15 Research Opportunities for High School Students in Texas
Working in a laboratory or contributing to a research project while you are still in high school can change how you view science, engineering, and academia as potential career paths. Research programs allow you to learn skills that are difficult to gain in a traditional classroom, from running experiments and analyzing data to documenting results and presenting them to an audience that includes working scientists. You can also build relationships with faculty, graduate students, and peers who share your interests. These connections can help you make informed decisions about college applications, choose a major, and explore early-career options.
Why should you attend a program in Texas?
Texas is home to major research universities, NASA's Johnson Space Center, the Texas Medical Center, national laboratories, and independent research and development organizations such as Southwest Research Institute. You could spend a summer running cancer research in a university lab, contributing to an aerospace engineering project through NASA or the Air Force, or working on a computer science or nanotechnology study. These opportunities are suitable for Texas residents seeking programs close to home, as well as for out-of-state students drawn to the state's concentration of research institutions.
To help you get started, we’ve put together 15 research opportunities for high school students in Texas.
If you’re looking for free programs in Texas, check out our blog here.
Key takeaways
These programs span cancer biology, aerospace, nanotechnology, computer science, and biomedical research, with several, such as MD Anderson ($7,200), NanoExplorers ($5,000), and UT Austin HSRA ($4,000), charging tuition, while others, such as AFRL Scholars and Greehey CCRI, are free with stipends.
Acceptance rates are extremely competitive across the board, with MD Anderson accepting only 6 students, Clark Scholars accepting 12, and Voelcker Biomedical Research Academy requiring school nomination before students can even apply.
Multi-year programs, such as Voelcker Biomedical Research Academy, offer sustained mentorship across three years, while shorter intensives, such as SwRI YES (10 days), compress a full research cycle into a much tighter window.
Application deadlines range from January (AFRL Scholars, MD Anderson) to May (SwRI YES), so students should identify target programs in the fall to stay ahead of the earliest deadlines.
1. Anson L. Clark Scholars Program
Location: Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
Cost/Stipend: $25 application fee | $750 stipend
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Extremely selective, only 12 students per year
Dates: June 21 - August 6
Application Deadline: February 16
Eligibility: High school juniors and seniors (17+ years) who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents
The program involves 12 students spending 7 weeks working one-on-one with a Texas Tech faculty mentor on an independent research project, culminating in a formal written report. Research offerings span eight disciplines, including biology and cellular microbiology, cancer biology, chemistry, computer science, economics, electrical and computer engineering, mechanical engineering with a focus on cancer bioimaging, and physics. Past scholars have worked on projects such as GPU frequency scaling for AI workloads, multi-modal machine learning for diabetes classification, eDNA detection in predator-prey systems, vanadium-node-functionalized metal-organic frameworks as catalysts, and pulsar-based gravitational wave detectors in globular clusters. Weekly seminars complement the daily laboratory work, while weekend activities such as hiking and camping trips improve overall residential experience. You will work with a single faculty advisor for the full seven weeks, and the small cohort allows for close, sustained mentorship throughout the experience.
2. Veritas AI
Location: Virtual
Cost/Stipend: Varies by program | Financial aid available
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Dates: Multiple 12 - 15-week cohorts throughout the year
Application Deadline: Rolling enrollment | Deadlines vary by cohort – summer (May), fall (September), spring (January), and winter (November) | You can check details and apply to the program here.
Eligibility: High school students | AI Fellowship with Publication and Showcase accepts previous AI Scholars participants or those with some experience working with AI or Python.
Founded and run by Harvard graduate students, Veritas AI offers several online programs for high school students passionate about artificial intelligence. If you are looking to get started with artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science, you can choose the AI Scholars program. Through this 10-session boot camp, you will learn about the fundamentals of AI and data science and get an opportunity to work on real-world projects. Another track for more advanced students is the AI Fellowship with Publication & Showcase. During this program, you will get a chance to work 1:1 with mentors from top universities on a unique, individual project. A key feature of this program is that it offers you access to the in-house publication team to help you secure publications in high school research journals. You can check out some examples of past projects here.
