Funding Opportunities: Graduate Students & Post-Doctoral Fellows

Welcome to the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy Trainee Funding Opportunity Index. LDFP trainees may qualify for several funding and fellowship opportunities. Please ensure that you review the guidelines for each opportunity and discuss the funding opportunity with your supervisor. Feel free to reach out to the research office for additional questions (Mike Folinas, Sam D’Alfonso, or Lia Cardarelli)

Search Pivot Funding Opportunities Database

Search for various funding opportunities by entering a search term into the Pivot search widget below. Please note this will open up a new tab and may require a login or the creation of an account.

Enter your search terms:

You can take full advantage of all the features Pivot has to offer. Register for an account to make searching for new and updated funding opportunities easier; you can even set up weekly email notifications that are based on your profile to ensure you do not miss any relevant opportunities.

Graduate Students & Postdoctoral Fellows

Award Explorer

Are you interested in awards at the University of Toronto? Whether you’re thinking of coming to U of T – or you are a current student pursuing undergraduate or graduate studies – this tool can help you explore the diverse funding opportunities that recognize your achievements and financially support your studies.

The graduate and Postdoctoral Awards databases are available here.

Centre for Global Disability Studies - Small Grants Fund

The Centre for Global Disability Studies (CGDS) at the University of Toronto Scarborough has grants available for faculty, graduate students, and researchers in your unit. These easy-to-apply-for grants of $500-1500 can be used for accessible research, knowledge dissemination or community engagement, improving access to academic events, or any aspect of hosting a disability studies event on campus.

Common Questions:

Is my project sufficiently related to disability studies?
The Centre for Global Disability Studies promotes transdisciplinary research that understands disability as a social and political formation and ableism as a historical system of oppression with intersections with racism, colonialism, sexism, and classism. We do not fund medical research or clinical studies. We do fund social science and humanities projects that have a relationship to questions about ableism in the world.

You can see what folks have used small grants for in the past on the website if you need some inspiration. You can also get creative! Here are some ideas:

Do you want your published article to be open access but need to pay a fee?
Do you need an RA to update your website that helps community members find your research?
Do you need an RA to help you organize a meeting or prepare a letter or video to communicate research findings with research participants or the broader community
Do you want to purchase a piece of technology that will help you communicate with research participants?
Do you need a piece of software that will make organizing your research more accessible for you?
Do you want to pay a research participant to serve as a community expert consultant for your project?
Do you want to pay a community disability advocate to speak in your working group or department?
Do you want your department colloquium to have live captioning?
Do you need to improve the accessibility in the grad student lounge in your department?
Are you organizing a campus event on a theme related to disability justice with another organization and need a cosponsor?

Is my research “global” enough?

The small grants are flexible. Please apply. You might hear back suggestions about how you could revise your research plan to be better aligned with anti-racist and anti-colonial justice, but, if you are already considering ableism as a pervasive, transnational system of oppression, your research is eligible. However, grant proposals for research that takes a curative approach to disability and/or does not substantively engage with disability studies will be returned for revision. Moreover, accessible events grants do not need to pertain only to disability studies but can be requested for any campus event.

Click here to learn more or to apply.

The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)- University of Toronto Call for Joint Proposals

The CNRS and the U of T are launching a joint call for proposals between the two institutions in order to further develop collaborations. This call invites project proposals aligned with the following U of T Institutional Strategic Initiatives (ISIs):

The joint call is intended to fund up to 3 years of a PhD fellowship and travel starting in March 2024 for U of T awardees and September 2024 for CNRS awardees.

Funding:

Up to $7,500 per year for U of T students to travel to France.

Duration:

March 2024 – March 2027

Application deadline:

January 29, 2024, 11:59pm Paris time

Applications will be assessed by a joint committee of members from both institutions.

Eligibility:

Principle Investigators:

U of T: Faculty with graduate faculty member status. Projects must be aligned with the work of one or more of the aforementioned ISIs
CNRS: Researchers working in a CNRS unit holding an accreditation to supervise PhD students (HDR)
A PI cannot submit more than one application in the framework of this call.

