In Catalonia, research projects in secondary schools have formed part of the curriculum for a number of years. Here we describe the activities of the University of Barcelona and the Barcelona Science Park aimed at helping secondary school students to develop a research project and their teachers to supervise the project. The relationships formed between students, their secondary school teachers and university teacher/researcher mentors appear to have a lasting positive effect. The research projects make a positive contribution to learning science and stimulate scientific vocation.