3. AFRL Scholars Program
Location: AFWERX, Austin, TX
Cost/Stipend: Fully funded | Weekly stipend offered
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Competitive
Dates: 10-12 weeks in the summer (specific dates vary by location and project)
Application Deadline: January 10
Eligibility: High school students (16+ years) with at least a GPA of 3.0 who are U.S. citizens | More details here
The Air Force Research Laboratory's scholars program places high school interns with full-time AFRL scientists and engineers for ten to twelve weeks of work contributing to research projects across the laboratory's technical directorates. AFRL's research portfolio spans aerospace systems, directed energy, sensors and materials science, autonomous systems and AI, information technology, space vehicle technologies, and human performance, and your project will fall within one of these areas depending on the site and researcher you are matched with. Interns contribute to active, mission-relevant research, experiencing the same intensity and commitment as other laboratory members. A background check is required and may result in a security clearance, which reflects the defense-research context of the work.
4. Lumiere Research Scholar Program
Location: Remote ( you can participate in the program from anywhere in the world)
Cost/Stipend: Varies depending on program type | Full financial aid available.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Dates: Varies by cohort – summer, winter, fall, and spring | Options range from 12 weeks to a year.
Application Deadline: Varying deadlines based on cohort
Eligibility: Students in high school who demonstrate a high level of academic achievement
The Lumiere Research Scholar Program is a rigorous research program tailored for high school students. The program offers extensive 1-on-1 research opportunities across a wide range of subject areas such as computer science, data science, engineering, chemistry, psychology, physics, international relations, and economics. The program pairs you with Ph.D. mentors to work 1-on-1 on an independent research project. At the end of the program, you will have developed an independent research paper. You can find more details about the application here.
5. Voelcker Biomedical Research Academy
Location: San Antonio, TX
Cost/Stipend: None | Stipend is provided
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Extremely selective | Only about 20 students are accepted per cohort, and all must be school-nominated to even apply
Dates: Seven weeks in summer (year 1), with academic-year commitment across three years
Application Deadline: School nominations close January 28; applications close March 6
Eligibility: Rising sophomores nominated by their high school in the Greater San Antonio Area, with 90%+ in mathematics, science, and English (85%+ in Pre-AP, AP, or Dual Credit), who are at least 15 years old by June 15
Over three years, you will move from a foundational summer immersion into sustained, faculty-mentored research in the biomedical sciences at UT Health San Antonio. During the first summer, students participate in a seven-week immersion focused on core skills of hypothesis formation, experiment design, data collection, and analysis. In the second and third years, you are placed in a faculty laboratory for independent, ongoing research that concludes in a published abstract. Graduating scholars have produced work across cancer biology, neuroscience, reproductive biology, aging and longevity, pharmacology, and biomedical engineering, with recent abstracts covering palmatine-gemcitabine combination therapy for pancreatic cancer, GABA-releasing retinal ganglion cell mapping using Neurolucidia360, leptin-neutralizing antibodies for obesity in mouse models, and ceramide-lowering therapy's effects on lifespan in Western-diet mice. School-year enrichment activities and a required presentation at your home school help students build continuity across the three-year program. At the close of the final year, each scholar presents research findings at a formal award reception and takes home a printed abstract summarizing the entire contribution of their work.
6. MD Anderson High School Summer Program
Location: Houston, TX
Cost/Stipend: None | Interns are paid a stipend of $7,200
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Extremely selective, up to 6 students
Dates: June 1 - August 7
Application Deadline: January 14
Eligibility: Current Texas high school seniors, 18+ years old by program start, who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents and accepted into a college or university as a college student to begin the Fall semester immediately following program conclusion.
