Research Programs for High School Students in the UAE and Dubai (2027)

The main research options for high school students in the UAE are university outreach programs at Khalifa University, MBZUAI and NYU Abu Dhabi, the national science competition that selects the UAE's team for Regeneron ISEF, and online one-on-one mentorship that ends in a published paper. The university programs are excellent but small and mostly short, so most Dubai and Abu Dhabi students who want a first-author paper before university applications get there through online mentorship.

This guide covers each route fairly, with official sources, and explains which ones produce a result that admissions offices in the US, UK and UAE can verify.

The routes at a glance

Route	Who it is for	Format	What you leave with
Khalifa University Estedad	High-achieving UAE high school students, shortlisted against Ministry of Education criteria	Two weeks, virtual, with a Scientific Research track	Research methods training, a short project
MBZUAI NextGen Summer Program	UAE students in the upper grades	One week on campus in Abu Dhabi	Hands-on AI projects with actual datasets
NYU Abu Dhabi Summer Academy	Emirati students nominated by their schools	18 months, two summer sessions	Scholarship, university preparation
UAE for Young Scientists, then ISEF	Students with a finished project	National competition	A place on the UAE delegation to Regeneron ISEF
Online one-on-one mentorship	Any student, any emirate, any school system	10 weeks online with a PhD mentor	A first-author paper submitted to a peer-reviewed venue

Khalifa University: Estedad

Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi runs Estedad, a selective summer program for high-achieving high school students in the UAE, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. The 2025 edition ran virtually from 14 to 24 July with 105 students (78 UAE nationals and 27 international students), split into three tracks of 35: Scientific Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Enrichment and Technical Skills.

The Scientific Research track covers hypothesis design, methodology, data collection and analysis, and intellectual property. Khalifa University's Outreach team shortlists students using Ministry of Education criteria, so the first step is to ask your school whether it nominates or circulates the call.

Best for: Students who want a structured introduction to how research works, from one of the country's leading science and engineering universities.

Keep in mind: Two weeks is enough to learn the method. It is not usually enough to finish an original study and write it up for publication.

MBZUAI: NextGen programs

The Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence runs NextGen programs for school students in Abu Dhabi. The 2025 NextGen Summer Program was one week long and took 38 students in Grades 10 to 12 from more than 150 applications. Students worked on projects applying AI to healthcare, mobility, climate and creative industries, using Python, Google Colab and Kaggle on actual datasets, and had sessions on AI ethics and bias.

Best for: Students curious about AI who want to see how models are built and tested, guided by MBZUAI faculty and industry mentors.

Keep in mind: Places are limited and the program is short. Check MBZUAI's NextGen page each spring for grades, dates and fees, since these have changed between editions.

NYU Abu Dhabi: Summer Academy

NYU Abu Dhabi's Summer Academy is an 18-month program for highly motivated Emirati high school students. Participants are named recipients of the Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Scholarships for Outstanding High School Students. The program begins in the summer after Year 10, includes two intensive summer sessions in Abu Dhabi, and nominations come from school principals and counselors rather than individual applications.

NYUAD's dedicated summer research program is for undergraduates, not high school students. NYUAD also lists short summer courses for high school students taught by NYU faculty.

Best for: Emirati students whose schools nominate them, and who want a long, supported run-up to university applications.

Keep in mind: It is open only to Emirati students and is built around university preparation, not an individual research paper.

The road to Regeneron ISEF from the UAE

Regeneron ISEF, run by Society for Science, is the international fair that national and regional fairs around the world send their top projects to, and ISEF 2027 is May 8 to 14 in Los Angeles. For ISEF 2025, the UAE delegation was selected through the "UAE for Young Scientists" competition, organised by Sharjah Capabilities Development in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, and three students represented the country.

What this means for families:

The project has to be finished early. National selection happens months before ISEF, so a project aimed at ISEF 2027 or 2028 needs to be complete well ahead of the national round.
Judges want research, not a demonstration. A clear question, a method, data, analysis and a written paper. Our guide to what makes a project ISEF-worthy explains the judging criteria.
Check the current cycle. Selection routes and organisers can change from year to year. Ask your school's science department or the Ministry of Education which competition selects the UAE team for the coming year.

