2023 Scholar - Career Development Program

Eligibility

Scholar applicants must…

• Have a Sponsor who will attest to institutional support for the applicant. An appropriate Sponsor may be a department head, chief of service, or program chair. The Sponsor must be from the same institution and in a supervisory position relative to the applicant.

• Be a tenure-track independent investigator of at least an assistant professor position or equivalent (see Experience/eligibility clock).

• Not be a full professor as of the award start date.

• Have adequate funding to support the proposed research (see Research Support Requirement).

• Have started their first independent position no less than 2 years but not more than 8 years as of January 1 of the award start date (see Experience/eligibility clock). Instructor-level positions are not counted as independent for eligibility purposes. However, all non-mentored positions are considered independent for this calculation.

• Have at least one full length (which may include short reports), peer-reviewed, primary research, corresponding author publication* available on PubMed by the application due date as an independent investigator.

*Peer reviewed manuscripts that are fully accepted by the eligibility due date are acceptable. A copy of the letter from the journal must be provided to LLS by the eligibility due date, and the manuscript must be published online (PubMed and/or on the journal’s website) by the full application due date for eligibility to be accepted and for the full application to be reviewed.

Citizenship The program welcomes applications worldwide from appropriate non-profit academic institutions and investigators of any nationality.

Degree Applicants must hold a PhD, MD, DVM, or equivalent degree.

Experience/eligibility clock Applicants must currently hold an independent, faculty-level, tenure-track position at the level of assistant professor or associate professor (or equivalent). As a new policy starting in the 2022- 2023 cycle, those with the title of full professor (or equivalent) by the award start date are ineligible to apply. The eligibility window is for 2 to 8 years in an independent position (see Eligibility Outline table). All such positions are counted in the 8-year total. Instructor-level positions are not counted as independent for eligibility purposes. In some cases, LLS may ask for a letter from any applicable institution confirming employment start date(s). As a new policy starting in the 2022-2023 cycle, all non-mentored positions will be considered as independent for purposes of the eligibility window. Therefore, research assistant professor and similar positions will count towards the eligibility window. For example, if you were a research assistant professor for 5 years and a tenure-track assistant professor for 4 years, you would have 9 years of experience and you would therefore be ineligible to apply. One criterion is publishing (or the ability to publish) as corresponding author in the non-mentored position, in which case this type of position will be considered as part of the 2-8 year eligibility window.

Summary

The Scholar award supports rising stars in the blood cancer research field. You must be a highly qualified investigator who has shown a capacity for independent, sustained, original investigation in the field of hematologic malignancies and/or relevant pre-malignant conditions. You should hold an independent, tenure-track faculty-level position and must have substantial research support awarded from a national agency. Scholar applicants are primarily basic and translational researchers; those who are primarily clinical researchers should consider the Scholar in Clinical Research subcategory.

This salary award is for 5 years and the maximum award per year is $120,000.

*Please find all Program documents available for download below:

2023-2024 Guidelines & Instructions - Scholar

CDP Funding Agreement Template - for Scholars and Scholars in Clinical Research

Overhead

5%

Application deadlines

RSO detailed review deadline

RSO final internal review deadline

Program application deadline

Application deadlines

Eligibility phase deadline

Letter of Intent Stage

Prior to submission, please connect with your Faculty as this is a Salary award - not a research grant, and their eligibility requirements for supporting your application may differ from those of a standard research grant. Consult your Faculty Associate Dean (Research) (ADR) regarding Faculty-specific deadlines and submission processes.

Principal Investigators: Complete a Research Management System (RMS) record, including a copy of your complete application, and submit this for approvals in RMS.

Postdocs, students, and trainees: For fellowships and externally-sponsored research training awards or opportunities, you must complete the Research Funding Application Approval (RFAA) Trainee PDF form, and submit it, along with a complete copy of the application, to Research Services at rsotrainee@ucalgary.ca. Trainees should not use RMS at this time.

Approvals: The University of Calgary requires that all funding applications be approved prior to submission. Approval requires signatures via either RMS or the RFAA Trainee form, in the following order:

• Principal Investigator
• Department Head
• Faculty ADR/Dean
• Research Services (on behalf of the Vice-President Research)

Read the Meaning of Grant Signatures policy to understand what your approval means. Please see the agency guidelines for details about which signatures are required on your application, as it may differ from internal requirements.

Late submissions: Late submissions will only be accepted in cases of medical or family emergencies, or other exceptional circumstances. If you submit your RMS record to Research Services after the internal deadline has passed, you must secure additional approvals. Please read: Late Applications Process.

Eligibility Phase deadline: October 27, 2023; 3:00 PM (ET)

Follow the instructions on the LLS Research Portal and this document to complete and submit your Eligibility Phase components. The Eligibility Phase requires completion of both the web form and the current eligibility form, which should be downloaded from the Project Document section of the web form.

No submission to Research Services is required at this stage. 

Letter of Intent stage

You will receive an email notifying you of your Eligibility approval status, which happens after LLS staff review. It typically occurs within 24 hours, but may take up to 10 business days, which means you will benefit by doing this step early. Once your Eligibility is approved, return to the LLS Research Portal, select "New or Pending" under Requests on the left panel and follow the instructions on the site and in this document to submit your Letter of Intent Phase components.

o You may be contacted by an LLS staff member if the information provided on your eligibility request suggests that you may be better suited for a different award category.

o LLS staff will determine eligibility on a rolling basis using the criteria described in this document.

Reference letter requests are required during the Letter of Intent Phase. Applicants are responsible for making sure that all required reference letters are submitted by their letter-writers by the Full Application deadline.

Once you have submitted your Letter of Intent Phase information, you may immediately begin the Full Application Phase. 

No submission to Research Services is required at this stage. 

Full application stage

Full applications, plus approval in the Research Management System (RMS) (https://research.ucalgary.ca/conduct-research/additional-resources/research-management-system-rms), will be required by RSO by noon on November 28, 2023.  Please be sure to select "Submitted for approvals" (Under Save & Progress) in RMS in good time to allow for approvals from your Department Head and/or ADR prior to the Research Services deadline. Consult your department and faculty for more information on their approval processes and timelines. 

The Full Application Phase requires completion of both the web form and the current application template, which must be downloaded from the Project Document section of the web form. Failure to follow all application instructions may result in administrative disqualification of your application.

o Contact researchprograms@lls.org with any questions about the application

Once your RMS record has been approved by Research Services, submit to the agency by their deadline on December 1, 2023.