Updated October 2026
TL;DR
Every program on this list puts you in a working research lab and pays you for it, with stipends that run from $750 to $5,040. Several application windows are open right now, including CCNY STEM Research Academy (closes January 5, 2027), CHESS (closes January 11, 2027), and Chicago EYES on Cancer (closes November 30, 2026). Jump to the full program list, the comparison table, or tips to strengthen your application. If you’d like a mentor-guided research project of your own that you can start from home, you can apply to the Horizon Academic Research Program.
Getting lab experience in high school while getting paid for it is hard to beat, which is why the programs on this list are worth knowing about. Each one puts you in an actual lab, on a project, with scientists who need the work done. Depending on the lab, you might spend your summer running PCR and gel electrophoresis, or digging through genomic datasets in Python, or contributing to cancer biology research at a university hospital. This guide covers 15 paid, lab-based programs for current high schoolers. If you’re also looking at what to do before summer, our guide on how to get into a top high school research program is worth reading first.
What kinds of paid lab programs are out there?
There are three rough types, and knowing which one you’re aiming for saves a lot of time.
The first is the hospital or medical-school lab, where you work on a biomedical question with a faculty member or postdoc. Kenan Fellows, UCSF SSRP, Chicago EYES on Cancer and ResearcHStart all sit in this group.
The second is the university or national lab with a broader science and engineering menu, like NYU ARISE, Berkeley Lab EinR, the Simons Summer Research Program, and the Clark Scholars Program.
The third is the government-run program, such as SEAP with the Navy and the AFRL Scholars Program with the Air Force, where the research tends to be tied to defense and engineering. One more thing worth knowing early: many of these are local. Several only take residents of a particular county or city, so your zip code can decide your shortlist before your grades do.
When should you apply to paid lab programs?
Earlier than feels reasonable. Most windows open in the fall and close between November and March, and the summer you’re applying for is the one that starts about seven months later.
In late October 2026, Chicago EYES on Cancer is closing soon (November 30), CHESS and CCNY STEM Research Academy are open, and the Broad Summer Scholars Program opens November 23. Programs like Kenan Fellows and Scripps REACH haven’t posted 2027 dates yet, but their past deadlines landed in March, so start your materials in January.
If you’re a sophomore or a junior, our guide on how to get into a top high school research program covers what selection committees tend to read closely.
Which paid lab program fits your goal?
| If you want | Look at |
| Cancer biology and a longer-term commitment | Chicago EYES on Cancer, CHESS |
| Biomedical research in a hospital or institute lab | Kenan Fellows, UCSF SSRP, ResearcHStart, UKY Microbiology Fellowship |
| Engineering, physics and computer science | NYU ARISE, Clark Scholars, Simons |
| Defense and government labs | SEAP, AFRL Scholars |
| A national lab or a genomics institute | Berkeley Lab EinR, Broad Summer Scholars |
| Chemistry and biology in a San Diego-area lab | Scripps REACH |
| Research during the school year as well as summer | CCNY STEM Research Academy |
Lab Opportunities with Stipend for High School Students
1. Kenan Fellows High School Summer Internship
Location: The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute, Jupiter, FL
Stipend: $4,480
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: More than 250 applicants compete for 14 spots
Program Dates: TBA (previous cohort: June 5 to July 31)
Application Deadline: TBA (previous deadline: March 1)
Eligibility: U.S. citizens or permanent residents living in Palm Beach or Martin County, at least 16 years old by the program start date, with a minimum 3.0 GPA.
Kenan Fellows is eight weeks of full-time lab work, 40 hours a week, at the Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute. You work next to research scientists on projects that touch cancer biology, infectious disease, drug discovery, biotechnology, and biomedical engineering. You finish with a scientific abstract, a poster, and an oral presentation, which is the whole research cycle in miniature.
Who is it right for? Palm Beach and Martin County high schoolers who want a full-time, paid biomedical lab summer.
2. Cancer Health Engagement Summer Scholars (CHESS)
Location: University of Illinois Cancer Center, Chicago, IL
Stipend: $4,000 upon successful completion
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not published
Program Dates: June 14 to August 6 (8 weeks, 40 hours per week)
Application Deadline: January 11
Eligibility: Cook County residents in grades 10 to 12 who will be at least 16 by December 1
CHESS opens with a boot camp week that gets you comfortable with lab safety and research basics. After that, you move into a faculty lab for mentored research, which can sit anywhere from molecular biology to computational work, depending on the lab you’re matched with. At the end, you present your project at the University of Illinois Cancer Center’s student symposium.
Who is it right for? Cook County sophomores, juniors, and seniors who want a structured start in cancer research.