The MD Anderson Cancer Research Program allows high school students to spend 10 weeks conducting hands-on research in active MD Anderson laboratories. The majority of the time is spent conducting hands-on experimentation under a faculty mentor in the nation's largest cancer research institution. MD Anderson's research enterprise covers basic science, translational investigation, clinical research, and cancer prevention across hundreds of laboratories. Faculty-led seminars on a range of topics supplement the laboratory work throughout the summer, and the program may include abstract writing, poster design, and elevator speech competitions as training in scientific communication. Only six students are chosen for each annual cohort, who are current Texas high school seniors, which makes it one of the most selective research placements in the state. The summer concludes with a formal presentation and celebration luncheon where you share your results with fellow participants and research sponsors.
7. Greehey CCRI Donald G. McEwen Memorial Summer Research Program
Location: San Antonio, TX
Cost/Stipend: Free
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective
Dates: June 1 - August 7
Application Deadline: March 2
Eligibility: High school students at least 16 years old on the program start date, open nationwide and internationally
Each participant is matched with a principal investigator at the Greehey Children's Cancer Research Institute. The ten-week placement involves hypothesis-driven work on childhood cancer in one of the institute's UT Health San Antonio laboratories. The institute focuses on cancer genomics, DNA damage and repair, RNA biology, and drug development, with active programs in nanotechnology-driven delivery of small RNA mimics and inhibitors to tumor cells. Available laboratory techniques span genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, structural biology, classical genetics, and molecular imaging. Previous placement areas have included laboratories focused on DNA repair, structural biology, cancer genomics and bioinformatics, and chromatin biology. Mandatory safety training precedes independent work, and the summer concludes in a research symposium where you deliver an oral presentation and explain your findings to faculty and peers.
8. Texas Aerospace Scholars (TAS)
Location: Virtual (online course and Moonshot). Houston, TX (residential experience at Johnson Space Center for top teams)
Cost/Stipend: Free
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly competitive, with tiered advancement through three phases
Dates: Year-long, fall start through summer
Application Deadline: September 16
Eligibility: U.S. citizens attending a Texas high school who are current juniors
Texas Aerospace Scholars is a year-long program that begins with five months of online coursework in space exploration, Earth science, aeronautics, and aerospace engineering, developing skills in coding, computer-aided design, and engineering fundamentals along the way. The high-performing students advance to Moonshot, a five-day virtual summer experience where teams tackle engineering design challenges under the mentorship of NASA scientists and engineers at Johnson Space Center. If your team ranks among the top Moonshot performers, you get to travel to JSC in Houston for a residential session that includes NASA facility tours, hands-on design challenges, and poster presentations alongside working researchers. Completion of the full program can earn up to one science elective credit toward high school graduation.
9. UT Southwestern STARS Summer Research Program
Location: Dallas, TX
Cost/Stipend: No cost | These are paid opportunities
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective
Dates: Eight weeks in the summer, dates varying by position
Application Deadline: January 20
Eligibility: Current high school juniors | 16+ years old by June 1 | U.S. citizen or work-eligible | Resident of North Texas | No prior biomedical research experience
STARS provides access to laboratory work at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where you are paired with a faculty host in one of the institution's biomedical research laboratories for what is intended to be a first real-world exposure to bench science. UT Southwestern's active research spans molecular biology, genetics, neuroscience, immunology, and cancer biology among other biomedical fields, and laboratory assignments draw from this range depending on faculty availability and the student's interests. The experience is confined to research, with no clinical rotations or shadowing, so the entire duration is spent learning laboratory techniques, running experiments, collecting data, and preparing a formal presentation of results. At the end of the program, you will first present your findings at UT Southwestern and then carry the work to your high school as an emissary, delivering a second presentation that outlines the experience to fellow students. That dual-audience obligation pushes participants to communicate their scientific concepts at two levels, one to researchers and another to peers who may have no laboratory background.
