every research program on campus—but by optimizing their part of the process, they amplified access, reduced manual work, and created a more consistent experience for students across disciplines.

Oklahoma State University: From Manual Mayhem to Efficient Excellence

When Dr. Christine Johnson stepped into her role at Oklahoma State University, she inherited a prestigious undergraduate research program that was still running on paper. Applications trickled in one piece at a time. Files were sorted and scanned by hand. Review packets were manually assembled.

“It took us three weeks just to compile applications after the deadline,” said Christine. “Then another two weeks to manage the review process. I looked at it and thought: we need to make some changes.”

She did.

By transitioning both the Niblack Research Scholars Program and OSU’s undergraduate research symposium into InfoReady, Christine and her team saw transformational results:

• 3–5 weeks saved in application handling and review
• 15% more applicants to the scholarship program
• 203% increase in student submissions to the symposium
• 2 hours to schedule the entire event after exporting InfoReady data

“Everything came in complete and clean. We didn’t have to chase missing documents. We could assign reviewers faster. And because students submitted everything online—even during an ice storm when campus was closed—we didn’t skip a beat.”

For the symposium, Christine used faculty department data from the form to group presentations efficiently. “It took two hours to finalize the schedule. That used to be days of cross-checking and formatting.”

The time saved gave her breathing room to plan the event with care—and confidence.

University of South Dakota: Connecting Silos and Building Community

At the University of South Dakota, Assistant Vice President for Research Compliance Kevin O’Kelley had a different challenge: bringing fragmented, siloed research efforts into a more unified student experience.

“Before, the medical school, chemistry, health sciences—each had their own programs, websites, and timelines,” said Kevin. “Links were broken. Deadlines were outdated. We weren’t capturing the full picture.”

By consolidating the application process under a shared platform, Kevin was able to monitor participation, connect administrators, and foster a sense of community among students and faculty.

“One of the big wins was building relationships. We now host picnics, give out t-shirts, and invite everyone to weekly seminars on how to write abstracts or do lit reviews. InfoReady helps us know who this cohort of undergraduate researchers is—and that makes engagement a lot easier.”

The impact wasn’t just administrative. Students felt more connected, faculty were better supported, and the entire undergraduate research ecosystem became more visible and cohesive.

Shared Wins: Smart Tools, Empowered Teams

In each of these stories, leaders demonstrated a willingness to rethink processes and use technology intentionally to reduce burden, eliminate errors, and open the door to greater student participation.

• Sharon at UC Irvine found a scalable way to support over a thousand students annually.
• Christine at Oklahoma State turned weeks of manual labor into a system she could trust—and even enjoy.
• Kevin at South Dakota united a scattered set of programs into a thriving research community.

Undergraduate research is a high-impact practice. These leaders prove it doesn’t have to come at a high administrative cost with the help of InfoReady.