3. NYU ARISE (Applied Research Innovations in Science and Engineering)
Location: NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY
Stipend: $2,000, paid upon completion
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not published
Program Dates: TBA (previous cohort: June 1 to August 14)
Application Deadline: TBA (previous deadline: February 27)
Eligibility: Rising juniors and seniors who are full-time New York City residents attending NYC high schools
ARISE splits ten weeks in two: four weeks of remote training, then six weeks in an NYU lab. Altogether that’s about 150 hours of active research, which is more lab time than a lot of undergrad courses give you. Projects span machine learning, environmental engineering, cybersecurity, molecular biology, materials science, biomedical engineering, and robotics.
Who is it right for? NYC rising juniors and seniors who want an engineering-flavored lab experience that’s free to attend.
4. UCSF Summer Student Research Program (SSRP)
Location: UCSF, San Francisco and Oakland, CA
Stipend: $3,000
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not published
Program Dates: TBA (previous cohort: June 15 to July 31, 7 weeks)
Application Deadline: TBA
Eligibility: Sophomores, juniors, and seniors with at least one year of math and biology who are at least 16 by June 1 and underrepresented in the sciences.
SSRP pairs you with a researcher or clinician for a lab, clinical, or community-health project, and the pairing is close, so you get one-on-one time with that person. You learn how to collect and analyze data, read the literature around your question, and use the techniques your lab relies on. Weekly seminars and journal clubs run on top of that, and you close the summer with a research poster and an oral presentation.
Who is it right for? Sophomores through seniors from underrepresented backgrounds in science who want a mentor-heavy biomedical summer.
5. Berkeley Lab Experiences in Research (EinR)
Location: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA (hybrid or virtual)
Stipend: $500 per week
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not published
Program Dates: TBA (previous cohort: June 15 to July 24; six weeks, 30 to 35 hours per week)
Application Deadline: TBA (previous application period: February 2 to March 22)
Eligibility: Northern California students in grades 10 to 12 who are at least 16 years old.
EinR puts you on a six-week project with scientists, engineers, or staff at a national laboratory. What you do depends on your placement. You might be collecting experimental data, writing code, or helping run the science communication side of a project. Along the way, you work with a cohort of fellow interns and attend career talks and professional development sessions, so you see how the whole national lab runs, beyond your own corner of it.
Who is it right for? Northern California students who want national-lab experience and a steady weekly paycheck.
6. Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP)
Location: Navy laboratories across the United States
Stipend: $4,000 for first-year apprentices and $4,500 for returning apprentices
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not published
Program Dates: Eight weeks over the summer (start dates vary by Navy lab)
Application Deadline: Applications open in the fall; check the SEAP website for the exact closing date
Eligibility: U.S. citizens who have completed ninth grade, are enrolled in high school, and are at least 16 years old.
SEAP is an eight-week apprenticeship inside a Navy lab, where you work with scientists and engineers on real defense-related research. The topics lean toward engineering, physics, and computer science, and the work happens in a place where the stakes are higher than a class project. The returning-apprentice pay rate is a small nod to the fact that you can come back for a second summer and build on what you started.
Who is it right for? U.S. citizens who like the idea of applied engineering research in a government lab and don’t mind a long list of locations.
7. Simons Summer Research Program
Location: Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY
Stipend: Awarded at the closing symposium (amount not published)
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not published
Program Dates: TBA (previous cohort: June 30 to August 8)
Application Deadline: TBA
Eligibility: Current juniors who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents and at least 16 years old. No age exceptions are allowed.
Simons matches you with a Stony Brook faculty mentor and a project in the sciences, math, or engineering. The weeks are spent working on that project with the people who know the lab best. The program ends with a symposium where you present what you found, and that’s also when the stipend is awarded.
Who is it right for? Juniors who want a university-lab summer with a faculty mentor and a formal symposium at the end.
8. CCNY STEM Research Academy
Location: City College of New York, New York, NY
Stipend: Eligible students may receive $1,575
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: 25 students in the spring cohort and 10 in the summer cohort (summer cohort size subject to change)
Program Dates: Spring cohort: February 9 to May 20. Summer cohort: July 6 to August 5
Application Deadline: January 5
Eligibility: NYC public school 10th and 11th graders who meet the academy’s Regents and GPA requirements.
This is the one program here that fits into a school year. The spring cohort runs for about three months, and the summer cohort is a shorter, more intensive month. You work in a City College research lab with a mentor, learning to read papers and handle data along the way. Small cohorts mean you’ll actually get time with the people running the lab.
Who is it right for? NYC public school sophomores and juniors who want research on a school-year schedule.
