Top Government-funded Computer Science Research Programs (2027)

TL;DR

You’ll find 14 government-funded computer science research programs below, each with its pay, dates, application deadline, and exactly who’s eligible to apply. A government lab gives you a seat on a project that’s already running. Horizon gives you a computer science project of your own. You’ll work with a professor or PhD mentor in subjects like machine learning, cybersecurity, or algorithms, and finish with a research paper that’s yours to submit to journals or competitions. Apply here.

What kind of computer science work will you actually do?

At a government lab, you join a project that a scientist is already running, and you take on one piece of it. That piece could be cleaning a messy dataset, writing a Python script to run a simulation, or testing whether a machine learning model holds up.

Here’s where the computing work sits on this list:

If you’re into…	Programs that fit	Find a topic
Cybersecurity and cryptography	NIST SHIP, NSA, Idaho National Laboratory, AFRL	STEM research topics
AI, machine learning, and data science	Brookhaven BDSA, Fermilab PRISM, Los Alamos, ORNL	Online data science research programs
Supercomputing and simulation	Argonne, ORNL, Los Alamos, Brookhaven HSRP	Tech summer research opportunities
Computing for biology and health	NIH SIP, Brookhaven HSRP	Bioinformatics research programs
Space and Earth data	NASA SEES	NASA internships for high school students

Pick by subject first, then by program. A big-name lab working on something you don’t care about makes for a long summer. And if you want a head start on the coding side, our list of free AI courses for high school students is a good place to build skills before you apply.

Government lab or private research program: which fits you?

At a government lab, you join a team and work on a slice of their project. You might touch a supercomputer or a dataset no university has. Many labs pay you. But the lab decides what you work on, and the eligibility rules are tight.

At a private mentorship program, you pick the question and own the whole project. You end with a paper you wrote, not a poster about someone else’s work. It usually costs money, though aid exists, and anyone can apply.

If you…	Start with
Are a U.S. citizen, 16 or older, and can move for the summer	SEAP or AFRL Scholars
Are a graduating senior who’ll be 18 by fall	NIH SIP, Brookhaven BDSA, or Argonne College Bound
Are a sophomore who wants to start early	NASA SEES, PNNL, or SEAP once you’re 16
Want a paycheck and live near a national lab	Your local lab in the near-a-lab group
Want to keep your summer free	ORNL NGSI or NSA Work Study
Want to pick your own CS question and finish with a paper	Horizon

Plenty of students do both. A government lab one summer and a mentored project during the school year make a strong pair, since they show two different skills.

Want more routes beyond formal programs? Our guide to the best ways to get research opportunities in high school covers them, and our list of the most competitive research programs shows where these fit against the rest.

Government-funded CS programs open to students anywhere in the U.S.

1. Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP)

Location: About 38 U.S. Navy research labs across the country
Cost and pay: Free. You get a $4,000 stipend, or $4,500 if you’re coming back for a second summer.
Dates: Eight weeks in summer 2027, with a possible extension of up to two more weeks
Application deadline: November 30, 2026. Applications opened September 15, 2026.
Eligibility: Students who’ve finished at least 9th grade, are 16 or older by the start date, and are U.S. citizens. Some labs make exceptions on age, grade, or citizenship, and some set stricter rules of their own.

SEAP is the Office of Naval Research’s summer program, and it places about 300 students across Navy labs each year. You’ll be paired with a Navy scientist or engineer and work on their current research.

If you want computing work, look closely at the Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) sites, which focus on communications, computing systems, and business IT for the Navy. But read each lab’s own line before you rank it. NIWC Atlantic in Charleston, for example, only takes students who are 18 and in a STEM major, which rules out most high schoolers. Lab rules really do vary that much.

This is also the earliest big deadline on the list. So if you’re reading this in the fall, SEAP should be the first application you open.

Who is it right for? A U.S. citizen who’s 16 or older, can relocate for the summer, and wants a paid placement at a defense lab.

2. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Scholars Program

Location: 14 Air Force research sites, including Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, Rome Lab in New York, and the Pentagon
Cost and pay: Free. Most sites pay high school scholars $506.80 a week, and a few sites, including Edwards and Whiteman Air Force Bases, pay more.
Dates: At least eight weeks, full time (40 hours a week), mostly in summer. A very small number of fall and spring spots exist.
Application deadline: January 11, 2027, for summer 2027. Applications open October 12, 2026.
Eligibility: High school students who are at least 16 by the deadline (18 for California sites), U.S. citizens (permanent residents aren’t eligible), and enrolled at least half time. A 3.0 GPA is strongly encouraged.

