ResearchNet - RechercheNet

Table of Contents

• Description
• Objectives
• Eligibility
• Guidelines
• Performance Measurement
• Review Process and Evaluation
• How to Apply
• Contact Information
• Sponsor Description

Description

The CIHR Doctoral Research Awards consist of two programs administered through a single application:

• The Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships Doctoral Awards (CGS-D) program provides special recognition and support to students who are pursuing a doctoral degree in a health-related field in Canada.
  • Canada Graduate Scholarship recipients may be considered for the honour of having their scholarship named a “Canada Graduate Scholarship to Honour Nelson Mandela”. To be considered for this honour, you must complete the Canada Graduate Scholarship to Honour Nelson Mandela Identification Form.
• The Doctoral Foreign Study Award (DFSA) provides special recognition and support to students who are pursuing a doctoral degree in a health-related field abroad.

Applicants apply to the CIHR Doctoral Research Awards competition and top-ranked applicants are awarded a CGS-D or DFSA depending on the proposed location where the doctoral degree will be pursued and granted. Note: Changes from proposed location from Canada to abroad or the opposite will not be considered by CIHR.

All applicants are expected to have an exceptionally high potential for future research achievement and productivity.

Funds Available

CIHR and partner(s) financial contributions for this initiative are subject to availability of funds. Should CIHR or partner(s) funding level not be available or be 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.

For this competition, applications will be accepted in all areas of health research, including biomedical, clinical, health services and social, cultural, environmental and population health.

• It is anticipated that approximately $14 million over three years will be available for the CGS-D competition, enough to fund approximately 133 awards.
• It is anticipated that approximately $1.05 million over three years will be available for the DFSA competition, enough to fund approximately 10 awards.
• Trainee stipend: $30,000 per annum.
• Research allowance: $5,000 per annum.

Objectives

The specific objectives of this funding opportunity are:

• To provide recognition and funding to students early in their academic research career, providing them with an opportunity to gain research experience;
• To provide a reliable supply of highly skilled and qualified researchers.

Funding Opportunities in Specific Research Areas

The CGS-D and the DFSA programs will fund applications in any area of health research. Additional funds are available, in specific research areas, to support Doctoral Research Award applications that are not funded through either the CGS-D or the DFSA.

• Doctoral Research Award: Fall 2016 Priority Announcement (Specific Research Areas)

Eligibility

Eligibility criteria for all CIHR research funding programs apply. The business office of the institution of an eligible Nominated Principal Applicant generally administers CIHR funds. Refer to the Individual Eligibility Requirements regarding the eligibility requirements for individuals and institutions.

For the application to be eligible:

1. The Nominated Principal Applicant must be a trainee. Note: For this funding opportunity, the Nominated Principal Applicant must not hold a tenure-track or tenured faculty position, nor can they be on leave from such a position (generally “tenure or tenure-track” refers to an open-ended academic position in which the holder can form a research group, apply for externally funded research as a principal investigator, and also teach).
2. A primary supervisor must be identified on the application. An additional supervisor may be identified.
3. The program is open to Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada at the time of application.
4. Only students engaged in a full-time doctoral program that has a significant research component are eligible to apply. An eligible program of study must require that 75% of the students' time be devoted to research training. The research component must be a requirement for completion of the program, such as the completion of a thesis, a major research project, a dissertation, a scholarly publication, a presentation and/or an exhibit that is merit/expert reviewed at the institutional level. Doctoral programs that are based only on course work are not eligible. Joint doctoral programs with a professional degree (e.g. MD/PhD, MBA/PhD, DVM/PhD, etc.) and clinically-oriented doctoral programs (e.g. PhD in Clinical Psychology) are eligible if they have a significant research component as described above. For the purposes of eligibility assessment, the health professional degree portion of the combined degree program will not be counted as graduate study.
5. The maximum duration of award funding from all federal sources to undertake graduate studies is four years, including at the Master's level. Individuals who hold or have held a doctoral award from a federal source for a term of three years are not eligible to apply.
6. Applicants may submit only one 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 Doctoral Research Award program (this is the only exception where an individual may submit two applications in the same year).
7. As of the application deadline, all candidates must have completed a minimum of 12 months of graduate study at the Master's or doctoral level. In addition, the table below outlines the maximum amount of time a candidate can be registered as a full-time student in a doctoral program (as of the application deadline), in order to be eligible to apply.^1 2

¹ In evaluating the amount of time an applicant has been registered in a doctoral program for application eligibility purposes only, two sessions of part-time study will count as one session of full-time study. One full-time session, including summer sessions, is counted as 4 months of studies unless otherwise noted on the official transcripts and the Registrar’s support letter. All previous studies at the graduate level, regardless of discipline, either course-based or research-based, will be included in this evaluation (which will be based on the official transcripts provided).

² If the applicant is registered in a master's degree program and subsequently transfers to a doctoral degree program (fast-tracked), the months in the doctoral program will be calculated starting from the first academic session in which the applicant officially transferred to their doctoral program as indicated on the official transcripts and the Registrar’s support letter.