9. AFRL Scholars Program
Location: Air Force Research Laboratory sites across the United States
Stipend: Paid (amount not published)
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not published
Program Dates: Summer (dates vary by site)
Application Deadline: TBA (the most recent cycle closed in early January)
Eligibility: U.S. citizens who are at least 16, have a valid driver’s license and reliable transportation, and are upper-level high school students.
AFRL puts you alongside Air Force scientists and engineers working on active projects. What you do depends on the site and the team, so the fields range widely across engineering and the physical sciences. If you’re set on aerospace or defense research, this is one of the few chances at that kind of lab while you’re still in high school.
Who is it right for? U.S. citizens interested in defense-adjacent engineering who can get themselves to a lab every day.
10. Anson L. Clark Scholars Program
Location: Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
Stipend: $750, paid after you submit your research report
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: 12 scholars
Program Dates: TBA (previous cohort: June 21 to August 6)
Application Deadline: TBA
Eligibility: U.S. citizens or permanent residents who are at least 17 by the program start date and are rising seniors or recent high school graduates.
Clark Scholars is a seven-week program where you join a faculty lab at Texas Tech to work on a project of your own, in fields from engineering to computer science to the physical and life sciences. With only 12 scholars, the group is tight, and you’ll likely know everyone by the end of the first week.
Who is it right for? Rising seniors and recent graduates who are 17 or older and want a residential summer of independent lab work.
11. Chicago EYES on Cancer
Location: University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Stipend: $5,000 per year
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Up to 12 students
Program Dates: June 14 to August 6 (two consecutive eight-week summers, plus monthly Zoom activities between them)
Application Deadline: November 30
Eligibility: Students in grades 10 to 12 from Cook, Lake, Will, or DuPage County (IL) or Lake County (IN), who are at least 16 years old.
EYES is the long game. You spend two summers in a University of Chicago cancer lab, which is enough time to start a project, hit a wall, and come back the next year with a better idea. Monthly Zoom sessions between summers keep you connected to the cohort.
Who is it right for? Chicago-area sophomores and juniors who want two summers of cancer research with one lab and one mentor.
12. ResearcHStart
Location: UChicago Medicine, Chicago, IL
Stipend: $3,000 (taxable)
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not published
Program Dates: TBA (previous cohort: June 15 to August 7; 8 weeks, 35 to 40 hours per week)
Application Deadline: TBA
Eligibility: Juniors and seniors in Illinois or Lake County, Indiana, who are at least 16 years old.
ResearcHStart is an eight-week, near-full-time placement in a UChicago Medicine research lab. The stipend is taxable, which is worth knowing if you’re thinking about how to budget it.
Who is it right for? Illinois and Northwest Indiana juniors and seniors who want a single, full-time summer in a medical research lab.
13. Broad Summer Scholars Program
Location: Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA
Stipend: Paid (amount not published)
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not published
Program Dates: July 6 to August 13 (6 weeks)
Application Deadline: January 20
Eligibility: Rising seniors in Massachusetts
The Broad is a genomics and biomedical research institute, so this is where you’d go if sequencing, genetics, or data-heavy biology is your thing. Over six weeks, you work with a mentor in one of the institute’s research groups. The application opens November 23, so you have a few weeks to get materials ready.
Who is it right for? Massachusetts rising seniors interested in genomics and biomedical research. If you’re closer to Boston, our guide to lab opportunities for high school students in Boston has more local options.
14. UKY Microbiology High School Summer Fellowship
Location: University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY
Stipend: $2,500
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: At least 6 students
Program Dates: TBA (8 weeks, 20 to 25 hours per week)
Application Deadline: TBA (previous deadline: April 5)
Eligibility: Students who are at least 16 by June 15 and have completed advanced biology and chemistry coursework.
This fellowship puts you in a University of Kentucky microbiology lab for eight weeks at a part-time pace, 20 to 25 hours a week. That makes it a good fit if you want real research hours but also need room for a job, summer school, or family commitments.
Who is it right for? Biology and chemistry students in Kentucky who want microbiology research on a part-time schedule.
15. Scripps Research REACH
Location: Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA
Stipend: $5,040
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not published
Program Dates: TBA (previous cohort: June 22 to August 7; 7 weeks)
Application Deadline: TBA (previous deadline: March 22)
Eligibility: San Diego County residents attending one of the nine REACH partner schools, who are at least 16, have a 3.0 GPA, and have completed one year each of chemistry and biology.
REACH is a seven-week internship at Scripps Research, a biomedical institute known for chemistry and structural biology. You spend the summer on a research project in a lab, after a three-day boot camp that gets you up to speed on lab basics.
