Banting Research Foundation Discovery Award - 2024

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply for the Discovery Award:

You must be a new investigator at any Canadian university or affiliated research institute and be within the first three years of the date of your first career academic appointment at the application deadline of January 20, 2025.

You must not have received more than $250,000 in start-up funding provided by your institution, excluding support from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI).

You must not have been awarded more than $50,000 per annum in external research funding (operating grants) at the application date of January 20, 2025.

An applicant who has been awarded more than $50,000 per annum in external research funding may submit a request for up to $30,000, provided that the total sum of the operating funds received from all sources during the funding year, including any funding awarded by The Banting Research Foundation, will not exceed $80,000.

Summary

The Discovery Award is a one-year grant of up to $30,000 for innovative health and biomedical research projects by outstanding new investigators at universities and research institutes in Canada, who are within the first three years of their first academic appointment and who have received less than $200,000 as part of their start-up package. The intent is to provide seed funding so that applicants can gather pilot data to enhance their competitiveness for other sources of funding.

Pre-application deadlines

RSO internal deadline

Pre-application program deadline

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 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.

Notice of Intent stage

A Notice of Intent (NOI) is required by the agency and due on November 1, 2024, 9:00 PM E.T.

• A department head will be permitted to nominate only one potential applicant. In the case of non-departmentalized Faculties, only one nomination can go forward from the Faculty.
• The applicant must acknowledge that the plan to submit a proposal has been discussed with the respective Department Chair / Head at the time of submitting a NOI.

As the department/division head may nominate only one applicant during each annual granting cycle, departments or the Faculty (for non-departmentalized Faculties) should contact Maryam Tahir at maryam.tahir@ucalgary.ca by November 1, 2024 to advise that a NOI is going forward to the agency. The intent of this notice is to ensure that no more than one application is put forward per department/division. Please send the following:

1. Principal Investigator’s name
2. Faculty and Department
3. Project Title

Applicants who meet the eligibility requirements will be invited by November 30, 2024 to submit full applications for phase two of the Discovery Award process.

Full application stage

Full applications, plus approval in the Research Management System (RMS), will be required by RSO by noon on January 15, 2025.  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. 

Once your RMS record has been approved by Research Services, submit to the agency by their deadline on January 20, 2025.