AFRL Scholars, run for the Air Force by the Universities Space Research Association, puts you next to Air Force scientists and engineers. Rome Lab in New York is the AFRL’s information and computing hub, so it’s the site to look at if code is your thing. AFRL’s posted research topics include machine learning reliability and space cybersecurity, though most of them are aimed at college students.

You’re one of many levels in the room here. High schoolers, undergrads, and grad students all apply to the same program. And you’ll arrange your own housing and transport.

Who is it right for? A 16-plus U.S. citizen who’s willing to move for a paid summer at a defense research site.

3. NIH Summer Internship Program (SIP)

Location: National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, and other NIH campuses
Cost and pay: Free. You get a monthly stipend set by your education level, which NIH adjusts each year.
Dates: Summer 2027, inside a May 10 to August 31 window
Application deadline: Applications open October 13, 2026, and close January 26, 2027, at noon Eastern. References are due February 2, 2027.
Eligibility: Graduating high school seniors, plus college and grad students. You must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident and 18 by September 30, 2027. If you’re still 17 on June 1, 2027, your permanent home must be within 40 miles of an NIH campus.

NIH is best known for medicine, but computer science and bioinformatics are both on its list of fields for SIP applicants. Labs across NIH use code to study genomes, medical images, and health data. Your application goes into a pool that NIH scientists search, so you’re picked by a lab, not by a central committee. That makes your cover letter matter. Say exactly what kind of computational work you want to do.

If you’re drawn to the biology side of computing, see our lists of computational biology summer programs and bioinformatics research programs.

Who is it right for? A graduating senior who’ll be 18 by the fall and wants to use code on health problems.

4. NASA SEES (STEM Enhancement in Earth Science)

Location: Hybrid. Some projects are virtual, and others include two weeks on site at the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Space Research.
Cost and pay: Unpaid. The virtual track is free. The on-site track costs $2,000, which covers housing, meals, tours, and local travel. Scholarships can cover tuition, meals, and housing, and a limited number also cover travel.
Dates: In 2026, online learning ran May 15 to July 1, the on-site program ran July 5 to 18, virtual projects ran June to July 21, and the closing symposium was July 20 and 21.
Application deadline: February 22 in 2026. The 2027 cycle hasn’t been announced, and UT Austin says the program’s future depends on funding.
Eligibility: Current sophomores and juniors who are 16 by the on-site start date, with no exceptions, and who are U.S. citizens. You can’t apply if you’ve done SEES before.

SEES is funded by NASA, and you’ll work on a small research team with NASA, university, and industry experts. Projects span remote sensing, astronomy, planetary science, and aerospace. Python is part of the deal: some students have to finish a Python course before July 1, and it’s optional for the rest. That makes SEES one of the few programs on this list that teaches you the coding before it asks you to use it.

It’s competitive. In 2024, SEES got about 2,000 applications and accepted 215. For more NASA options, see our guide to NASA internships for high school students.

Who is it right for? A sophomore or junior who’s into space or Earth science and wants to learn to code on NASA-funded science projects.

Summer CS programs for students who live near a federal lab

All eight of these need you to live nearby, either by rule or because there’s no housing. If one is in your area, you’ve got a strong shot at something most students can’t reach.

5. NIST Summer High School Intern Program (SHIP)

Location: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, or Boulder, CO
Cost and pay: Free but unpaid. NIST says it’s working on adding a stipend. You cover your own housing and transport.
Dates: Seven weeks, from mid-June to early August. 2027 dates haven’t been set.
Application deadline: The posting goes up on USAJobs in mid-October 2026 and closes at the end of January 2027.
Eligibility: U.S. citizens who are high school juniors or seniors when they apply, or recent graduates who haven’t started college. You need at least a 3.0 unweighted GPA and a permanent home within 50 miles of the campus you’d work at.

NIST places SHIP interns in six labs, and the Information Technology Laboratory is the one for you if you love computers. Its research covers cryptography, biometrics, computer forensics, software testing, data mining, machine learning, and image analysis. The Communications Technology Laboratory, which works on wireless networking, is another computing-friendly pick.

Here’s a small tip that helps. NIST asks students with programming experience who want a coding project to say so in their application. So say it, and be specific about the languages you know. The summer ends with a poster session.

Who is it right for? A junior or senior near Gaithersburg or Boulder who wants serious computing research and doesn’t need a paycheck.