Students:

U of T: any PhD student

Selection criteria:

Research quality & originality of the project
Research merit of the teams
Training environment for the PhD students involved
Synergy, including interdisciplinary collaboration, between the teams
Capacity for future collaboration & plans for raising external competitive funding (EU collaborative grants, national research agency grants, etc)

For more information on this call, including detailed instructions on how to submit a proposal, please see the funding opportunities page.

If you have questions, please be in touch with Kevin Rowley, International Research Officer, Office of the Vice-President International at kevin.rowley@utoronto.ca

Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s (CIHR) - Free online training on patient engagement

Click here to start any module of the course

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s (CIHR) Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis (IMHA) has developed a set of online, self-directed, free modules related to Patient Engagement (PE) in research! IMHA’s patient partners identified a need for more training in patient engagement and set to work filling the gap for practical tools and resources to help people do patient engagement in research. Modules must be completed in chronological order; after completing each module, you will receive a certificate. While the modules have been developed by IMHA, they are not disease- or condition-specific and are applicable to any research where patient partners are engaged.

Course: A How-to Guide for Patient Engagement in Research

Module 1: What is patient engagement?
Module 2: The research process: (a) Understanding the research process for patient partners and (b) Supporting patient partners throughout the research process for other members of the research team
Module 3: Setting up a research project for successful partnership
Module 4: Patient engagement for research teams: (a) Being part of a research team for patient partners and (b) Engaging patients on your research team for other members of the research team

If you have any questions about the training or accessing the modules, please contact imha-iala@cihr-irsc.gc.ca and follow @CIHR_IMHA for related announcements!

Data Sciences Institute - Postdoctoral Fellowships

The DSI Postdoctoral Fellowships are designed to support multi/interdisciplinary training and collaborative research in data sciences that include faculty from the University of Toronto and partner institutes.

To be considered for the Fellowship, applicants must pursue a research project that has a data sciences focus, through the development of novel methodology or the innovative application of existing approaches. Applicants must identify at least two faculty members from complementary disciplinary backgrounds to serve as co-supervisors, who together can supervise the different multidisciplinary aspects of the research project. At least one supervisor should have a track record supporting the training and development of novel statistical or computational tools. Co-supervisors can be drawn from the same academic unit as long as they represent different disciplines and one is focused on the development of a novel methodology.

An applicant’s co-supervisors must have a budgetary appointment (i.e., they are directly employed) at either the University of Toronto OR an external funding partner institution and:

University of Toronto supervisors must be Members of the University of Toronto School of Graduate Studies and be eligible Principal Investigators, according to the University of Toronto PI eligibility criteria.
External funding partner supervisors must be appointed as a Principal Investigator and be eligible to hold tri-council funding at their institution and be Members of the University of Toronto School of Graduate Studies.

Faculty budgetary appointments for the University of Toronto are continuing, full-time academic appointments with salary commitments from a University of Toronto academic unit.

Employment as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto is covered by the terms of the CUPE 3902 Unit 5 Collective Agreement.

The DSI is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from racialized persons / persons of colour, women, Indigenous / Aboriginal People of North America, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ2S+ persons, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas.

Accepted applicants will form an integrated cohort and will be expected to participate in the networking activities of the DSI, present their research at the annual DSI Research Day, and provide a yearly activity report and exit survey. Fellows are required to acknowledge the DSI in publications, presentations, and communications resulting from the Project.

Deadline:

The application deadline is January 12, 2024 by 11:59pm EST.

Value and Duration

CDN $60,000 for one year, plus benefits and a $1500 stipend to assist fellows with presenting their work at scientific meetings or to participate in workshops or courses.

How to Apply

Applicant eligibility and the application process/evaluation can be found on the DSI website.

