Fellowships & Scholarships

To ensure meaningful mentoring relationships and equitable distribution of faculty resources, each faculty mentor may support a maximum of one PEAK Fellowship recipient per Fellowship level (Base Camp, Summit, and Trailblazer) per semester. Faculty mentors are expected to provide dedicated guidance and spend sufficient time with their PEAK Fellow during the project term.

No, you cannot apply for more than one PEAK Fellowship per cycle (Fall, Spring, or Summer). Each PEAK fellowship (Base Camp, Summit, or Trailblazer) is designed for a different kind of experience, so you should focus on the award that best matches your goals and level of experience.

Yes!  While you can only apply to one PEAK Fellowship per cycle (Fall, Spring, or Summer), you are welcome to apply for multiple PEAKs over your time at Northeastern, for one continuing project, or for multiple projects.  As you apply, make sure to calibrate which fellowship you apply for to your project’s content and your skill level.

Yes: each student can receive one of each kind of fellowship per academic year, and students can only participate in a Base Camp fellowship once during their time at Northeastern.

Please do! Those who do not receive a PEAK Fellowship during one cycle are more than welcome to apply in upcoming cycles.

Beginning in the Fall 2025 cycle, PEAK Fellowship grants cannot be used to fund group projects. Applicants may apply as individuals if they are eligible.

PEAK Outfitters are the exception. Review the Outfitter page for specifics on when to apply as an individual versus a group.

PEAK Fellowships are not able to support internal or external Co-op projects. PEAK funding is designed to support experiential learning opportunities beyond Co-op. For funding related to your Co-op, we recommend contacting your college’s Co-op office to explore available resources.

Students are not eligible to apply for a PEAK Fellowship for work to be conducted while they are on Co-op.

PEAK Fellowships  are not able to support Co-op projects. PEAK funding is designed to support experiential learning opportunities beyond Co-op. For funding related to your Co-op, we recommend contacting your college’s Co-op office to explore available resources.

For summer PEAK fellowships, applicants may apply if they will be on co-op for part but not all of the summer. Applicants must present a timeline in which they complete 10 weeks of research outside of the time they are on co-op. Applicants who are not on co-op during the summer are at a competitive advantage.

If your proposal is for work unrelated to your Co-op, but conducted during a fellowship cycle within which you will be on Co-op, please apply for a future PEAK cycle that falls outside of your time on Co-op.

Similarly, if you are employed full-time (35+hours/week) at a job or internship during the PEAK Fellowship cycle, you are not eligible to apply for a PEAK during that cycle. Please apply for a future PEAK cycle.

If you are employed full-time (35+hours/week) at a job or internship during the PEAK Fellowship cycle, you are not eligible to apply for a PEAK during that cycle. Please apply for a future PEAK cycle.

If you are employed part-time, you are welcome to apply for a PEAK!

Yes. A Base Camp Fellowships is a good way to build expertise in a new field. Be sure to indicate in your application materials what relevant previous experience you bring to the project and how this training is relevant to your long-term professional and educational goals.

The correct language to use when acknowledging URF and the PEAK Fellowship is:  “This material is based upon work supported by a Northeastern University PEAK Fellowship.”

Yes, all PEAK projects require applicants to have identified a Northeastern faculty member (not an undergraduate, graduate or PhD student, or an individual external to the University) to serve as their project mentor.

Unlike the PEAK Base Camp and Summit Fellowships, which allow for externally-based projects, PEAK Trail Blazer Fellowship research must be conducted under the primary mentorship of a full-time Northeastern faculty member.

Students are able to do PEAK Fellowsip Projects outside of Northeastern University. However, there are factors to consider:

1. PEAK Fellowships are not able to support Co-op projects. PEAK funding is designed to support experiential learning opportunities beyond Co-op. For funding related to your Co-op, we recommend contacting your college’s Co-op office to explore available resource
2. If you are undertaking your project outside of Northeastern, you must have a Northeastern faculty member ALSO serve as a faculty mentor. The Northeastern mentor will attach their letter of support through the fellowships application portal,  please attach a letter of support from the off-site project mentor as part of your application materials by having them email it directly to URF@northeastern.edu.
3. PEAK Funding cannot be used to purchase materials for projects conducted outside of Northeastern.