Guidelines

General CIHR Guidelines

This funding opportunity will comply fully with the policies and guidelines as outlined in CIHR's Funding Policies. CIHR policies reflect areas of importance such as (but not limited to): Gender and Sex-Based Analysis, Knowledge Translation, Open Access, Global Health Research and International Collaborations. Policies and guidelines also cover areas such as applicant responsibilities, Official Languages policy, Access to Information Act, Privacy Act, Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications and Communication Requirements. Information collected by CIHR may be shared as described in the Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality Policy of the Federal Research Funding Organizations.

Allowable Costs

Recipients should review the Use of Grant Funds section of the Tri-Agency (CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC) Financial Administration Guide for a complete listing and description of allowable costs and activities.

Conditions of Funding

Successful applicants funded through this funding opportunity and any other persons working on the project must comply fully with the CIHR Funding Policies. Policies and guidelines cover areas such as Applicant Responsibilities, Official Languages policy, Access to Information and Privacy Acts, and Acknowledgement of CIHR's Support. Successful applicants will be informed of any special financial requirements prior to the release of funds or when they receive CIHR's Authorization for Funding document.

In addition to CIHR standard guidelines and requirements, the following special requirements shall apply:

• This award must be accepted within 15 working days of the date of offer or the award will be cancelled and potentially offered to the next fundable applicant.
• Awards will begin only after the recipient has registered in a full-time doctoral program and has provided official confirmation from the Registrar's office of their registration.
• Canadian applicants pursuing a doctoral degree abroad must also submit proof of a visa to enter a foreign country from the office of the foreign government.
• Applicants are required to obtain the research institution's signature.
• Applicants must begin their award within 12 months of the earliest possible start date and start May 1, September 1 or January 1 following the offer of award.
• A recipient of a Doctoral Research Award (DRA) with a health professional degree may apply to the Fellowship Funding Opportunity no earlier than the beginning of the last year of their DRA. If a recipient of a DRA with a health professional degree applies to the Fellowship funding opportunity for doctoral support before the last year of the DRA, funding for the currently-held DRA 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.
• If holding another award from federal source as a nominated principal applicant, the currently held award must be terminated prior to the start of this CIHR award as no overlap of federal funding is permitted. (Updated: 2016-12-07)

Performance Measurement

CIHR is committed to collecting and disseminating information on the outputs and impacts of the research it funds. This information is an important part of CIHR accountability within the Federal Government and to Canadians. If successful within this funding opportunity:

• The Nominated Principal Applicant will be require to contribute to the monitoring, review and evaluation of CIHR’s programs, policies and processes by participating in evaluation studies, surveys, workshops, audits and providing data or reports as required for the purpose of collecting information to assess progress and results;
• The Nominated Principal Applicant will be required to encourage their associates, trainees and administration to participate in the monitoring, review and evaluation of CIHR’s programs, policies and processes as required.

Review Process and Evaluation

Review Committee

A CIHR review committee will evaluate the full applications. The committee may be drawn from one of CIHR’s pre-existing committees or may be created specifically for this funding opportunity. Committee members are selected based on suggestions from many sources including the institute(s)/ branch(es) and partner(s), following the Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality Policy of the Federal Research Funding Organizations.

Doctoral Research Award applications are assigned to a review committee based on the theme of research identified within the application. For more information, please refer to the Peer Review Committees and Mandates - Doctoral Research Award.

For information on CIHR’s peer review process in general, see the Understand Peer Review section of CIHR’s website.

Evaluation Criteria

Doctoral Research Awards are reviewed in accordance with the CIHR Reviewers’ Guide for Doctoral Research Awards.

Funding Decision

Applications will be peer-reviewed in a single CIHR Doctoral Research Awards competition. A ranking list will be generated and CIHR will fund CGS-D and DFSA applications, from top down in order of ranking, to the limit of the funds of each pool.

Applications that receive a rating below 3.5 will not be funded.

How to Apply

To submit an application, please log into ResearchNet and create an application. You are required to follow the instructions in the Doctoral Research Awards - Application Instructions.

In order to ensure fairness in the evaluation of applications, equivalent time must be guaranteed for the assessment of each complete application. As a result, CIHR will not accept updates to applications after the application deadline.

Submission Requirements

• This Funding Opportunity participates in the eApproval process. As such, once submitted the application will be electronically directed to the proposed Institution Paid for review and approval. The eApproval process allows Administrators at the Institution to review and electronically approve an application for which the applicant has identified their institution as the Institution Paid. Once the application is reviewed and approved by the Institution, it will be submitted electronically to CIHR on behalf of the applicant. When completing the application on ResearchNet, detailed instructions on the eApproval process are available in the "Electronic Approval tool - Applicant's Guide" under the “Enter Proposal Information” task, "Details" subtask.

Consult the CIHR Doctoral Research Awards - Frequently Asked Questions.

Contact Information

For all inquiries please contact:

CIHR Contact Center
Telephone: 613-954-1968
Toll Free: 1-888-603-4178
Email: support@cihr-irsc.gc.ca

Sponsor Description

Internal Collaborators

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is the Government of Canada’s health research investment agency. CIHR’s mission is to create new scientific knowledge and to enable its translation into improved health, more effective health services and products, and a strengthened health care system for Canadians. Composed of 13 Institutes, CIHR provides leadership and support to more than 13,000 health researchers and trainees across Canada.