All application materials can be submitted directly onto the form. Certain fields on the form ask for uploads and require the following templates:

Further Information

A previous year’s information session’s recording and slides are available here. Please note that adjustments to the call supersede information in the info session.
For more information, please contact awards.dsi@utoronto.ca.

Data Sciences Institute - Doctoral Fellowships

The Data Sciences Institute (DSI) is a central hub and incubator for data science research, training, and partnerships at the University of Toronto. Its goal is to accelerate the impact of data sciences across disciplines to address pressing societal questions and to drive positive social change. DSI is focused on training the next generation of data science scholars.
DSI Doctoral Student Fellowships are designed to support multi/interdisciplinary training and collaborative research in data sciences. In addition to their thesis supervisor, students will select a co-supervisor that can include faculty from the University of Toronto and partner institutes.

To be considered for the Fellowship, applicants in PhD programs must pursue a research project that has a data sciences focus, through the development of novel methodology or the innovative application of existing approaches. Applicants must identify at least two faculty members from complementary disciplinary backgrounds to serve as co-supervisors, who together can supervise the different multidisciplinary aspects of the research project. At least one supervisor should have a track record supporting the training and development of novel statistical or computational tools. Co-supervisors can be drawn from the same academic unit as long as they represent different disciplines and one is focused on the development of a novel methodology.

Deadline:

The application deadline is January 12, 2024 by 11:59pm EST.

Value and Duration

CDN $25,000 per year up to 3 years

How to Apply

Applicant eligibility and the application process/evaluation can be found on the DSI website.

All application materials can be submitted directly onto the form. Certain fields on the form ask for uploads and require the following templates:

Further Information

A previous information session’s recording and slides are available here.
For more information, please contact awards.dsi@utoronto.ca.

Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium – Researcher Mobility Awards

The University of Toronto Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium (EPIC) is pleased to announce a new call for Researcher Mobility Awards.

Overview

Value: Up to $4,000 for North American host institutions/sites; up to $6,000 for host institutions/sites in other countries

Duration: N/A

Purpose: The EPIC Research Mobility Awards supports high-calibre doctoral students or post-doctoral fellows to develop new skillsets and strengthen global linkages by providing financial support for them to undertake research training or complete collaborative field work outside of Toronto. Through these opportunities, Research Mobility Award recipients will bring back new knowledge and techniques to our local infectious disease research community and strengthen our research network’s ties to national and international research partners.

To be considered for the award, applicants must:

Registered as a full-time graduate student at U of T or employed as a post-doctoral researcher at one of EPIC’s partner institutions (see last bullet) for the duration of the research travel period
Pursuing a research project with an infectious disease focus
Complete the majority of the travel between January 1st and December 31, 2024
Return to complete your degree or employment term at your EPIC partner institution.
Supervisor must have a primary affiliation at one of EPIC’s partner institutions (Hospital for Sick Children, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Unity Health Toronto, University Health Network and University of Toronto)

Application Deadline: The applications will be assessed on a rolling basis until May 31, 2024, 11:59 pm EST or until all available funds have been disbursed.

How to Apply: Access the complete application guidelines and online forms via EPIC’s website.

About the Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium at the University of Toronto

The Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium (EPIC) is a partnership between the University of Toronto and five hospital research partners — the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) Research Institute, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Sinai Health, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Unity Health Toronto and the University Health Network. EPIC brings together researchers from different disciplines to facilitate an integrated and innovative response to high-risk, high-burden infectious diseases. As Canada’s leading initiative for transformative infectious disease research, EPIC is linking academic researchers with industry and government partners, training the next generation of research leaders and advocating for science-based policies. For questions or more information, please visit our website or contact epic@utoronto.ca.

Inlight Student Mental Health Research – 2023 Research Fellowship Program

Inlight Student Mental Health Research, an Institutional Strategic Initiative of the University of Toronto committed to improving post-secondary student mental health and wellness outcomes, is pleased to announce its second annual call for its Research Fellowship Program.