Unlike the PEAK Base Camp and Summit Fellowships, which allow for externally-based projects, PEAK Trail Blazer Fellowship research must be conducted under the primary mentorship of a full-time Northeastern faculty member.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, don’t worry. That being said, you should be able to articulate what is interesting and relevant about the work you propose with the goal of doing, understanding, or shaping something new. This can be a new business, a new insight, a new organization–new knowledge. Ultimately, all research or creative activity has to do with understanding what has come before and the shape of your field of endeavor.

We encourage students to consult with their faculty mentors as to what constitutes as a novel contribution to a specific field.

The PEAK Fellowship is meant to cover research experiences that are conducted outside of class work for credit. Students may apply for a PEAK to cover materials costs for a credit-bearing course, during a semester that they are conducting work for academic credit, but no stipend to their student account will be awarded if they are granted a PEAK

Students may not apply for a stipend to conduct work during a semester in which they are conducting that work for academic credit. However, if a student begins a project during a PEAK cycle, and in a later semester enrolls in a credit-bearing research course to work on the same project, or begins the project in a credit-bearing course, but later chooses to work on the project independently by applying for a PEAK, that is permitted, and they may apply for a stipdend in either of those cases.

That depends on the project. The application includes a project timeline which you will create with your mentor. If you plan to take vacation or other time off, please incorporate that into your research timeline. Students are not permitted to pursue full-time employment or take classes while conducting a Trail Blazer Fellowship.

We have announcements of fellowship winners from previous years on our website.

URF places no additional IP restrictions or control on student projects, beyond guidelines set by the University as a whole. Depending on the project, there may be Patent or property concerns. Students wanting to learn more should review the Policy on Patents (USA) | Policies and reach out to Northeastern’s Center for Research Innovation (CRI) for more information.

Each student receives a stipend related to their status as a PEAK fellow. Base Camp Fellows receive $1000, Summit Fellows receive $2000, and Trail Blazer Fellows receive $6000. This money can be divided with your PI to cover the costs of project materials if necessary.

There are two ways PEAK funding are distributed, a stipend sent to your Northeastern account, or materials funding which will be distributed to your mentor so they can purchase the materials you need. Students indicate in their application if they wish to receive a stipend, materials funding, or some combination of the two.

Stipends:

• Cannot be received if doing research for course credit.
• Can be used for work that precedes or follows a project done for course credit (such as an Honors thesis).
• Are distributed directly to your student account, and will first be used to cover any outstanding balance you have on that account.

Materials funding:

• Is distributed directly to your faculty mentor.
• Will not count against the faculty mentor’s established budget.
• Can be used for a project being conducted for course credit.

Base Camp and Summit Fellowships are offered every semester, including summer. In the summer, you can also apply for a Trail Blazer Fellowship, which is a full-time commitment for 10 weeks. The deadlines will be in the semester prior. For example, if you are looking to do a project in Fall 2026, the deadline would be during the Summer 2026 semester.

There are specific instructions regarding the timeline under the Application Procedure section for each fellowship when pertinent.

The important thing to keep in mind is feasibility: can you do the work you propose in the allotted time (a semester or a summer)? Show us how you plan to break the tasks into smaller manageable chunks.

We review and evaluate the PEAK Fellowships in a way that is customized to the cohort who applies that cycle. Therefore, it depends on the year, but students will be notified in time for the starting point of the project.

The professional development meetings are a required part of the PEAK Fellowship. If you are unable to attend, please email URF@northeastern.edu so we can be in touch about accommodating your situation.

One of the exciting (and maddening) elements that differentiates independent research from coursework is that it isn’t usually graded. You’re building on a larger body of knowledge, working in collaboration with your fellow scientists, artists, or critics. We do ask that you report your progress and results with our office in various ways–presenting your research, giving updates, reporting on the experience etc. These are helpful to us to keep in mind when helping you navigate other opportunities, but are not graded.