As interest in study abroad and undergraduate research increases, the Notre Dame Global (NDG) team has been working towards creating more opportunities for students to spend intentional, academically-minded time abroad.
To meet this need, NDG is excited to announce that in summer 2025, we will be launching the Global Research Experience (GRE) program. The program builds upon the division’s experience developing and administering the “global professional experience,” which has for over a decade provided over 300 students with professional experiences across the world, supported by Notre Dame’s global sites—London, Rome, Mexico, São Paulo, Santiago, Nairobi, Jerusalem, Mumbai, Beijing, and Hong Kong.
Jonathan Noble, senior assistant provost for internationalization and global executive director, spoke on the introduction of the new program, saying: “The launch of NDG's Global Research Experience program represents the University's strategic commitment to provide students with global learning experiences that are intentionally designed to advance undergraduate students' research engagement in immersive and collaborative environments.”
For this pilot program, Notre Dame will focus on Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia, and programs will take place in Santiago, Chile; Nairobi, Kenya; Mexico City, Mexico; and Taipei, Taiwan. Students are placed in organizations doing work focused on research areas emphasized in the University’s strategic framework: democracy, poverty, and global health. One institution that NDG has set up a partnership with for the GRE program is OBI Pharma, a pharmaceutical company in Taiwan that does cancer research. Opportunities to work at innovative companies such as OBI present an opportunity for students to have a real impact on local communities, government policies, breakthrough research, and more.
"The GRE program is a long time coming,” Hong Zhu, senior director of global education, adds. “Undergraduate research is becoming more and more important and being able to do this while abroad provides an added dimension that also allows students to have a culturally immersive experience while doing research. We hope students will take advantage of this unique opportunity.”
An exciting element of this program is that students enrolled in the program will be fully funded by Notre Dame Global, ensuring that students’ financial status is not a barrier for participation. The research opportunities are designed to be eight weeks in length for summer 2025.
Originally published by at global.nd.edu on January 07, 2025.