Windows repeat each year, in October and February. The form opens on February 1 and closes at the end of February 28. Applications are read in March. Late applications wait for the next window. Please do not email application materials; my email is overloaded and your materials may not be considered.
Who we take
Places depend on funding and capacity, change every year, and are not listed. This page is updated before each window.
| Stream | Who can apply | Status for 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Volunteer | Undergraduates who can commit at least two terms. | Open in February. |
| 4th-year undergraduate thesis | Fourth-year students in a program with a thesis course. Check your program's deadlines. | Open in February. |
| Directed studies (HE350 and HE450) | Third- and fourth-year students. Course codes are set with Laurier Science Advising. | Open in February, for Fall 2027. |
| MSc thesis | Applicants admissible to a Laurier graduate program the lab can supervise in. | Possible for Fall 2027, depending on funding. The main national master's scholarship closes December 1, 2026, before our window. See scholarships and awards. |
| PhD | Biology PhD for now. A Health Sciences PhD is expected from 2027. | Not currently open. |
Co-op, USRA, Mitacs and similar programs have their own calls. See scholarships and awards.
What we look for
These apply to undergraduates. Graduate applicants add their program's admission requirements.
- Grades. A Laurier cumulative GPA of 10.0 (A-) or higher.
- Courses. Cell biology, molecular biology and my course HE440 Reproduction and Fertility are suggested.
- Bioinformatics. Many of my projects use bioinformatics. For these you need basic command-line skills and familiarity with high-throughput data processing. Work through the first few modules of the Bioinformatics Crash Course before you apply and say which you finished.
- AI agents. You should be comfortable working with AI agents and understand how they work: how a language model produces text, what a harness is, and where these systems fail. The lab uses agents for code and analysis every day.
- Wet-lab experience. Demonstrated wet-lab work is a large advantage. Describe what you did yourself.
You do not need to be a reproductive biologist already. We look for curiosity about early human development, care with data and records, and willingness to learn across wet-lab and computational work.
What to prepare
- Name, student number, program, year and stream.
- An unofficial transcript (PDF).
- A CV of two pages at most (PDF).
- Three short answers, 150 to 200 words each, in your own words: why this lab, naming one project or paper from this site; one piece of work you did yourself and are proud of; a time something failed and what you changed.
- A self-rating of your experience with cell culture, qPCR, R, Python, the command line and statistics, and the bioinformatics modules you finished.
- The hours per week you can give.
- Two references (name, role and email). Letters are requested only from the shortlist.
- Optional but encouraged: links to proof of real work, such as code, a report, a poster or lab notebook pages.
- For thesis, directed studies and graduate applicants: a one-page statement of the question you would like to work on.
Write it yourself. I do not read emails, cover letters or form answers written by an AI tool. Spell check and grammar check are fine. I want to hear how you think, including the rough edges. The lab uses AI tools for code and analysis, but the application is where I need to hear from you.
Scholarships and awards
Several deadlines fall before our February window. Apply to the awards that suit you on their own schedule, whether or not you apply to the lab. Holding one makes you a stronger applicant. Dates are from the official pages as of October 2026. Where a 2027 date is not yet published, the table shows the most recent cycle, so check the linked page for the current call.
Undergraduate
| Award | What it is | Timing | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA), held at Laurier | $6,000 from NSERC, topped up by the supervisor to Laurier's minimum hourly rate. 14 to 16 weeks of full-time summer research. | 2026 cycle: students applied to Laurier by mid-January, and supervisors submitted by early February. Expect similar timing for summer 2027. | Canadian citizen, permanent resident or protected person. Cumulative GPA of at least 7.0 (B-). At least one year completed. You apply to Laurier, and a supervisor must agree to host you and cover the top-up. Laurier | NSERC |
Master's
| Award | What it is | Timing | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canada Graduate Research Scholarships, Master's (CGRS-M, formerly CGS M) | $27,000 for 12 months, from CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC. | December 1, 8 pm Eastern. For awards starting in 2027-28, that is December 1, 2026. | Needs an A- average (Laurier scale) and at most 12 months of graduate study. You apply in the agency portal and name up to three universities. Laurier advises earlier reference deadlines, because late applications are not accepted. NSERC | Laurier |
| Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) and Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology (QEII-GSST) | Up to $15,000 a year ($5,000 per term) for two to three terms. QEII-GSST is for domestic students. | No separate application at Laurier. Laurier considers CGRS applicants automatically, and other students through their admission file. | Apply to CGRS-M and complete your admission file on time. Laurier |
| Laurier Graduate Scholarship and Dean's Graduate Scholarship | A minimum of $1,000 at admission. The Dean's scholarship tops up holders of OGS, QEII or CGRS awards. | No application. Offered at admission. | Laurier |
For Health Sciences MSc admission deadlines and the funding package, see the program page.
PhD
| Award | What it is | Timing | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canada Graduate Research Scholarships, Doctoral (CGRS-D). This replaces CGS D and NSERC PGS D. | $40,000 a year for up to 36 months. | 2026 cycle: Laurier's internal deadline for registered students was October 5. Applicants applying directly to the agency had until October 17. Results by April 30. Expect early October 2027 for the next cycle. | Students registered at Laurier apply through Laurier. Others apply directly to the agency. NSERC | CIHR |
| OGS, QEII-GSST and Laurier scholarships | As in the master's table. Not awarded after year five of a PhD. | As in the master's table. | Laurier |
Questions about USRA at Laurier go to Science Advising at scienceadmin@wlu.ca. Mitacs and co-op programs have their own calls, so check mitacs.ca and the Laurier co-op office.
If you want to be considered
Read the research and projects pages and two lab publications. Pick one project you would want to work on.
Check the requirements. If you are not there yet, use the time before the window to close the gap with bioinformatics modules, a statistics or programming course, or wet-lab experience. Proof of real work goes a long way: code, a report, a poster or lab notebook pages you can link to.
Write your short answers in a plain document first and read them aloud. Gather your transcript, CV and references.
Submit the form between February 1 and February 28, and apply separately to the awards that suit you.