Overview

Value: $10,000/award (graduate student stipend)

Duration: 1 year award

Purpose:

The Inlight Research Fellowship Program supports graduate students from a wide variety of disciplines to conduct research projects that have a primary focus on post-secondary student mental health and wellness through research at the University of Toronto. Post-secondary student mental health is inclusive of mental wellness, mental illness and substance misuse. It encompasses the full length of a student’s journey—from transitions into post-secondary education to graduation; and the full range of student mental health experience—from community and individual well-being to clinical intervention, inside the classroom and out.

Domestic and international masters and doctoral students enrolled in a program of study at the University of Toronto that includes a research project are eligible to apply. The primary supervisor must be a full member of the University of Toronto School of Graduate Studies, be eligible to supervise graduate students and be eligible to hold research funding at the University of Toronto or at their primary institution.

Application Deadline:

The Inlight Research Fellowship application is a two-part process:

Notice of Intent, November 27^th 5:00pm EST
Full Application, December 11^th 5:00pm EST

How to Apply: Access the complete application guidelines, required templates and online NOI form via Inlight’s website.

About Inlight Student Mental Health Research

By investing in high-quality, impactful research and driving research innovations into practice, Inlight is re-imagining how we support post-secondary mental health research on our campuses to enhance student mental health and wellness. We are working with students, faculty, researchers, staff, and administrators across our community to drive meaningful change in campus mental health. Inlight’s work is shaped by our vision, mission and guiding principles

John Charles Polanyi Prizes

To honour the achievement of John Charles Polanyi, recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the Ontario Government established a fund to award John Charles Polanyi Prizes annually to up to five outstanding researchers or scholars who are in the early stages of their careers and at Ontario universities. They are available in the areas of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Economic Science, broadly defined.

The John Charles Polanyi Prize is a prestigious award, and The University of Toronto is well represented on the list of prize winners. It is our aim to remain successful in this competition and we continue to encourage graduate units to nominate their strongest, eligible candidates.

Read about previous Polanyi Prize Winners: the 2022 UofT Prize Winners, and past UofT recipients of the 2021 UofT Prize winners, 2020 Polanyi Prize in Physiology/Medicine and 2020 Polanyi Prize in Physics, 2019 Polanyi Prize, and 2018 Polanyi Prize.

Value

The prizes, each of which is valued at $20,000, will be conferred in the Fall of 2024.

Deadlines

Please submit your nomination package to the Research Office by November 24th, 2023.

Internal competition announcement will be announced at the end of January 2024. The Council of Ontario Universities (COU) will notify successful recipients confidentially of the Ontario competition results in April 2024.

Eligibility to Apply

To be eligible for an award, applicants must:

Be normally resident in Ontario;
Have received their doctoral degree from any recognized university in the world on or after September 1, 2020 or, if the doctoral degree has not yet been awarded, be confident that they will have completed all degree requirements by May 31, 2024 (an applicant who was on parental leave between the time of completion of the doctorate and the time of application may have their period of eligibility extended by six months);
Either be planning to continue to postdoctoral studies or hold a faculty appointment at a recognized publicly assisted university in Ontario.

Important: Nominating units must ensure candidates have been or will be offered a full-time postdoctoral position or faculty appointment that will be accepted before signing the application form.

Enquiries about these criteria may be directed to ExecDirectorQA@oucqa.ca.

Nomination/Application Process

An electronic copy of the following documents in a single PDF package must be submitted to Research Office:

The completed application form - available from the Council of Ontario Universities’ (COU) website;
Curriculum vitae (no page restrictions), including information concerning the application. Updates to curriculum vitae will not be accepted after submission;
A summary of the doctoral thesis (1 page maximum, written by the applicant);
A brief statement of research or scholarship to be undertaken during the period of the award, prepared by the applicant (maximum of 2 pages, an additional 1 page is allowed for diagrams, bibliography, etc.);
A non-technical summary of the statement of research or scholarship, written by the applicant (maximum 500 words);
Confidential letters (on letterhead and signed) from four assessors (emailed directly to the LDFP Research Office before the unit deadline, not the Graduate Awards Office (or the Dean of Graduate Studies as the COU announcement indicates).

