Get Involved
Connectome 2026–2027 is built on open science, community collaboration, and the belief that authentic research should be accessible to curious minds everywhere. Whether you are a student, educator, student club leader, academic association, researcher, or prospective sponsor, there are many meaningful ways to be part of this global initiative.
1. For Participants: Student Ambassador Program¶
Are you excited about connectomics and want to share your interest in neuroscience with others? Any student worldwide is eligible to become an official Connectome Student Ambassador!
To get started, engage with the competition and the wider community through at least one of the following routes:
How to Qualify¶
Route 1: Social Media & Public Outreach Share at least five posts or stories about the competition across your social media channels (e.g., LinkedIn, Instagram, X/Twitter, WeChat, YouTube, or school platforms), or encourage your school, teachers, or science clubs to share competition announcements.
Route 2: Peer Mentorship & Inspiration Encourage at least 2–3 classmates or peers to participate in the competition or explore the connectomics tutorials and resources.
Route 3: Self-Led Community Events Organize an activity related to the competition, such as:
a high school or university journal club discussing the Drosophila or human connectome;
an informal study group or workshop helping peers explore Neuroglancer, neuPrint, Nilearn, or other competition tools; or
an outreach activity with a student club or organization to introduce other students to the competition.
Becoming an Official Student Ambassador¶
Once you have completed at least one of the routes above, you can apply to become an official Connectome Student Ambassador.
Email us at clematis.reh@gmail.com with a brief description of what you have done and, where appropriate, links, screenshots, or other evidence of your activities.
Once approved, you will officially serve as a Connectome Student Ambassador for the remainder of the competition period.
As an ambassador, you will:
receive an official Certificate of Student Ambassador Recognition;
gain leadership experience in science communication, community organizing, and academic outreach; and
be recognized on the Clematis Discord and official competition channels.
2. For Teachers, Educators, & Faculty¶
Educators play a transformative role in sparking scientific curiosity. By introducing connectomics and cutting-edge research to your classroom, you help students discover the excitement of real scientific inquiry.
How You Can Support Your Students¶
Share the Competition: Share our website and Competition Handbook and tutorials with your biology, computer science, psychology, or data science classes.
Encourage Authentic Inquiry: Highlight how open-access datasets allow students to ask original research questions without requiring laboratory wet-lab infrastructure.
Integrate as Coursework / Extra Credit: Use our open-access tutorials as supplementary learning modules or independent study projects. We are always happy to explore how the competition might fit within your classroom or course. Feel free to contact us at clematis
.reh@gmail .com.
Faculty Ambassador Recognition¶
We are eager to celebrate educators who champion science education! Faculty members who encourage their students to participate will be recognized as official Faculty Ambassadors and have their name highlighted on our community platforms.
If you have shared the competition with your students, incorporated our resources into your teaching, supported student participation, or helped us reach other students and educators, we would love to hear from you! Please email us at clematis
3. For Student Clubs & Societies¶
Are you part of a high school science club, pre-med society, undergraduate neuroscience association, or science research club? Partner with us to bring exciting workshops and research opportunities to your members!
We welcome student clubs and societies worldwide to partner with us and introduce their members to connectomics and the competition.
Ways to Get Involved¶
We encourage clubs to explore a partnership that works best for your community. For example, you might:
Host a Connectomics Workshop: Use our step-by-step guides and resources to introduce members to connectome datasets and tools.
Form a Club Cohort: Bring interested members together to learn, discuss ideas, and work on their own individual competition projects.
Share the Competition & Resources: Help spread the word through your club’s social media, mailing lists, meetings, or school community.
Create Your Own Activity: Organize a journal club, tutorial session, guest talk, or another connectomics-related activity that fits your members’ interests.
Partner clubs will have their club name or logo featured on our website, Discord, or relevant event materials.
If your club would like to get involved, contact us at clematis
4. For Graduate Students, Researchers, Professionals, & Community Members¶
Bring connectomics to your community. Our resources are open, and we encourage researchers, graduate students, professionals, science communicators, and others interested in neuroscience and education to use them to introduce others to connectomics and computational neuroscience.
You might bring expertise in neuroscience, medicine, psychology, computer science, data science, education, science communication, or another field—or simply an interest in helping more students access research.
Ways to Get Involved¶
There are many ways to contribute depending on your interests, experience, and community. For example, you might:
Host a Workshop or Tutorial: Use our open-access guides and resources to introduce students to connectomics, neuroscience, data analysis, or competition tools.
Start a Local Community: Organize a journal club, study group, or informal learning community at your university, hospital, research institute, or elsewhere.
Share Your Expertise: Lead a research skills session, career discussion, guest talk, or educational activity related to your area of expertise.
Expand Access: Share the competition and its free resources with schools, universities, student organizations, or communities that could benefit from greater access to research opportunities.
Create Something New: Have another idea for making neuroscience or connectomics more accessible? We would be happy to explore it with you.
Connectome Community Ambassador¶
Individuals who make meaningful contributions to outreach, education, or community-building can be recognized as official Connectome Community Ambassadors.
Community Ambassadors might organize workshops or learning groups, share their expertise, introduce connectomics resources to new communities, or develop their own initiatives to make neuroscience research more accessible.
