Research and mentorship

A 10-week research and mentorship program where students create and contribute to a citizen science project guided by an undergraduate student mentor. Students develop research skills, collect real data, and present findings.

An online research incubator where you pick a problem that matters, get matched with a mentor and produce a real piece of work over the cohort, in anything from policy and economics to computer science and biology. It runs in three tiers: Research Foundations gives a certificate and community access, Research Fellows adds mentorship and project grants, and Research Scholars adds custom mentorship and a $10,000 scholarship. Applications for the next cohort open in November 2026, with a priority deadline of December 15, 2026 and a final deadline of January 4, 2027. Widely circulated figures about a $500 acceptance award and $30,000 in seed funding are not on the Non-Trivial site as of August 2026, so treat the tiers above as the published offer.

Ten weeks of one-to-one research with a PhD mentor, ending in a paper, podcast or prototype. Tuition-based, with need-based financial aid.

A seven-month one-to-one mentorship with a U of A engineering student, for female high school students, with info sessions, faculty events, campus tours and design challenges in the Elko Engineering Garage. Intakes are announced through DiscoverE.

Applications for the 2027 program reopen in fall 2026. A one-week program where Indigenous high school students conduct research alongside university professors and graduate students at the U of A.

Applications are open now across host universities including UCalgary, UBC, Queens, Guelph, York, TMU and U of T Mississauga. REO places high school students on real research, prioritising Indigenous, rural, refugee, newcomer and first-generation students, though everyone is encouraged to apply.

Applications open April 1 and close in early July, with decisions by August 31. A free online research program from the New York Academy of Sciences where students team up on industry-set challenges with a mentor.

Applications for the 2026-27 cohort are open now. TKS is a 10-month after-school program where students go deep on AI, biotech and robotics and build projects with companies; alumni have reached research labs and startups before 19.

Open only where your school or district has joined SSEP as a community. Those teams design flight experiments from September 1 to November 3, 2026, with community submissions to NCESSE by November 12 for Mission 22 to the International Space Station.

A global talent program that names 100 Global Winners a year and backs them for life. Winners get a four-year post-secondary scholarship covering tuition and a living stipend, awarded on need and only where other financial aid does not already cover it, plus a fully funded residential summit, a laptop or tablet, and the ability to apply for funding for their own projects later on. It suits students who already run something that serves other people rather than students with a strong report card alone. Check the status before you plan around it: the most recent cohort announced on the Rise site is 2024, and as of August 2026 the apply subdomain redirects to the homepage with no open cycle posted.