Mandatory arm’s length assessors:
All applications must have at least two arm’s length assessors from among the four assessors. Eligible arm’s length assessors include those who have read the applicant’s
work, seen them present at conferences, but have not actually been involved with the applicant. Additionally, the arm’s length assessors cannot be:
- a relative or close friend, or have a personal relationship with the applicant;
- in a position to benefit from the funding of the application;
- affiliated with the applicant’s current and/or proposed institutions;
- professionally affiliated with the applicant, as a result of (but not limited to): being their supervisor, trainee, or thesis committee member, collaborating, publishing or
sharing funding with the applicant, or having plans to do so in the immediate future.

Letters should focus on an evaluation of the applicant’s research or scholarship to date, and the research or scholarship being undertaken. In particular, the assessor should explain why the research is worthy of a John Charles Polanyi Prize, paying particular attention to the selection criteria outlined below. Assessor should also provide a short description of the relationship, if any, with the applicant.
Assessors must read and comment on the statement of research (or writing) being submitted as part of the application.
Note: COU allows external thesis examiners act as arm’s length assessors

Notes: Applicants do not need to obtain the Dean’s signature or endorsement when submitting the application. The Graduate Awards Office will provide this endorsement to those applications selected by SGS to put forth to COU.

Postdoctoral fellows located at an affiliated hospital or undergraduate-only department should apply through the graduate unit where their supervisor is appointed.

Luise and Gerhard Herzberg Postdoctoral Fellowship

Overview

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) is calling for applications for the Luise and Gerhard Herzberg Postdoctoral Fellowship. This is awarded every year to a recent PhD graduate who identifies as a woman and who has demonstrated research excellence. It commemorates the scientific contributions of Drs. Luise and Gerhard Herzberg.

Applications will be accepted until December 1, 2023.

Visit the Luise and Gerhard Herzberg Postdoctoral Fellowship web page for more information and to apply.

Eligibility

Candidates will need to submit a research proposal in any science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) discipline. Priority will be given to PhD graduates who identify as women and who have demonstrated research excellence. For the purpose of this fellowship a "recent PhD graduate" will be defined as someone that has completed her PhD within the last 3 years or is expected to obtain it in the next 6 months. The successful candidate will be hired as an NRC Luise and Gerhard Herzberg fellow for a 2-year term.

NRC Luise and Gerhard Herzberg Postdoctoral Fellowship

Applications will be accepted until December 1, 2023.

Visit the Luise and Gerhard Herzberg Postdoctoral Fellowship web page for more information and to apply.

Eligibility

Mitacs-JSPS Summer Program

The Mitacs-JSPS Summer Program, offered in partnership with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), provides opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in Canada to pursue collaborative research in Japan. This program allows graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in Canada to advance their own research while promoting scientific progress in both Japan and Canada.

Eligibility & Program Details:

Open to: graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at Canadian academic institutions in all disciplines
Participants must obtain their Canadian institution’s endorsement (see the How to apply tab for more details)
- Citizenship: Canadian citizens and permanent residents
Funding: JSPS arranges round-trip airfare and insurance. Mitacs and JSPS provide an allowance for the student or postdoctoral fellow (equivalent to 534,000 yen in total). Host supervisors are eligible for a research support allowance.
Destination: eligible academic institutions and research institutes in Japan
Project dates: mid-June to mid-August 2024. Dates are tentative and subject to change.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to read more about the program on the JSPS's website.

Deadline:

November 30, 2023, at 5 p.m. PT.

Results will be communicated in April of 2024. Applications are awarded competitively and subject to available funding.

Important: Projects must take place during the period set by the JSPS. The dates for the 2024 program are mid-June to mid-August 2024. More details can be found here. Note that dates are tentative and may be subject to change.