Research with a local university professor

Professors at UAE universities do sometimes take on motivated school students, almost always through a personal request. The approach that works is a short email about one specific recent paper of theirs, a clear ask for a defined project, and patience. Our guide on how to email a professor about research has templates.

Outcomes vary widely. Some students co-author a paper. Many spend the summer on data entry. If you take this route, agree on the project and the deliverable in the first meeting.

Online one-on-one mentorship with publication

This is the route that does not depend on your emirate, your curriculum (British, IB, American, CBSE or the national curriculum) or your school's connections. It is also the route that most reliably ends in a first-author paper.

The YRI Fellowship is fully online and open to students in 50+ countries. Each student is matched one-on-one with a PhD mentor for 10 weeks, in any field from machine learning to medicine to economics, at 5 to 8 hours a week. Sessions are scheduled around the student's time zone and school calendar, which matters in the UAE, where the school week and exam seasons differ from the US and UK.

What makes it different from a short summer course:

An original project, not a class. The student picks the question with the mentor and owns the work.
An editing team on every draft, and a publishing team that takes the paper to IEEE, Springer or Elsevier journals and conferences.
Free help until the paper is published, even after the 10 weeks end.
Competition preparation, including ISEF and JSHS, and a mentor letter of recommendation.

87% of Fellows publish and 73% place at science competitions. No research experience is needed, and decisions come within 48 hours.

In the Gulf, YRI Fellow Suriya Dev, a 9th grader at Doha College in Qatar, was accepted at IEEE EMBC 2026, the international conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, with no prior research experience.

What UAE universities and US colleges look for

For US universities, a published paper is one of the few credentials that reads the same from any country. An admissions reader cannot easily compare a Dubai school's grading against an American transcript, but they can read a paper in an IEEE venue. Fellows have been admitted to Brown, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Caltech and Harvard.

For UK universities, a paper gives a personal statement concrete material: what you investigated, what you found, and what you want to study next.

For UAE universities, research experience supports applications and scholarship interviews at research-focused institutions such as Khalifa University and NYU Abu Dhabi.

A timeline for UAE students

Grade 9 and 10 (Year 10 and 11): Start a mentored project and finish one paper. This is the year that creates options.
Grade 11 (Year 12): Apply to Estedad, NextGen and other university programs with your paper on your CV. Start a second, more ambitious project aimed at the national ISEF selection.
Grade 12 (Year 13): Submit, present and list every result on your applications. There is little time left for a new project.

Frequently Asked Questions

What research programs are available for high school students in Dubai? Most university outreach programs are based in Abu Dhabi (Khalifa University, MBZUAI, NYU Abu Dhabi), so Dubai students either take part in those or work online. Online mentorship programs such as the YRI Fellowship are open to students in every emirate.

How can UAE students qualify for ISEF? Through the national competition that selects the UAE delegation. For ISEF 2025 this was "UAE for Young Scientists," run by Sharjah Capabilities Development with the Ministry of Education. Check with your school or the Ministry for the current cycle.

Are there free research programs in the UAE? University programs such as Estedad are run with the Ministry of Education. Fees and eligibility vary by program and year, so check each official page before applying.

Can expat students join UAE research programs? Some, yes. Estedad's 2025 cohort included 27 international students. NYUAD's Summer Academy is for Emirati students only. Online programs have no nationality requirement.

Is publishing a paper possible for a high school student in the UAE? Yes, with a mentor and a clear question. See our guide on how to publish a research paper in high school and the published work from YRI Fellows.

How the YRI Fellowship helps UAE students

If the goal is a published paper and competition results before university applications, the YRI Fellowship is built for exactly that. One-on-one PhD mentorship for 10 weeks, an editing team on every draft, a publishing team that takes the paper to IEEE, Springer or Elsevier venues, ISEF and JSHS preparation, and free help until the paper is published.

Tuition is $2,997, or 3 payments of $999, with scholarships considered case by case. See pricing, read student stories, and apply to the YRI Fellowship. You will hear back within 48 hours.

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