I'm currently looking into a back-up plan for urology in case I don't match this year. I was wondering what's a good way to dive into looking into a research year. I know some students who did research who didn't get a stipend and didn't get any grants. Is there a place to look for opportunities or is it easier to reach out to individual big-name institutions?
I would recommend reaching out to institutions. Programs that you interviewed at and liked are a good place to start, especially if you think they liked you and maybe you just didn't make it quite high enough on their rank list. I know several people myself included who had payed reserch positions this year and mached after not matching last year. A lot of programs are looking for people to do full time reserch and can often pull together some funding to make it happen.