Please note that Canadian academic professors are required to submit the complete Mitacs-JSPS application form to Mitacs before the deadline. If you are a student interested in applying for the Mitacs-JSPS Summer Program, you must find a professor at your home Canadian academic institution who will need to obtain endorsement from the Canadian institution before you start your application.

Contact international@mitacs.ca for more information.

NSERC 2023 – CGS M Q&A session

NSERC is hosting the following question and answer sessions for the CGS M program:

Date	Time	Link
Thursday, November 23 (in English) CIHR staff joining	10 am to noon (Eastern Time)	Link: https://nsercvideo.webex.com/nsercvideo/j.php?MTID=mfb81cdbf3b50e64e126d4a3553c0599c

These sessions will be hosted as live Q&A Webex events. They are supported by a series of informational videos available on the NSERC YouTube channel. These videos are intended to completely replace the presentation portion of the NSERC sessions, allowing NSERC and/or tri-agency staff and applicants to engage in a more in-depth and detailed Q&A session than we would normally have time for. Participants should watch the videos in advance and come to the Q&A session with specific questions in mind.

Please attend any of the sessions that best suits your schedule. Registration is not required.

Playlist - Scholarships & Fellowships program application tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6ox0GB7vXYlhaAY7mEqwmMqYK9TGCp1E

PRiME Fellowship

PRiME has announced the 2023 PRiME Fellowship Competition!
Now in its fifth year, the PRiME Fellowship Program will award fellowships to postdoctoral/clinical fellows and senior PhD candidates with bold ideas in all disease areas where the expertise exists in our community, to enable the initiation and support of high-risk, high-reward research projects that are aligned with PRiME’s mandate.

Successful applicants may be eligible for additional operational funding from the Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (TIAP) for projects relevant to TIAP priorities, and from Max’s Big Ride for projects relevant to Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy.

The Fellowships must be supervised by two or more Principal Investigators (who are, or who are willing to, become PRiME members). One of the supervisors MUST have a primary appointment at one of the five collaborating University of Toronto divisions, while the other supervisor(s) may either be based at the University of Toronto or at one of the collaborating academic hospitals and partner institutions.

For complete program information, eligibility requirements, and application instructions, please refer to: PRiME Fellowship Webpage

PRiME Next-Generation Precision Medicine is an inter-disciplinary initiative that is cross-cutting to University of Toronto divisions, academic hospitals and partner institutions. PRiME investigators tackle unmet needs in drug discovery, diagnostics and disease biology by leveraging world-class expertise in biologics, omics, molecular chemistry, liquid biopsy, nanomedicine, biology-on-a-chip and related domains to develop new solutions for unmet needs in human disease. 

Important Dates:

Notice of intent due: November 17th, 2023
Full application due: November 30th, 2023
Anticipated notice of award: February 6th, 2024

Application Details

SSHRC Storytellers Challenge!

SSHRC launched its annual Storytellers Challenge! We are once again challenging postsecondary students to show Canadians how social sciences and humanities research affects our lives, our world and our future for the better.

The Challenge has been a tremendous success in the last 10 years, thanks in large part to the engagement of institutions in promoting it. As always, we welcome your collaboration. We are providing you with this toolkit that has information on the Challenge, as well as some suggested social media posts that you are welcome to use. We encourage you to share this information with your colleagues in research offices, graduate offices, faculties and, of course, to promote the Challenge to your students.

The Challenge is open to all students, graduate and undergraduate, enrolled at Canadian postsecondary institutions. Their task is to tell the story of a SSHRC-funded research project—their own or a researcher’s—in up to three minutes or 300 words. A jury will select 20 finalists, who will each receive $3,000, specialized training in research communications, and be invited to present at a showcase event in spring 2024, for an opportunity to receive an additional $1,000 (top five winners) in recognition of their communication skills.

For more details on this year’s Storytellers Challenge, follow us on social media and visit our website. Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at Storytellers@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca.