Creative Inquiry Mentor Resources

Dr. Moore de Peralta and her CI students work in Las Malvinas, Dominican Republic
Dr. Moore de Peralta and her CI students work in Las Malvinas, Dominican Republic

More than 400 innovative and challenging Creative Inquiry projects are active at this time. Each project is led by one or more faculty members, sometimes collaborating with staff or graduate students.

Any potential mentors are encouraged to join the bi-monthly CI + UR News email dissemination for deadlines and targeted opportunities for CI projects, mentors, and students. To join this list, please email ciinfo@clemson.edu.

Proposing a New Project

Managing Your Project

Once your proposal is approved:

  • Use the CI project manager to edit, update information, add courses, and accomplishment/reports.
  • Each semester you must enter your CI Course and section numbers on the 'course' tab.
  • Review the Procedures for Spending CI Funds page.
  • Reporting: Annual reports (for the academic year) are required and due no later than 30 June. You may enter project accomplishments at any time in the project manager (they will automatically populate in your annual report for that year).
  • Present CI project research at the annual Focus on Creative Inquiry Poster Forum.

Students Conducting Research for Credit – Medical Coverage

  • Undergraduate students conducting research for credit (i.e. not in a paid position such as a student worker, etc.) are NOT covered under the university’s workers compensation program in the event of an accident.
  • In such cases, any medical costs incurred that are not covered under the student health fee, may have to be paid by the student.
  • It is recommended that students and parents consider the risks associated with the work to be conducted and determine the need for additional medical insurance coverage (if applicable).
  • A list of services covered and not covered under the student health fee, as well as a link to purchase the Student Health Insurance Plan can be found here: https://www.clemson.edu/campus-life/student-health/insurance-and-billing.html

Project Funding

  • All CI projects eligible for CI funds received fall budgets on September 7.
    Eligibility:
    1. Annual reports entered by the deadline (6/30/22)
    2. Courses entered by the deadline (8/31/22)
    3. CI project participation at FoCI within the past two years
    4. ≥4 students enrolled in CI Courses
      • CI courses are courses listed as Creative Inquiry courses in the University Catalog or course sections approved by the CI office and committee to have a CI attribution added in Banner
    5. meet assessment criteria outlined in the 'assessment' section below
  • Standard CI projects may request up to $4,000 (in clearly justified funds) per academic year to support research activities for teams of 6 or more students.
  • CI LAUNCH projects may request up to $500 per semester.
  • Please reference the Policies and Procedures for Spending CI Funds to see what are allowable versus not allowable expenses.
  • Conference travel grants are available to partially support mentor and students travel to professional conferences in order to present their CI project research.
  • Foreign travel requires advance approval by your college, the Office of Global Engagement, and must include undergraduate students who are part of the CI project.
    **CI will not budget international travel funding until receiving the approval (or forwarded approval) from Global Engagement, the names of traveling students, and the travel itinerary from the project mentor.
  • All travel must follow university policies and procurement procedures. Appropriate departmental and/or college permissions are required.

Project Assessment

All CI projects are assessed annually, based on annual reports. In addition, each project must resubmit every two years. Resubmitted projects are assessed based on the following rubric.

 RUBRIC CLEMSON CREATIVE INQUIRY   LAUNCH TARGET AUDIENCE Primarily Freshman & Sophomore REQUIREMENTS Apply through CI Website  SKILLS DEVELOPMENT Develop Basic Research Skills  PROJECT DURATION  One- two Semesters; may be repeated with new students INDIVIDUAL STUDENT PARTICIPATION Generally, one Semester  DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS  Internal - FoCI and/or other Clemson event ASSESSMENT Complete Cl Surveys and submit reports each semester/year FUNDS PROVIDED $500 per se semester  ELIGIBLE FOR TRAVEL FUNDS NO  ELIGIBLE FOR SUMMER CI FUNDS NO  CLEMSON CREATIVE INQUIRY (STANDARD)  TARGET AUDIENCE All academic levels (with permission of mentor)  REQUIREMENTS Apply through Cl Website SKILLS DEVELOPMENT Expand disciplinary and/or multidisciplinary research skills  PROJECT DURATION Two or more consecutive semesters INDIVIDUAL STUDENT PARTICIPATION Two or more consecutive semesters DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS Internal - .FoCI  External - Professional Conferences (within first 2 years)  ASSESSMENT Complete Cl Surveys and submit reports and accomplishments each year  FUNDS PROVIDED up to $2,000 per semester  ELIGIBLE FOR TRAVEL FUNDS YES - competitively awarded  ELIGIBLE FOR SUMMER CI FUNDS YES - competitively awarded

CI Committee, Your College Representatives

Please use your representatives as a resource! The 2022-2023 representatives are:

College of Architecture, Arts & Humanities
Joey Manson, Art
Alan Grubb, History

College of Agriculture, Forestry & Life Sciences
Troy Farmer, Forestry & Environmental Conservation

College of Behavioral, Social & Health Sciences
David White, Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management
June Pilcher, Psychology

College of Business
James Gaubert, Marketing
Chad Navis, Management

College of Engineering, Computing & Applied Sciences
Jessica Larsen, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Steven Brandon, General Engineering

College of Education
Ryan Visser, Education & Human Development

College of Science
Michael Sehorn, Genetics & Biochemistry
Tzuen-Rong ‘Jeremy’ Tzeng, Biological Sciences

Advisory members: Robert Hollingsworth (Libraries); David Knox (Clemson Thinks2); Juan Xu (Institutional Research); Joanna Floyd (Research/Industry Contracts)

Additional Resources

Our Opportunities page is constantly updated to bring you the latest available research, funding, and travel opportunities for undergraduates at Clemson University.

See our Services page for a list of equipment available for checkout.

FAQ