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Trainee Grants, Scholarships and Awards

Securing adequate funding is essential for the research and academic advancement of trainees. Unity Health trainees have access to a variety of funding sources, such as internal grants, university scholarships, and both governmental and non-governmental funding. It is recommended that students consistently consult their university to stay informed about available funding opportunities and application deadlines.

RTC Internal Funding Opportunities

RTC Top-Up Award for Graduate Students

The Research Training Centre (RTC) offers a limited number of top-up awards designed to support graduate trainees (MSc or PhD) at LKSKI and KRCBS. These awards aim to supplement stipends for graduate students registered with the RTC, assisting them in conducting research and obtaining their degrees through their work.

Funds Available:

The successful applicant will receive a one-time Top-Up Award of $2000 CAD. We also encourage applicants to seek external funding.

Application Deadline: March 21, 2025, at 5pm EST

For further details, please refer to the RTC Top-Up Award Guidelines, RTC Top-Up Award Application Form and RTC Top-Up Award Supervisor Form.

RTC Travel Award

The RTC offers conference travel awards to assist RTC-registered graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in attending national and international events. These awards aim to promote research dissemination, knowledge translation, and career development for Unity Health trainees by helping to offset participation costs for oral and/or poster presentations.

For further details, please refer to the RTC Travel Award Guidelines.

Holmes-McInnes Research Student Leadership Award for Excellence and Community Building

The award is intended to recognize a graduate student, who demonstrates both academic and professional excellence, leadership and outstanding contribution(s) to supporting other research trainees and/or our research community within our Institute. The recipient of this yearly award will be a graduate (MSc or PhD) student engaged in thesis-related research at Unity Health during the academic year when a trainee is nominated. Awardees are to be nominated by members of the research community of St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto. The award is in the amount of $200 per recipient annually and it can be received only once by a given trainee while studying at UHT.

For further details, please refer to the Holmes-McInnes Research Student Leadership Award Guidelines.

External Funding Opportunities

Tri-Council Funding Opportunities

Canada Postdoctoral Research Award (CPRA)

The CPRA program is a federal research talent investment program in the Canada Research Training Awards Suite (CRTAS) administered by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Kindly view this link for 2025 Unity Health Toronto Internal Timelines and Instructions.

Canada Graduate Research Scholarship – Doctoral program (CGRS D)

The CGRS D is a scholarship in the Canada Research Training Awards Suite (CRTAS) administered by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). The CGRS D program supports and promotes research excellence in a wide variety of disciplines and broad fields of health, natural sciences and engineering and social sciences and humanities, including interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research. This year Unity Health Toronto’s CIHR-assigned quota is 10. Trainees who would like their CIHR CGRS-D application to be considered at Unity Health Toronto must submit their notice by Sept 5, 2025 at 12:00 pm (noon) EST. Detailed instructions will be emailed to all trainees who submit their notice.

Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) Program

  • The Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) Program recognizes academic excellence in graduate studies at the Master’s and Doctoral levels in all disciplines of academic study

  • $5,000 per session for 2 or 3 consecutive sessions

  • See your university department for specific deadlines

MITACS Funding Opportunities

University Funding Opportunities

Students who are pursuing research-based Master’s or Doctoral studies may also qualify for additional financial support, which are administered by the respective graduate units. Please check with your specific department, and also visit the Graduate Awards Office for additional information about scholarship and financial aid programs. 

Postdoctoral fellows can find funding opportunities on the Burroughs Welcome Fund website. Postdoctoral Funding Opportunities, on Government/NGO funding websites, or other university awards.

*Please ensure to verify all internal application deadlines with your university and/or program

Guidelines for Postdoctoral Researchers and PhD Students Applying for Research Grants

We are committed to supporting postdoctoral researchers and PhD students on their academic and professional development journey. We recognize that there are specific grants that explicitly name postdoctoral researchers or PhD students as eligible applicants. To support access to these opportunities, we have developed two sets of Guidelines and Agreement Forms—one for Postdoctoral Researchers and one for PhD Students—to clarify the process and ensure appropriate oversight. We ask that all postdoctoral fellows and PhD students review these documents carefully and discuss any plans to apply for grants with their supervisor in advance.

Postdoctoral Researchers

PhD Students

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