If you are in high school 3-4-5 or in college, you can apply to participate in the program by following the registration process on the Become a Mentee page! The eligibility of your application does not depend on your choice of program in college, or your academic results, for example.

You will be able to participate in one of the projects offered in the next cohort. Discover here the descriptions of the projects that the mentors have prepared in text and video form!

The following CEGEPs allow their students to receive credit for their participation in InitiaSciences.

• 2022-2023: Cégep Marie-Victorin (Montreal)
• 2023-2024: Cégep Marie-Victorin and Collège de Maisonneuve (Montreal)

There are 3 ways to participate in InitiaSciences:

• Credited participation if you are in one of the CEGEPs that allow it, and have submitted an application for group participation of 3 or 4 people (1 session with attestation of commitment, then 1 session where the project is credited as an integrative project).
• Volunteer participation (certificate of commitment available)
• Participation supported by a $2500 solidarity bursary (credited projects are not eligible). The program application form allows you to also apply to receive one of these bursaries.

Yes! InitiaSciences is specifically designed to provide an introduction to research. The mentors have designed the progression of the projects taking into account the necessary learning, both in terms of methods and knowledge, to make you a cohort of young people able to contribute to projects at the cutting edge of research, by the end of the program!

Motivation, interest in the program, desire to learn and commitment are the most important criteria in the selection of participants.

Applications to the program will be formally open from August 25 to September 30, 2023. Outside this period, if you'd like to stay on top of our news and receive a reminder about the opening of applications for a future cohort, we invite you to fill out the interest form on our Become a Mentee page. You can also follow us on our social networks: we're active on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Once registration is open, the following steps are required for your participation:

• Complete and submit the program application form before 11:59 p.m., September 20 September 2023.

• Accept the offer that will be made to you, if your application is successful, during the first week of October. If you are under 18 at the time of application, we will also need permission from a legal guardian of legal age.

• Sign the code of conduct and the project agreement governing your participation in the program

The detailed schedule of next steps will be provided at the Welcome to the Program event in October 2023.

Each program cohort runs for one school year, between October and June. Ty primary commitment will be your participation in two work sessions per week, two hours each (4 hours per week). In June, you will participate in the symposium symposium where you will present the results of your research project as a team.

It is expected that the mentees will devote 4 hours/week to their team's research project, divided into two meetings/week. One of these weekly meetings will be with the mentor, and the other only with the other members of his/her team. More details will be established and discussed within the teams themselves during the initial meetings with those selected for the program. Mentors will also need to be flexible during the end-of-term periods. Over the entire year, this commitment should represent 185 hours, which is a great achievement!

Your tasks may be varied and will be assigned to you by your mentor depending on the needs of the project and your preferences. In all cases, you will receive the necessary training to acquire the skills required to perform these tasks! Examples include reading or summarizing scientific articles, computer programming, producing graphs summarizing your results, preparing a presentation...

Your commitments are detailed in the InitiaSciences Code of Conduct, which you will need to sign and commit to in order to participate in the program!

If transportation is an issue, a partial or full distance mentoring arrangement can be discussed with your mentor and the InitiaSciences office. You can indicate your needs in the application form, and we will contact you!

Research activities will take place either at your mentor's research lab, at another public location approved by the InitiaSciences office, or remotely. For in-person meetings, you will need to plan your own travel to the location. In all cases, this will be discussed as a team with your mentor at the welcome party, so that any constraints you may have will be taken into account in the meeting location(s) that will be chosen!

The InitiaSciences program allows for accommodations or distance options in specific cases. However, for the second year, we will give priority to mentees from the Greater Montreal area, Sherbrooke and Rimouski. Information about your geographical location will be requested when you register. We will follow up with you on your options based on the applications received.

The projects page provides more details about the availability of certain projects remotely, or their in-person location.

For our second cohort of the Mentored Research Project, some research projects will also be offered in English.

However, you must have at least a basic knowledge of French to take part in the program, as the training workshops are given in French only.

Don't hesitate to contact the InitiaSciences team using the form in the Contact Us section of our website. We'll be happy to answer any questions you may have about the project and the role of mentees!