Who is it right for? Students at a REACH partner school in San Diego County who already have chemistry and biology under their belts.
How do these paid lab programs compare?
| Program | Stipend | Length |
| Kenan Fellows | $4,480 | 8 weeks |
| CHESS | $4,000 | 8 weeks |
| NYU ARISE | $2,000 | 10 weeks |
| UCSF SSRP | $3,000 | 7 weeks |
| Berkeley Lab EinR | $500 per week | 6 weeks |
| SEAP | $4,000 to $4,500 | 8 weeks |
| Simons | Not published | Summer |
| CCNY STEM Research Academy | $1,575 (eligible students) | Spring or summer |
| AFRL Scholars | Not published | Summer |
| Clark Scholars | $750 (plus room and board) | 7 weeks |
| Chicago EYES on Cancer | $5,000 per year | 2 summers |
| ResearcHStart | $3,000 | 8 weeks |
| Broad Summer Scholars | Not published | 6 weeks |
| UKY Microbiology Fellowship | $2,500 | 8 weeks |
| Scripps REACH | $5,040 | 7 weeks |
For more ways to earn while you research, see our list of paid research mentorship programs for high school students.
5 Tips to Land a Paid Lab Spot
1. Check eligibility before you write a word
Half of the programs here are tied to a county, a city, a school, or a citizenship status, and a strong essay won’t change that. Read the eligibility line first, then decide where to spend your time.
2. Get your coursework in order.
Some labs ask for a year each of biology and chemistry, or a specific math background. Check your transcript against the requirements early enough to fix a gap, since taking the right class in the spring can make you eligible for the summer after.
3. Write about a specific question.
Selection committees read a lot of essays about “a passion for science.” A sharper one describes the one thing you tried to figure out, even if it was small: why your sourdough starter died, or how you’d tell if a water sample was safe. If you’ve never done research, our guide to research programs for complete beginners shows what a strong starter story looks like.
4. Ask for recommenders a month ahead.
A teacher who knows your work will write something concrete if you give them time and a short note about what you want them to mention. That note makes their letter better and your application stronger.
5. Build a small research record first.
If you want a stronger application, read a few papers in the area you like and write a summary of each. Our guide to finding a research lab as a high school student walks through how to reach out to a professor, which is a good way to prepare even if you don’t end up working with one.
A lab placement hands you a project that already has momentum. If you’d like to build one from scratch, the Horizon Academic Research Program pairs you one-on-one with a mentor for a trimester of online research that ends with a 20-page paper. It’s selective and fully online, so you can do it alongside a school year in any state.
What you might still be wondering about these paid lab programs
Not for most of them. A few ask for a year of biology and chemistry, or biology and math, but none list prior lab work as a requirement, and several open with a boot camp that covers safety and basic technique. If you’re starting from scratch, our guide to research programs for complete beginners is a good place to start.
It could be either. Many of these labs run projects in engineering, computer science, materials science, or biostatistics alongside biology, and you’ll often be matched based on your interests and the lab’s needs.
Yes, all of them do, with published stipends from $750 to $5,040. Some pay weekly, while others hold the payment until you finish your report or complete the program, so plan for that if you need the money up front. For more paid options, our guide to paid research mentorship programs for high school students is worth a look.
For most of them, yes, because the work happens on site and many only accept residents of a particular county or city. If you’re not close to any of them, the Horizon Academic Research Program is fully online and lets you do a mentored research project from wherever you live.
Yes, to some. A handful accept sophomores, a few are limited to rising seniors or juniors, and age minimums run from 16 to 17. Check the grade line on each entry and apply the year you qualify. For a broader look at what’s open to you earlier in high school, our guide on how to get into a top high school research program covers that.
It varies, but they’re selective. One county-based program drew more than 250 applicants for 14 spots in 2026, and the programs that publish cohort sizes tend to keep them to a dozen or two.
Most do. You can expect a poster, an oral presentation, or a symposium where you share your findings with the lab and sometimes with family and faculty.
More from Horizon
- 7 Ways to Find a Research Lab as a High School Student
- 16 Fully-Funded STEM Programs for High School Students
- 11 Free Research Mentorship Programs for High School Students
- How to Get Into a Top High School Research Program
- The Most Competitive Research Programs for High School Students
- Is It Worth Paying for a Paid Summer Program?
- 14 Research Programs for Complete Beginners
- 16 Best Online Research Opportunities for High School Students
- Do Summer Research Programs Actually Help with College Admissions?
- Top 14 Research Mentorship Programs
- Research Programs for High School Students
Image source: Horizon Academic Research Program