If this sounds like something that aligns with your interests, we would love to hear from you! Tell us a little about yourself and how you would like to get involved by emailing us at clematis.reh@gmail.com.
We welcome ideas of all kinds and are always excited to explore new ways of expanding access to connectomics and research.
5. For Associations & Outreach Partners¶
We collaborate with academic societies, non-profits, scientific networks, and educational organizations to expand access to neuroscience education.
How Associations Can Partner¶
Network Outreach: Share competition milestones, webinars, and opportunities through your newsletters, mailing lists, and social channels.
Event Collaboration: Host joint webinars or panel discussions on open neuroscience, connectomics, and scientific career pathways.
Global Access: Help us connect with students from underrepresented and geographically diverse backgrounds who can benefit from free research opportunities.
6. For Researchers, Pedagogical Experts, & Advisors¶
We warmly invite neuroscience researchers, connectomics specialists, pedagogical innovators, and science communicators to join us as Faculty/Institutional Partners or Advisory Members.
As an Advisor or Partner, You Can:¶
Guide Pedagogical Excellence: Help us refine our educational frameworks and ensure that our materials foster deep conceptual learning and scientific rigor.
Broaden Reach & Communication: Share insights on making complex concepts accessible to everyone and reaching learners worldwide.
Curricular Integration: Help identify pathways to integrate these open-access connectomics resources into secondary and higher-education curricula.
If you or your institution are interested in collaborating, please reach out to us at clematis.reh@gmail.com
7. Monetary Sponsorship & Partnership Opportunities¶
The 2026–2027 Connectomics Research Competition is a long-term, fully online initiative giving high school and undergraduate students around the world the opportunity to engage with real neuroscience datasets, computational tools, and open-ended research.
Our vision extends beyond a single competition cycle. We aim to build a sustained, accessible research ecosystem where students can develop research skills, explore scientific questions, connect with a global community, and take meaningful first steps into computational neuroscience.
Supporting Students Today and Building for the Future¶
Monetary sponsorship helps make this vision possible.
Sponsorship directly supports student prizes, research micro-grants, computational infrastructure, educational resources, research skills sessions, workshops, and other opportunities that enhance the student research experience during the current competition cycle.
At the same time, sponsorship helps us continue developing future Clematis competitions, research programs, educational initiatives, and student opportunities, allowing the impact of each contribution to extend beyond a single year.
Rather than supporting a single event, sponsors help us create more than a year of student learning, research, mentorship, and scientific community-building, while helping lay the foundation for future Clematis programs.
Flexible Ways to Create Impact¶
We welcome monetary support at all levels and are happy to work with sponsors to direct their contributions toward areas of valuable student impact.
Sponsor a Specific Part of the Competition¶
Sponsors may also choose to direct their support toward a particular area of student impact, including:
Student Research Prizes — support awards recognizing outstanding student research, creativity, and scientific curiosity.
Research Micro-Grants — help students continue promising projects beyond the competition.
Computational Access — support computing resources and infrastructure needed for students to conduct meaningful analyses.
Workshops & Education — support free workshops, tutorials, journal clubs, and educational resources.
Access & Outreach — help us reach and support students from communities with fewer opportunities to participate in computational neuroscience research.
Future Clematis Programs — support the continued development of future competitions, research initiatives, mentorship opportunities, and educational programs.
Sponsorship recognition is flexible and tailored to the nature and level of support. This may include logo and link placement across our competition websites and platforms, as well as recognition through our 1,000+ member Clematis Discord community, educational activities, competition events, newsletters, student clubs, outreach activities, and other student-facing communications.
Where appropriate, substantial sponsorship may be recognized through a named initiative, such as the “[Sponsor] Student Research Prize” or “[Sponsor] Connectomics Workshop.”
Supporting a Growing Annual Initiative¶
The Connectomics Research Competition is intended to be part of an ongoing annual effort to expand access to authentic research experiences.
Sponsorship may support the 2026–2027 competition cycle, future competition cycles, or both, depending on the sponsor’s goals and preferences.
We also welcome custom sponsorships, in-kind contributions, scientific partnerships, and support for specific prizes, particular areas, programs, or future initiatives.
To discuss monetary sponsorship or partnership opportunities, please contact us at clematis.reh@gmail.com
8. Scientific & Educational Partners¶
We also welcome scientific institutions, laboratories, universities, open-science initiatives, educational organizations, and technology platforms as our institutional partners.
Partnerships might include guest researchers delivering workshops, sharing educational resources, providing technical expertise or computational resources, helping students learn about open datasets and tools, or supporting outreach to new communities.
We are happy to develop partnerships that reflect an organization’s expertise and mission.
9. Why Partner With Us?¶
Supporting the competition is an opportunity to contribute directly to the next generation of scientists while helping make real research experiences and open scientific data accessible to students worldwide.
Over the course of the competition, sponsors can become part of a sustained educational program.
To discuss a partnership, please contact us at clematis.reh@gmail.com
Contact & Connect¶
Email:
clematis.reh@gmail.comDiscord Community: https://
tinyurl .com /discordclematis LinkedIn: Clematis Research Hub
Instagram: @clematisresearch
2025 Fly Connectome Research Competition: https://
flycomp2025 .my .canva .site