CURE Definition & Common Characteristics

Definition

CURE is an acronym for ‘Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience’. ÌýIt's a form of classroom-based course that offers students hands-on experience doing original research and offers faculty the opportunity to generate new information.

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Common Characteristics
  • CUREs offer opportunities for students to make discoveries that are of interest to stakeholders outside the classroom (e.g., the broader scientific community).
  • Students' work is iterative, meaning that students must trouble-shoot, problem-solve, and repeat aspects of their work for the research to progress.
  • CUREs offer opportunities for students to communicate their research results to those stakeholders.
  • Just like in a faculty member's research group, the research in a CURE progresses as students work. This means that new research questions and directions are generated each term and the CURE is unlikely to look the same from year to year.
  • Students may engage in a range of science practices such as collecting and analyzing data, building and defending arguments, and collaborating with one another and more experienced scientists. The work that students do in a CURE must build off and have the potential to contribute to a larger body of knowledge in the discipline.

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Call for Participants

Developed and hosted in °Ç¸ç³Ô¹Ï since 2018, UROP's Sidewalk Symposium invites undergraduates to share their research and creative presentations with chalk on campus walkways. UROP welcomes undergraduates at any stage of their project to participate.

Register for UROP's Sidewalk Symposium by Oct. 5, 2026

Celebrating 40 Years

CU °Ç¸ç³Ô¹Ï has an expansive history engaging undergraduates in the research and creative life of the campus dating to the creation of UROP in 1986.

Celebrating 40 Years of Opportunities