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Conducting research at UNH is a valuable experience that builds fundamental skills and prepares you for future projects. These next steps may extend your current work, introduce you to a new lab at UNH, or even take you at an entirely different institution. For me, conducting research at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL) was an incredible way to expand my research horizons, something I encourage all research students to pursue.

For aspiring researchers and students interested in graduate school, broadening your research perspective is one of the best ways to stand out to industry professionals, schools, and prospective mentors. Research outside of UNH exposes you to new environments, equipment, and collaborators. It tests your ability to adapt and forces you to apply your skills in new contexts, often areas you may have previously had limited or minimal knowledge in. Therefore, by placing yourself in a new and unfamiliar research setting, you demonstrate the resilience and versatility to succeed in various environments, traits sought after by employers and graduate programs. 

Now that I’ve made the case for why research outside UNH can be beneficial, let’s talk about how to get there. I’ll walk through my path and highlight the key steps.

The first, and likely obvious step, is to get involved in research at UNH. This can happen in many ways: reaching out to a mentor, applying for grants through the Hamel Center, getting involved in UNH’s Innovation Scholars, and many more. There are other articles in this blog that cover these opportunities in more detail and can help if this is where you are. For me, as a transfer student, I got started with a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) award. That first experience was pivotal, it exposed me to the research and taught me the fundamental research skills like time management, literature analysis, and how to form research questions.

The next step is to show commitment to research. You want to be seen as a dedicated researcher, not someone who just needed something to do for one summer. A great way to demonstrate this is by continuing research during the semester through the variable credit INCO program or by applying for an Undergraduate Research Award (URA). After my SURF, I took the initiative to pursue both. In the fall I enrolled in the INCO course to continue my summer project and began formulating an extension of my current project to earn a URA for the following spring. These opportunities sharpened my research skills and helped me build a strong portfolio of research experience. After this, I felt prepared to pursue research opportunities beyond UNH.

Once you have built a foundation of research experiences, you are ready to apply for external research programs. There are many avenues you can take to do this, but two common ones are the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF REU) and the Department of Energy Summer Undergraduate Research Internship (SULI). Both are paid summer programs that place you in top research settings. The NSF REU allows undergraduate students to do work at universities other than their enrolled institution, an ideal way to explore potential graduate schools or areas of research not investigated at UNH. The DOE SULI places students at one of seventeen national labs working closely with a mentor on an energy adjacent project. 

I chose the Department of Energy internship and was selected to conduct radiolysis research at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). It was an entirely new field for me, but the training I received at UNH prepared me to learn quickly, through literature review and hands on lab work, the fundamental concepts of radiolysis. In many ways research at INL was similar: I had a dedicated mentor, I worked independently in the lab,-and was paid for my work. However, several key aspects set it apart. Most notably, I was surrounded by many research professionals with diverse expertise across multiple fields. I also had access to advanced instrumentation and research facilities beyond what I had previously used. These factors created an environment of intense collaboration, where a wide range of skillsets were applied to each project, including my own. Beyond the science, I gained insight into how research differs between academic and government settings. In academia, research often allows more flexibility in scope and direction. While these aspects are still present at the government or industrial level, the guiding motives behind the research are more structured and rigid. Seeing this contrast firsthand gave me a clearer picture of what a future career in industrial or government research might look like.

While research at UNH has been invaluable, my experience at a national lab strengthened my technical skills and expanded my perspective even further. Together, these experiences made me a more capable and confident researcher, as well as a stronger applicant for future positions. In my applications to graduate school, I used these research projects to tell my story and exhibit my growth as a researcher. This ultimately led to my acceptance into Northwestern University’s PhD program which I will begin in fall 2026.

If you’re considering broadening your research experiences, I highly encourage it. Step into a new environment that challenges you. You’ll leave with an enhanced skillset and a clearer picture of where you’re headed next.