As last year OSRE 2026 will include mentors across multiple University of California campuses. Project ideas are listed below.

If you are interested, have a look at our guidelines for students, which includes timelines on when to contact mentors and proposal guidelines and expectations.

Mentor project ideas will be published beginning in January and updated through February. Students should begin reaching out to mentors after February 28, 2025.

Students interested in applying to any of our projects must join our Slack channel before March 23, 2025 to be considered elgibile. THIS DEADLINE HAS PASSED.

The FINAL proposal deadline is April 8th at 18:00 UTC. Proposals should be submitted through the GSoC portal! Do not send proposal to the organization admins or mentors unless specifically requested by them. If your proposal is not submitted to the GSoC portal by this deadline you will not be eligible for selection.

We typically support the work of undergraduate students; however graduate students may also apply to work on more advanced project ideas. Please check out the project ideas page and contact the mentor if you have questions.

The UCSC OSPO is looking for mentors to be part of our 2026 Open Source Research Experience Program (OSRE). Please read the FAQ for Mentors and, if interested in participating, the instructions for posting projects.

• FAQ for Mentors –>

• The Instructions –>

While typical OSRE supported projects require mentors who are connected to University of California-based open source projects, the Summer of Reproducibility allows us to also support mentors interested in research projects related to the creation and usage of reproducibilty artifacts.

The OSRE aims to increase student capabilities in working in open source projects and creating reproducible artifacts, as well as add productive open source contributors and promote open source and reproducibility throughout the UC system and beyond.

The program team at the UCSC OSPO values diversity and inclusion in all our projects. We invite mentors from groups traditionally excluded in computer science/open source communities to participate in this program.

Why should you be an OSRE mentor?

If you could use undergraduate* research assistance over the summer with your on-going research, this is a great opportunity to get matched to top students. Like Google Summer of Code, the OSRE allows the mentors to choose the students they want to work with based on an interactive and iterative proposal process. The proposal process provides mentors the opportunity to select someone they want to work with who will benefit their project and research.

Who can be a mentor?

For University of California (UC) projects: Any UC-affiliated faculty, researchers or graduate students working on projects that are or will ultimately be part of an open source community/ecosystem.

For Summer of Reproducibility (SoR) projects: Researchers and faculty looking to support the open source production or use of reproducibility artifacts.

For more details, please see the FAQ for Mentors and the instructions for posting projects.

• FAQ for Mentors –>

• The Instructions –>

Is your organization looking to use open source more effectively and want to support projects that directly benefit your business or industry?

Does your company want to strengthen the talent pipeline able to work on technologies essential to your organization’s success?

Do you want to collaborate with innovative open source projects being developed by University of California researchers?

• Sponsor Projects –>

The UC Open Source Research Experience (OSRE) offers your organization the chance to participate in projects that can help your development cycles run faster, benefit from wide collaborations, and help support workforce development in domains your organization needs.

To become a sponsor, fill out the Sponsorship Interest Form. You will be asked to indicate the level of sponsorship you would like to fund and the open source projects you are most interested in engaging with.

Benefits of sponsorship

• Collaborating on innovative project that are of strategic interest to your industry;
• Supporting the teaching of open source techniques to a wide range of student contributors;
• Interacting with the next generation of open source leaders and up and coming talent; and
• Recognition as an OSRE Sponsor at the Open Source Research Symposium (Fall 2026)

OSRE Sponsor Levels

Becoming a Sponsor

Becoming a sponsor is easy! Fill out the Sponsorship Interest Form or reach out to the OSRE Admins by April 20. Information requested by the form include: name of contact person, level of sponsorship, and projects you are most interested in (if applicable.) The OSRE Admins will follow up with next steps for finalizing the sponsorship process.

• Sponsor Projects –>