10. SwRI Young Engineers and Scientists (YES) Program
Location: San Antonio, TX
Cost/Stipend: Free
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective, only 20 students selected
Dates: July 13 - 24
Application Deadline: May 15
Eligibility: Rising 11th and 12th graders
The Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) Summer Internship Program is a ten-day program that pairs each of its 20 participants one-on-one with a working SwRI scientist or engineer for hands-on research using the institute's equipment and facilities. SwRI's ten technical divisions cover space science and spacecraft instrumentation, AI and robotics, autonomous vehicle systems, cybersecurity, chemistry and chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, planetary science, and energy. Facility tours across multiple STEM disciplines run alongside the daily project work, and career exploration sessions led by SwRI professionals cover what applied research employment looks like across multiple fields. The program runs eight hours a day for two consecutive weeks, concentrating the full scope of a research project, from orientation through final deliverable, into a tighter window than most summer placements. You will present your completed project to peers and SwRI professionals at the conclusion of the session.
11. Northside ISD Summer Research Mentorship Program
Location: San Antonio, TX
Cost/Stipend: Free
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective
Dates: First week of June to first week of August
Application Deadline: February 5
Eligibility: Current Northside ISD students who are not graduating seniors, at least 16 years old by June 1, and who have completed Biology and Chemistry | One math and one science teacher recommendation is required.
This internship places you in a faculty research laboratory for the full summer, where you will work through the entire research cycle, from literature searches and hypothesis formation to experiment design, data collection, analysis, and the formal presentation of findings. UT Health San Antonio's research enterprise includes the Mays Cancer Center, the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases, the Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, and departments spanning molecular medicine, pharmacology, cell systems and anatomy, and biochemistry. The summer-long time frame gives you the chance to build a real working relationship with your mentor and contribute meaningfully to an ongoing research project, an advantage that shorter programs cannot offer.
12. UT Dallas Intensive Research Internship in Computer Science
Location: University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX
Cost: $1,000 (financial aid available)
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Extremely selective
Dates: June 9 - August 1
Application Deadline: Rolling | Typically starts in the spring
Eligibility: Rising 11th - 12th graders (15+ years) in the Dallas area
This eight-week research internship at UT Dallas allows high school students to work on ongoing computer science research under the guidance of a faculty mentor. You are involved in reading current research papers, running computational simulations, and building software tools for a faculty member, devoting twenty to forty hours weekly. The UT Dallas computer science department is one of the largest in the country and conducts research in cybersecurity, machine learning, automated reasoning, software engineering, computing theory, interactive systems, and networking, with your laboratory assignment falling within one of these areas. Work varies considerably by placement, and the program expects participants to operate with minimal guidance, learn techniques, and contribute to results at a pace closer to that of a graduate researcher than to a classroom learner. A separate research workshop track covering quantum computing, data science, and AI is also offered for students who want a less intensive format, with a final project or paper as the deliverable. Interns receive a completion certificate and experience letter summarizing their contributions, and those who make significant contributions can request a recommendation letter from their faculty mentor.
13. George A. Jeffries NanoExplorers Summer Research Program
Location: Richardson, TX
Cost: $5,000
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Moderately selective
Dates: June 8 - July 30
Application Deadline: February 28
Eligibility: High school students, 16+ years old by June 1
This program places you in a faculty laboratory as a working member of the group, where you spend at least 25 hours per week contributing to original projects funded by the mentor. Past participants have developed projects such as a smartphone-based sensor for respiratory viruses and artificial muscles made from carbon nanotube yarns and polymer fibers, providing a sense of the breadth of the NanoTech Institute's research across UT Dallas. Labs draw on three UT Dallas schools: natural sciences and mathematics, engineering and computer science, and behavioral and brain science. Projects can include applications of gold nanoparticles for kidney disease, cancer cell physiology, and probiotic bacteria growth, alongside the institute's core nanotechnology work. NanoExplorers participants have collectively earned more than a hundred awards in international competitions, and some have co-authored publications in journals such as Science and Nature. You will present your completed project at the annual NanoExplorers Symposium at the conclusion of the program.
