Interested in becoming a scholar? Below you’ll find everything you need to know to apply—from who’s eligible, to how groups are formed, to what the application process looks like.
Scholars Eligibility Criteria
Completion of the Most Recent Academy Course
- Applicants must have successfully completed the most recent Academy course in their chosen domain as a student or a Teaching Assistant.
- Course completion is validated through certification, which signifies successful completion of both tutorials and projects.
- Teaching Assistants are eligible to participate as equal collaborators in project teams.
- Scholars may only participate in the ISP within the same domain as their Academy course. For example, if they completed the Academy in Computational Neuroscience, they can only apply to the ISP in Computational Neuroscience.
Team Participation
- The ISP is a collaborative effort; all applicants must be part of a team.
- Individual applications will not be considered (see FAQs).
- There is no maximum team size, but each applicant may only be part of one team.
- Instructions on how to form a team are provided in the below “Group Formation” section.
Commitment to the Program
- Scholar teams must commit a minimum of 5 hours per week for a six-month period.
- All team members should ensure they can consistently meet this time requirement alongside their other responsibilities.
Motivation and Fit
- Motivational Statement: Scholar teams must submit a detailed statement explaining:
- Why they are interested in the Impact Scholars Program
- What they hope to achieve
- How their skills and experiences make them a strong fit for their selected project
- Alignment with Project Goals: We seek scholar teams who not only have a strong technical foundation but also clear and realistic goals for how the program will support their research interests or career development.
Group Formation
Applicants have two options for selecting a project:
- Continue a project started during the Academy
- Join a project shared by one of our partner organizations
Key Dates & Process
- July 25, (last day of the Academy): Each Academy project group will submit their project slides through the Project Submission Form. This form will also include a section where any member of the group—students or teaching assistants—can indicate their interest in participating in the Impact Scholars Program.
- July 29: The Academy Project Gallery and the Partner Project Gallery will be published on Discord.
- July 29 – August 7: During this period, students interested in joining the Impact Scholars Program must form their own teams.
How to Find a Team
- Explore available projects – Browse the project galleries to find a project that interests you.
- Join the #ISP-group-formation channel on Discord – Post a message about the project you’re interested in and find potential teammates.
- Organize your team independently – Discuss roles, expectations, and contributions with your teammates.
Important: Team can have up to 4 members. Individual applications will not be considered. Applicants must apply as part of a team.
Scholars should be mindful of time zones when forming teams.
Teams should agree on common availability for meetings and collaboration.
- It is highly recommended that scholars have overlapping working hours to ensure smoother communication and work organization.
- Teams should agree on common availability for meetings and collaboration.
Application Process
📅 August 8 – September 2, 2025
- To officially apply for the ISP, each team must submit the following by September 2, 2025, last timezone on Earth:
- A concise two-page project proposal,
- a slide deck,
- a video submission presenting the proposal
| Proposal Instruction Table | |
|---|---|
| Proposal for Academy Projects | Proposal for Partner Projects |
| Leverage prior analyses from the Academy
Clearly indicate how the project builds on work done during the course and what new elements will be added. |
Align with the provided project scope
– If a project direction is provided, identify specific areas for contribution within that scope. |
| Define a focused research question or hypothesis
Ensure the research direction is specific, feasible, and grounded in the existing context of the project. |
State the research question or problem to be addressed
Explain how the question fits into the broader project goals, or justify its significance based on the dataset alone. |
| Outline project objectives and expected outcomes
Describe what the project aims to achieve and ensure the goals are realistic within the ISP’s 6-month timeframe. |
Specify project objectives and expected outcomes
Ensure that your goals align with the partner’s priorities (if provided), and that the project plan is achievable within the ISP’s 6-month timeframe. |
| Define the methodology and tools
Summarize the analytical approaches and tools used during the Academy, and explain how they will be extended or refined. |
Define the methodology and tools
Clearly describe the methods, analyses, and tools you will use to work with the dataset or explore the project question. |
| Describe the potential impact of the research
Outline the expected contributions and explain how your findings may be relevant or useful to the scientific or applied community. |
|
Application decisions
Applications will be reviewed by a team of experts who will evaluate both the scholar teams’ motivation for participating in the ISP and the quality of their proposal.
Proposals will be scored on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 5 being the highest) across the following five categories:
| Category | What it evaluates |
| Motivation & Research Significance | Does the proposal clearly state why the research question is important? Is the problem well-defined and relevant to the field? Does it demonstrate an understanding of previous work (with references if needed)? |
| Methodology & Feasibility | Are the data sources, tools, and analysis methods clearly described and appropriate? Is the approach technically sound and achievable within the ISP timeframe? If a partner dataset is used, does the proposal effectively leverage it? |
| Preliminary Work & Supporting Evidence | For Academy projects: Are there relevant preliminary results with key figures that support feasibility? For Partner projects: Does the proposal demonstrate understanding of the dataset/project and outline expected results? |
| Expected Outcomes & Impact | Are the expected outcomes clearly defined? Will the project contribute meaningfully to scientific knowledge, practical applications, or societal impact? Does it align with the ISP’s goals? |
| Proposed Work & Timeline | Does the proposal outline a realistic and structured work plan for the six-month ISP period? Is the scope appropriate given time and computational resources? |
📌 Important Notes
While we will make every effort to match each team with a mentor familiar with their chosen dataset, partner projects that already have an assigned mentor are guaranteed to come with an expert familiar with the dataset or project scope. This information will be clearly stated in the Project Gallery, so applicants can easily identify which projects include an assigned mentor.
Only 20 teams will be accepted into the Impact Scholars Program.
All teams—whether accepted or not—will receive constructive feedback on their application.