6. Brookhaven National Laboratory High School Research Program (HSRP)

Location: Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY. It’s a commuter program, and housing and transport aren’t provided.
Cost and pay: Free to attend. Brookhaven doesn’t say whether HSRP is paid.
Dates: Six weeks, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The 2026 program ran July 6 to August 14, and you had to attend the full six weeks with no vacation days.
Application deadline: March 20 in 2026. Applications opened January 12. Brookhaven hasn’t posted 2027 dates yet.
Eligibility: Students who are 16 by the start date and are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Brookhaven recommends it for students who’ve finished 11th grade, so rising seniors. You’ll need health insurance.

HSRP pairs you with Brookhaven’s scientists, engineers, and technical staff on a project tied to the lab’s research. Not all of it is computing, but some of it is. One example project used computer modeling to study drugs that block proteins viruses use to escape cells. Brookhaven also runs a Computing and Data Sciences directorate, which is the place to aim if you want code.

Who is it right for? A Long Island rising senior who can commute every day and wants to see how a national lab works.

7. Brookhaven Big Data Science and Applications Summer School (BDSA)

Location: Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY
Cost and pay: Free, with $500 a week paid when you turn in a weekly report. Housing on site is free, but you pay your own travel.
Dates: Five weeks, Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The 2026 program ran July 13 to August 14.
Application deadline: April 1 in 2026, with references due April 3. Brookhaven hasn’t posted 2027 dates yet.
Eligibility: High school seniors graduating before the program starts who are at least 18, U.S. citizens, and living on Long Island or in the tri-state area. You’ll need a Real ID-compliant ID and health insurance.

This is the most coding-focused program on the list. Brookhaven and Jefferson Lab run it together, and it opens with a three-week boot camp in big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Then you move into group project work, which may connect to big efforts like the Electron-Ion Collider. You finish with a research presentation.

Free housing is rare for a program like this. If you’re a graduating senior in the region who wants AI training before college starts, it’s hard to beat.

Who is it right for? A graduating senior in the New York area who wants an intensive, paid crash course in AI and data science.

8. Argonne National Laboratory College Bound Research Program

Location: Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL. No housing, and you arrange your own transport.
Cost and pay: Free, with a taxable $500 weekly stipend
Dates: Summer, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (40 hours a week). Argonne doesn’t publish exact start and end dates.
Application deadline: February 6 in 2026. Argonne hasn’t posted 2027 dates yet.
Eligibility: Graduates of local high schools who are 18 by the start date, have at least a 3.75 unweighted GPA, are U.S. citizens or permanent residents, and are enrolled full time in college for the fall. You’ll need two recommendation letters from science or math teachers and a drug screen if you get an offer.

You’ll spend your first week planning a research strategy with an Argonne staff member, then carry it out in a lab or office for the rest of the summer. Argonne is home to the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility and its Aurora supercomputer. The program page doesn’t promise a computing placement, though, so make your interest clear when you apply.

That 3.75 unweighted GPA is the highest bar on this list. If you meet it and live near Chicago’s southwest suburbs, this is a strong bridge between high school and college.

Who is it right for? A graduating senior near Lemont with top grades who’s heading to college in the fall.

9. Fermilab Program for Research, Innovation, and STEM Mentorship (PRISM)

Location: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Illinois, with some off-site work
Cost and pay: Free, with a $500 weekly stipend. Housing isn’t provided, but help with transportation is available.
Dates: July 12 to August 6, 2027 (four weeks)
Application deadline: Applications open January 12, 2027, and close March 1, 2027.
Eligibility: Students enrolled at an Illinois high school who’ll be seniors in 2027 to 2028, or who graduate in 2027. You must be a U.S. citizen and show proof of medical insurance.

PRISM is short and structured. Each week has a theme, and artificial intelligence and quantum science are on the list alongside particle physics and engineering. You’ll go to talks, tour Fermilab’s research facilities, and work with a Fermilab mentor. It ends with an abstract, a poster, and a final presentation.

Four weeks is a manageable first taste of lab life. It won’t eat your whole summer, and it pays.

Who is it right for? An Illinois student who wants a short, paid look at AI and physics research at a famous lab.

10. Idaho National Laboratory (INL) High School Internships

Location: Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID. No housing or transport is provided.
Cost and pay: Paid. INL doesn’t publish the rate.
Dates: Six to eight weeks, starting in mid-June
Application deadline: INL hasn’t posted 2027 dates. Its most recent posted window, for summer 2025, closed February 28.
Eligibility: Rising juniors, rising seniors, and recent graduates who are at least 16, have a 3.0 GPA or higher, and are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. You’ll need to pass pre-employment screening.

