Join
Three ways in
General membership is open to any UT student. Committee and research membership are both by application, and they lead to different places.
Recruiting status
Applications are closed.
All applications, for both committee and research membership, are submitted through a single Google Form. It is linked here when the cycle opens, and nowhere else. Next cycle opens date to be announced.
The three tiers
- General Member
- Any currently enrolled UT student, any major, any class year. No application, no obligation, no dues. Register and attend the speaker series, workshops, and brain health programming.
- Committee Member
- By application, serving on a standing committee under a Vice President. The point of committee membership is leadership: it is the principal pathway to becoming that Vice President, and from there potentially President. It also helps a Research Fellow application, though only somewhat. If research is what you want, apply for research.
- Research Fellow
- By application, reviewed by the President of Research. Open to any class year, including juniors and seniors. Assigned to a project team. This is the research track and it is the selective one.
Who is eligible
- Any currently enrolled UT Austin student, at every tier.
- Any major. Members are welcome from every discipline whose curiosity touches the nervous system.
- Any class year. There is no first-year or second-year window on Research Fellow applications; juniors and seniors are eligible.
- No prior research experience is required.
How to apply
One Google Form covers both applications. What the form asks, how many rounds follow it, and who reviews it are still being decided.
A likely shape: an application plus a research preference form where you rank the projects you want, opening in the first week of the term.
Whatever the process ends up being, it gets published here before the form opens, not after.
What is asked of you
The chapter constitution fixes one of these. The rest are unset.
| Commitment | Amount |
|---|---|
| Written progress report | Due to your Research Lead one day before each project work meeting, covering challenges faced, how they were addressed, and goals for the coming week |
| Project work meeting | Weekly |
| Hours per week | Not set |
| Term length | Not set |
| Deliverable | Not set |
| Dues | None, at any tier |
What you get
- A named project with a named lead.
- Weekly review of your work by someone accountable for it.
- Eligibility, on reaching junior standing, to apply for the national INI research internship described below.
The chapter does not promise publication acceptance, a lab position, or graduate placement. Those depend on work and on other people's decisions.
The national research internship
Separate from this chapter and run by the national foundation. Every detail in this section is quoted from the foundation's own page.
| Detail | What the foundation states |
|---|---|
| Who runs it | The Institute of Neuro Innovation, for members of its university chapters |
| Undergraduate eligibility | Junior standing or above, in the foundation's own words |
| Paid | No. Unpaid and educational, with interns expected to pursue academic course credit through their home institution where applicable |
| Length | Typically 6 to 10 weeks |
| Placement | One primary research project, chosen on interests, skills, availability, and study needs. Remote or hybrid |
| Review | Rolling, with an initial response in 5 to 7 business days. Not all applicants are placed |
| Timing | Applications must be sent in the quarter before the internship |
| Deliverable | One capstone deliverable, such as a research brief, infographic, or white paper, plus a Neuroscience Anthology reflection that may be published |
| Priority | Given to active members of the chapter |
The national foundation's research internship is offered to the UCLA chapter. Whether INI Austin members are eligible on the same terms is not yet confirmed.
Questions people actually ask
- Do I need research experience?
- No. It is not required.
- Do I need to be a neuroscience major?
- No, at any tier. Projects need statistics, linguistics, and software as much as biology.
- Can I apply as a junior or senior?
- Yes, to every tier including Research Fellow. There is no class year restriction.
- Is there a fee?
- No. There are no dues at any tier and all programming is free.
- How do I apply?
- Through a Google Form, linked in the recruiting status box above when the cycle opens.
- What is the difference between committee and research?
- Committee membership is the leadership track: it leads to a Vice President position and potentially to President. Research membership is the research track. Committee membership helps a research application somewhat, but it is not the main route into research, and it is not a prerequisite.
- Do I have to be a committee member first?
- No. You can apply directly for a Research Fellow position.
- How many people are admitted?
- The constitution sets the research group at ten to twenty-five Fellows across two to three projects. The chapter does not publish an acceptance rate because it does not have one yet.
- Do you run experiments on people?
- No. Nothing the chapter has scoped involves human subjects, stimulation, or animal work. See the research page.
- Can I propose my own question?
- Yes, at any tier.
Last updated 22 August 2026.