Winter 2027 · Downtown Toronto

The biggest student research symposium in Canada.

One winter weekend where the strongest student research in the country gets presented, judged, and rewarded. In person, downtown Toronto.

When: Winter 2027
Where: Downtown Toronto
Format: In person
Divisions: High School · University
Prizes: Cash, publication, internships
Research 101 on-ramp: Next cohort November 9

Two divisions, one stage

You enter the division you are studying in now, so a first project is never judged against a thesis.

High School

For students currently in high school presenting their first serious research, including students who have never competed before. If Research 101 was your on-ramp, this is where the work gets an audience.

University

For undergraduate and graduate researchers ready to put their work up against the strongest student research in the country.

What is on the line

Cash prizes

Publication opportunities

Internships

Full details, including dates, judges, and prize amounts, are still being confirmed.

From zero to the stage

You do not need a project today. You need the next few months. Here is the route a student starting from nothing can take between now and Winter 2027.

Now
Pick the question you cannot stop thinking about
Browse the fields, read one paper in the area, and write down what nobody seems to have answered yet.
Explore research fields
November 9
Learn the craft in Research 101
Four free weeks with university mentors: reading papers, framing a question, choosing a method, and writing a proposal you would show a professor.
About Research 101
Over the winter
Run the project
Collect the data, do the analysis, find out whether you were wrong. Most of the value is in this stretch, and most of it happens without an audience.
Every route into research
Winter 2027
Present it in downtown Toronto
Put the work in front of judges and an audience of researchers, in your division, with cash prizes, publication opportunities and internships on the line.

Why present your research

Real questions from people who know the field

Being questioned on your own work is the fastest way to find out what it is actually worth, and what to do next.

A line on your application that means something

Presenting research you did yourself says more than a list of clubs. It shows you can finish something hard.

The room

Other students doing serious work, and the researchers who came to see it. Most research careers start with a conversation like that.

A Nobel laureate is already on the program. Arthur B. McDonald, who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for showing that neutrinos have mass, gave our students a talk on the biggest open puzzles in physics in September. That recording will be shown at The Symposium. Meet the laureates

Confirmed today

In person · Downtown Toronto
Winter 2027
Two divisions: high school and university
Cash prizes, publication opportunities, and internships

Coming later

Exact dates and venue
Judges and speakers
Prize amounts
Registration and submission details

We publish updates by email first, then here.

Questions about the competition

What is The Symposium?

The biggest student research symposium in Canada. It brings high school and university researchers together in person in downtown toronto to present their work to judges, with cash prizes, publication opportunities, and internships on the line. The first edition runs Winter 2027.

Who can enter the student research competition?

There are two divisions. The High School division is for students presenting their first serious research, including students who have never competed before. The University division is for undergraduate and graduate researchers. You enter the division you are currently studying in.

Are there research competitions for high school students in Canada?

Yes. The Symposium is the biggest student research symposium in canada, held in person in downtown toronto in Winter 2027, with a division built specifically for high school researchers. Science fairs and regional fairs are the other main route, and many students do both.

What are the prizes?

Cash prizes, Publication opportunities, Internships. Full details, including dates, judges, and prize amounts, are still being confirmed. We publish amounts by email first, then here, once they are locked.

How much does it cost to enter?

Entry details, including any fee, are still being confirmed along with dates and judges. Every program Join Research runs today is free, and we will publish the terms plainly rather than burying them.

When does registration open?

Full details, including dates, judges, and prize amounts, are still being confirmed. The Symposium itself runs Winter 2027. Join the notify list on this page and you hear the moment registration opens, before it is announced publicly.

Do I need research experience to compete?

No. The High School division exists for first-time researchers. If you are starting from zero, Research 101 is the free four-week on-ramp that takes you from no experience to a project worth presenting. Its next cohort starts November 9, which leaves the whole winter to turn the proposal you finish there into work you can present.

What is a research symposium?

A research symposium is an event where researchers present finished or in-progress work to an audience that asks questions, usually as a short talk, a poster, or both. At a student symposium the work is judged, so it doubles as a competition. Unlike a lecture, the point is the exchange: you explain what you asked, how you tried to answer it, and what you found, and people who know the field push on it.

How is a research symposium different from a science fair?

A science fair usually centres on a display board and a single project category per school. A research symposium centres on the research itself, the question, the method and what you found, presented to judges and an audience who question you on it. It also takes work outside the lab sciences: social science, public policy, economics and psychology research belong at a symposium as much as biology or computer science does.

What should I have ready before I enter?

A real research question, a method that could actually answer it, and something to show for it: results, or at minimum a finished proposal and early data. Submission requirements are still being confirmed, but those three things are what any judge will ask about, so they are the right place to start now.

Where in Toronto is The Symposium?

Downtown Toronto, in person. The venue and exact dates are being confirmed and will go to the notify list first.

Who runs The Symposium?

Join Research Canada, the student-led nonprofit behind Research 101. Our mentor network includes researchers at MIT, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Toronto, UC Berkeley and Queen's University.