A new summer fellowship program will allow more undergraduates to conduct research in science and engineering during the summer after freshman year.

Freshman can already get support from Yale through the Science, Technology and Research Scholars (STARS) program to spend the summer doing scientific research, but the new program will expand these numbers. At least 25 more fellowship slots will be available to freshmen by the summer of 2013, representing a 50 percent increase over the last five years in the number of research positions offered to freshmen, Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart said in an email to the News.

The summer fellowship will include “support for full-time research, new summer programmatic activities, and enhanced guidance and support for finding mentors, developing proposals, and making a successful entry into research,” Peart wrote.

She added that in the last decade, Yale College has more than doubled its summer fellowship support for students who do research in the sciences and engineering under the direction of Yale faculty members. In the summer of 2013, Yale will make a total commitment of close to $500,000 to support at least 110 science and engineering freshmen.