2024 - 2025 CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

Eligibility

Eligibility to Apply

For an application to be eligible, all the requirements stated below must be met:

1. The Nominated Principal Applicant must be a trainee (and maintain such status throughout the award duration) and meet the minimum commitment of 75% of their time in the proposed research training (Research + Course Work) throughout the tenure of their award.
   Note: For the purpose of this funding opportunity, trainees cannot hold or be on leave from an independent research position.
2. A primary supervisor must be identified on the application. An additional supervisor may also be identified.
3. As of the application deadline, the Nominated Principal Applicant must hold or be completing a PhD or a regulated health professional degree. The Nominated Principal Applicant must expect to complete all of the requirements of the degree by the latest possible date on which they can take up their award (see Conditions of Funding). For examples of health professions, please consult the list Eligible Health Professions.
4. Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada are eligible to hold a CIHR Fellowship award in Canada or abroad. Nominated Principal Applicants who are neither Canadian citizens nor permanent residents of Canada may only hold a CIHR Fellowship award at a Canadian institution.
5. A recipient of a CIHR doctoral–level award with a health professional degree may apply to the Fellowship funding opportunity no earlier than during the last year of their award. If a recipient of a CIHR doctoral–level award with a health professional degree applies to the Fellowship funding opportunity for doctoral support before the last year of the doctoral award, funding for the currently-held doctoral award will be cancelled as of the first potential effective date of the Fellowship award, even if the application is not successful through the Fellowship funding opportunity.
6. The Nominated Principal Applicant may submit only one (1) application per year (September 1 to August 31) for funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) or the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). However, individuals eligible to apply to the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program or the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships program may also submit an application to the CIHR Fellowship program (other exceptions may apply depending on the program objectives; these would be indicated in the specific funding opportunities).
7. The Nominated Principal Applicant must complete one of CIHR's three interactive modules on sex and gender in research and include the completion certificate with their CIHR Fellowship application (see How to Apply section for further details).

Summary

CIHR's Health Research Training Strategy aims to equip research trainees so that they emerge from their training as scientific, professional, or organizational leaders within and beyond the health research enterprise. Generating Research Leaders of tomorrow is a key objective for CIHR.

Fellowships provide support for highly qualified applicants in all areas of health research at the post-PhD degree or post-health professional degree stages to add to their experience by engaging in health research either in Canada or abroad.

It is expected that applicants integrate sex and gender perspectives into their research to promote rigorous science that has the potential to expand our understanding of health determinants for all people. As such, applicants are required to indicate how they will account for sex (biological factor) and gender (socio-cultural factor) in the research design, methods, analysis and interpretation, and dissemination of findings. For more information and resources, please see the Sex, Gender and Health Research page on the CIHR website.

Overhead

N/A

Application deadlines

RSO detailed review deadline

RSO final internal review deadline

Program application deadline

NOTE: 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 postdoc@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.

Research Areas

Additional funds are available through this competition to support Fellowship award applications in the following specific research areas:

Fellowship: Fall 2024 Priority Announcements (Specific Research Areas)

Funds Available

CIHR and partner(s) financial contributions for this initiative are subject to the availability of funds. Should CIHR or partner(s) funding levels not be available or are decreased due to unforeseen circumstances, CIHR and partner(s) reserve the right to reduce, defer or suspend financial contributions to awards received as a result of this funding opportunity.

The total amount available for this funding opportunity is approximately $22,650,000. Of this $22,650,000:

• approximately $21 million over five (5) years will be available for the open fellowships competition.
• $1,650,000 will be available over five (5) years to fund at least six additional awards to support meritorious Black research trainees
• The maximum amount awarded for a single award is up to $60,000 per annum for up to five (5) years. The value and duration of each award is determined by the degree(s) held, licensure (where applicable), location of tenure and experience of the applicant.

Applicant self-identification information may be used by CIHR to consider individuals for designated funding, should it become available.

Stipend

The annual stipend level for:

• Trainees with a PhD degree is $70,000 per annum.
• Health Professionals who hold licensure (full or educational) in Canada and have less than two (2) years of research or clinical training experience since the completion of their health professional degree is $40,000 per annum. Upon completion of two (2) years of postgraduate research training, the awardee may be eligible to receive a stipend increase to the higher level.
• Health Professionals who hold licensure (full or educational) in Canada and have two (2) or more years of research or clinical training experience since the completion of their health professional degree is $50,000 per annum.
• Health professionals who do not hold licensure in Canada is $70,000 per annum. Upon obtaining licensure in Canada and two (2) years of research training, awardee may be eligible to receive a stipend increase to the higher level.

For awards physically held outside Canada, $5,000 is added to the annual stipend.

Duration of Support

The maximum duration of support, taking into account all Tri-Agency federal funding held^Footnote1, will depend on the degree(s) held by the applicant. For holders of a:

• PhD degree, or PhD and health professional degrees, the maximum period of support is three (3) years minus the duration of any previous Tri-Agency support held at the postdoctoral researcher / post-health professional degree level (see examples of postdoctoral/degree researcher programs).
• Health professionals degree who are not requesting support to pursue a graduate degree, the maximum period of support is four (4) years minus the duration of any previous Tri-Agency funding held at the postgraduate level (see examples of Doctoral and Masters' programs).
• Health professional degree who are requesting support to pursue a graduate degree, the maximum period of support to complete the degree is five (5) years minus the duration of any previous Tri-Agency funding held at the postgraduate level (see examples of Doctoral and Masters').

Note: Health Professionals who receive funding through this program to pursue a graduate degree must terminate their award upon completion of the degree.

For more information on the appropriate use of funds, refer to Allowable Costs.

Supplement: The Alice Wilson Award

A $1,000 award is offered yearly by the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) to three women of outstanding academic qualifications entering a career in scholarship or research at the postdoctoral level via fellowship programs from the Tri-Agencies (one award is granted per Agency). CIHR will seek the consent of top-ranked applicants who self-identify as women who accept a CIHR Fellowship to share their information as potential nominees to the RSC, who will make the final determination and inform successful candidates upon completion of their selection process.

More information is available on the Royal Society of Canada website.

DORA: CIHR has signed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), a statement that "recognizes the need to improve the ways in which the outputs of research are evaluated".