INL is the Department of Energy’s nuclear energy lab, but its work runs wider than that. Its high school projects span nuclear energy, cybersecurity, environmental science, and more. Cybersecurity is a big deal at INL, since protecting power grids and other infrastructure is part of its job.

Treat late February as your working deadline until INL says otherwise. The high school page still shows an old cycle, so check it again in January.

Who is it right for? A student in eastern Idaho who wants a paid summer working on cybersecurity or energy.

11. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) High School Internship Program

Location: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM (on site)
Cost and pay: Paid, $16.50 an hour per LANL’s student pay page
Dates: Most summer 2026 internships started June 1. Lengths ranged from four weeks to a full year.
Application deadline: LANL’s summer window runs from January to mid-April. In 2026, it ran January 12 to April 15. There’s also a fall window, from August to December, for school-year internships.
Eligibility: New Mexico high school students who are at least 16 and will be seniors during the internship, so you apply in the second half of junior year. LANL’s current posting asks for a 2.75 GPA (one older FAQ says 3.0), and its most recent posting required U.S. citizenship. Students outside northern New Mexico need their mentor to request an exception. You’ll also take a drug test.

LANL is the only program here that publishes its full project list, and it’s packed with computing. Its summer 2026 project book included more than a dozen computing projects, from Python simulations to agentic AI workflows. So you can read what LANL scientists are working on before you apply, and aim your application at the projects you want.

Who is it right for? A northern New Mexico junior who wants a paid, flexible-length computing internship at one of the country’s biggest labs.

12. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Student Research Apprenticeship Program

Location: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA
Cost and pay: PNNL doesn’t publish pay on its program pages.
Dates: Ten weeks, June to August, up to full time. PNNL also runs a school-year research internship from August to May for up to four hours a day.
Application deadline: Not published for the summer program. School-year applications open in early February.
Eligibility: Sophomores, juniors, and seniors (at the time you apply) who’ll be at least 16 when the internship starts, with a 3.0 cumulative GPA or higher. You must be able to complete all 10 weeks. You need to be 18 to work in lab spaces, but younger interns can still take part.

PNNL is a Department of Energy lab with large computing and data science groups. The summer apprenticeship puts you on a research team for ten weeks. The school-year option is the bigger surprise: you may be able to earn elective credit at school while you work.

That 18-and-over lab rule is worth knowing. If you’re under 18, computing projects may be your best fit here, since they don’t need a lab bench.

Who is it right for? A Tri-Cities sophomore or junior who wants a long summer on a research team, or a school-year internship that counts toward credit.

Government-funded CS programs that run during the school year

Summer isn’t the only option. These two run alongside your classes, and one of them lasts your entire senior year.

13. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Next Generation STEM Internship (NGSI)

Location: Virtual, for students in 10 East Tennessee counties: Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Knox, Loudon, McMinn, Monroe, Morgan, Roane, and Sevier
Cost and pay: Free, with a $125 weekly stipend for part-time work
Dates: January 26 to May 15 or May 22, 2027 (about 16 to 17 weeks)
Application deadline: October 21, 2026, for spring 2027
Eligibility: High school juniors or seniors in 2026 to 2027, or recent graduates who haven’t started college, who are 16 by January 26, 2027. You need a 3.0 GPA, U.S. citizenship or permanent residency, health insurance, and a home or school in one of the 10 counties.

NGSI connects you with ORNL’s research and professional staff on a STEM project, all from home. ORNL runs Frontier, one of the world’s fastest supercomputers, and AI is a major research area there. One intern featured on the program page did AI research with an ORNL scientist. You’ll also get workshops, virtual lab tours, and networking.

The deadline is October 21, so if you’re eligible, apply this week. You’ll need two recommendations, so ask your teachers today.

Who is it right for? An East Tennessee junior or senior who wants national lab experience without giving up their summer.

