About Us

SURGE is Dalhousie University's science innovation sandbox — one of 10 innovation sandboxes across Nova Scotia — giving students hands-on opportunities to apply innovative scientific approaches to real-world challenges. Based in Dalhousie's Faculty of Science, SURGE offers a range of programs that complement the training provided in a traditional science degree, focusing on the skills necessary to succeed in a 21st-century world full of significant challenges and rapid change.

SURGE trains STEM students in design thinking and innovation, helping them turn ideas into real solutions, through entrepreneurship, social enterprise, or other paths, while building resume-ready skills in leadership, communication, and teamwork. We do this through programs like hackathons, drop-in clubs, workshops and outreach.

At its core, SURGE is where students turn science into action.

What We Believe

We believe that innovation and entrepreneurship processes are among the most powerful human tools and can empower people to effect positive change in the world. Our work is founded on the belief that teaching these tools to scientists holds humanity's best hopes for the future. At the same time, we recognize that history has not created a level playing field for everyone when it comes to opportunities in science, technology, and entrepreneurship.

So, beyond programming for a broad audience, we aim to provide programs to help encourage and support traditionally under-represented groups, including (but not limited to) Indigenous people, African Nova Scotians, people identifying as LGBTQ2+, and women. SURGE is a safe space where everyone should feel welcome and included, free to pursue opportunities, and free to express divergent opinions in the spirit of productive academic exchange.

SURGE and Dalhousie University are located in Mi'kma'ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq. We are all Treaty people, and with that comes a shared responsibility to act as stewards of this land and the ocean that surrounds it. We recognize that African Nova Scotians are a distinct people whose histories, legacies, and contributions have enriched that part of Mi'kma'ki known as Nova Scotia for over 400 years