Each April when the NC General Assembly is in session, 100 students from 16 campuses of the University of North Carolina system travel to Raleigh to demonstrate and discuss their research experiences with North Carolina legislators. The first such multi-campus symposium (in 2001) involved four UNC system schools, and was organized by the Office for Undergraduate Research at UNC-Chapel Hill. Since that time, the symposium has been organized by the UNC Undergraduate Research Consortium with support from the UNC General Administration. The goals of the symposium are to highlight the important role of original student research, scholarship and creative performance in undergraduate education, and the ensuing benefits to the state.

Undergraduate symposium participants are selected on each campus from a pool of candidates nominated by their faculty research advisors. Criteria for selection will include the originality and importance of the work, and the students' abilities to communicate the significance of their results to non-specialists. In addition, the symposium organizers wish to showcase a broad range of disciplines. In-state students are asked to invite legislators from their own districts to attend.  Also, both in-state and out-of-state students who have conducted research which has particular relevance to social, economic and/or cultural issues in different parts of North Carolina are asked to invite appropriate legislators to their presentations.

The next Research in the Capital symposium was to be held on April 21, 2009 from 10:00-noon in the NC Legislative Building. However, the symposium has been cancelled since General Administration wishes to be sensitive to legislator priorities during this unique and challenging fiscal climate.

Photo courtesy of Rebecca Kirkland