14. NSA High School Work Study Program

Location: NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, MD, or field sites in Anchorage, AK; Denver, CO; Fort Gordon, GA; Kunia, HI; San Antonio, TX; Draper, UT; and Sugar Grove, WV
Cost and pay: Paid, about $15 an hour, with paid leave and holidays
Dates: Part time, 20 hours a week, from September through August of your senior year
Application deadline: The 2026 posting ran September 2 to October 1, 2026, on USAJobs, and it’s now closed. The next one will likely open around the same time in 2027.
Eligibility: High school juniors who’ll be 16 by December 31 of the year they apply, are U.S. citizens, and can get a Top Secret security clearance. An unweighted GPA of 2.5 or higher is preferred. You’ll need at least two courses in your chosen field by the end of junior year and must live within commuting distance of your site.

This isn’t a summer program. It’s a real part-time government job during your senior year. You can pick a computer track, and some sites, like Alaska, require computer science classes before you apply. The clearance process is the biggest hurdle. It’s slow and thorough, so plan for it to take months.

NSA picks candidates on a rolling basis, so applying in the first week of the window helps. If you’re a sophomore now, put next September on your calendar.

Who is it right for? A sophomore or junior near an NSA site who’s serious about cybersecurity or intelligence as a career.

A mentored CS research program you can join from anywhere

Every program above has rules about where you live, how old you are, or which passport you hold. This one doesn’t, and it’s built around a project you choose.

Horizon Academic Research Program

Location: Online, over Zoom
Cost: $6,950 per course. Need-based financial aid is available for families earning under $75,000 a year.
Dates: Labs run year-round and usually take 12 to 16 weeks. Seminars run for 10 weeks in summer. Expect 8 to 10 hours a week.
Application deadline: Horizon runs several cohorts a year. For the winter cohort, the priority deadline is October 18, 2026, and the final deadline is November 22, 2026.
Eligibility: Students in grades 9 to 12 with a strong GPA (3.67 unweighted or equivalent), from any country

Horizon’s computer science options come in two shapes. In a Lab, you work one-on-one with a PhD mentor in Applications of Machine Learning. In a Seminar, you join a group of three to six students led by a professor in subjects like AI, Machine Learning, and Data Science; Algorithms and Data Structures; Cybersecurity; or Network Science. Either way, you pick your own research question and finish with a full research paper, usually around 5,000 words, that’s yours to submit to journals or competitions.

It’s selective: Horizon accepted 26% of 6,539 applications. And since it’s online, you won’t be at a government lab. What you get instead is your own project and a mentor’s full attention.

Who is it right for? A student who wants to own a computer science project from question to paper, whatever their location, age, or citizenship.

FAQs about government-funded computer science programs

When are the application deadlines?Here are the most recent deadlines each program has posted. Where the 2027 cycle isn’t up yet, we’ve listed the latest date as a guide.

Program	Deadline	Cycle
Horizon (winter cohort)	October 18, 2026 (priority), November 22, 2026 (final)	Winter 2026
ORNL NGSI	October 21, 2026	Spring 2027
SEAP	November 30, 2026	Summer 2027
AFRL Scholars	January 11, 2027	Summer 2027
NIH SIP	January 26, 2027	Summer 2027
NIST SHIP	End of January 2027	Summer 2027
Argonne College Bound	February 6	2026, 2027 not posted
NASA SEES	February 22	2026, 2027 not announced
Idaho National Laboratory	February 28	2025, 2027 not posted
Fermilab PRISM	March 1, 2027	Summer 2027
Brookhaven HSRP	March 20	2026, 2027 not posted
Brookhaven BDSA	April 1	2026, 2027 not posted
Los Alamos	April 15	2026, 2027 not posted
PNNL	Not published	Summer 2027
NSA Work Study	October 1, 2026 (closed)	Senior year 2027 to 2028

Resources

More from Horizon

• 15 tech summer research opportunities for high school students
• 12 online data science research programs
• 13 computer science summer programs in California
• 8 robotics research opportunities
• NASA internships for high school students
• 16 fully funded STEM programs
• The most prestigious summer research programs with low acceptance rates
• How to publish research in high school
• Research competitions for high school students

Want a computer science project that’s yours?

Worried the programs on this list are too far away, too strict about citizenship, or already closed for the year? You’re not stuck waiting for next summer.

At Horizon, you work with a professor or PhD mentor on a computer science question you choose. You could study how machine learning models fail, how networks spread information, or how to make systems harder to hack. Over 10 to 16 weeks, you’ll go from a rough idea to a finished paper of around 5,000 words that’s yours to submit to journals or competitions.

It’s fully online, cohorts start several times a year, and need-based aid is available. Apply to Horizon here.

And if you’re wondering how this shows up on college applications, a finished paper is a lot easier to point to than a line on a résumé.

Image source: SEAP