Eligibility
As the Nominated Principal Applicant, you must be a trainee and meet the minimum commitment of 75% of your time in the research fellowship role proposed in the application. Note: For the purpose of this funding opportunity, trainees 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).
A primary supervisor must be identified on the application. An additional supervisor may also be identified.
At the time of application, they applicant must hold or be completing a PhD or a regulated health professional degree. The applicant must expect to complete all of the requirements of the degree by the latest possible date on which you can take up your award (see Conditions of Funding). To determine if a particular health professional degree is eligible, please consult the list of Eligible Health Professions.
Applicants who have obtained a doctorate degree (course-based or research-based) more than three years prior to the competition deadline are not eligible. Interruptions and delays will be taken into account in determining eligibility if detailed information on the valid interruption, including specific dates, is provided. CIHR uses the date of degree completion to determine applicant eligibility. This is the date on which all requirements of the degree have been met, including successful defense and submission of the corrected copy of the thesis.
The program is open to both Canadians and citizens of other countries.
These awards are normally held at Canadian institutions. However, Canadian citizens and permanent residents are eligible to hold their awards outside Canada. Applicants, who are neither Canadian citizens nor permanent residents of Canada, are eligible for awards to be held in Canada only.
A recipient of a Doctoral Award (DRA) 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 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.
Applicants may submit only one training or salary award 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 (this is the only exception where an individual may submit two applications in the same year).