14. UT Austin High School Research Academy (HSRA)
Location: Austin, TX
Cost: $4,000
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Dates: June 8 - July 15
Application Deadline: March 22
Eligibility: Rising high school sophomores through seniors aged 15+, with a priority given to Texas residents
The Freshman Research Initiative at UT Austin offers this five-week, non-residential placement in active College of Natural Sciences laboratories. Participants spend fifteen to twenty-five hours per week collaborating with undergraduates and faculty on ongoing research. Available laboratory groups cover biochemistry, biology, chemistry, and interdisciplinary fields, with individual placements in areas such as RNA aptamer isolation for diagnostic tests, gene regulation in cancer, Drosophila behavioral neuroscience, visible-light-activated catalysts for soft materials, computational materials chemistry for fuel cells and batteries, and urban watershed ecology along Waller Creek. You will attend weekly seminars hosted by UT guest speakers. At the conclusion of the program, you will present a printed poster at the HSRA Research Symposium showcasing your summer's findings. Past research groups have had participants construct recombinant proteins, genetically engineer bacteria using custom DNA circuits, quantify creek pollutants with analytical chemistry, and mine USGS stream data using R. Completion of the program earns three hours of UT extension course credit.
15. NASA SEES Summer Intern Program
Location: Virtual and UT Austin, Austin, TX
Cost/Stipend: Free (virtual); $2,000 (in-person) | Financial aid offered
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective
Dates: June - July 21 (virtual) | July 5 - 18 (in-person) | More details here
Application Deadline: February 22
Eligibility: Current high school sophomores and juniors (16+ years) who are U.S. citizens
The SEES intern program pairs high school students with NASA, academic, and industry mentors to conduct mission-aligned research in areas such as aerospace engineering, astronomy, planetary science, remote sensing, and space geodetic techniques, with both on-site and virtual project tracks available. Distance learning modules in Earth and space science and Python programming run from mid-May through early July, followed by two weeks of on-site work at the UT Austin Center for Space Research for students selected for in-person projects. Your project might involve exoplanet transit photometry with results submitted to the NASA Exoplanet Archive, high-altitude balloon payload design and deployment, Python-based mission architecture planning for an industry partner's active mission, or Mars rover resource utilization with instrument payloads and traverse planning. Virtual tracks cover machine learning for Mars biosignature detection and quantum sensing of digital alloys to urban heat island studies using GLOBE citizen science data. All teams share their findings at the SEES Virtual Science Symposium, attended by NASA experts, scientists, and families.
Frequently asked questions
1. What research opportunities are available for high school students in Texas?
Options include biomedical and cancer research programs, such as MD Anderson, Voelcker Biomedical Research Academy, and Greehey CCRI, engineering and aerospace programs, such as AFRL Scholars, Texas Aerospace Scholars, and NASA SEES, and computer science and nanotechnology programs, such as UT Dallas Intensive Research Internship and NanoExplorers.
2. Are there free research programs for high school students in Texas?
Yes, several programs are free, including AFRL Scholars, Voelcker Biomedical Research Academy, MD Anderson, Greehey CCRI, Texas Aerospace Scholars, UT Southwestern STARS, SwRI YES, and Northside ISD Summer Research Mentorship. Others, such as UT Dallas NanoExplorers and UT Austin HSRA, charge tuition.
3. Which Texas research programs are best for students interested in medicine or biomedical research?
Students interested in biomedical research might consider MD Anderson for cancer research at the nation's largest cancer center, Voelcker Biomedical Research Academy for a three-year mentorship track, Greehey CCRI for childhood cancer research, and UT Southwestern STARS for a first exposure to bench science with no prior experience required.
4. When should I apply to research programs for high school students in Texas?
The earliest deadlines are AFRL Scholars (January 10) and MD Anderson (January 14). Others fall through the spring, including UT Southwestern STARS (January 20), Clark Scholars (February 16), and Greehey CCRI (March 2). Students should begin researching options in the fall since several programs require school nominations or teacher recommendations.