Scholarships, Fellowships & Awards

Precision Child Health (PCH) is a movement that aims to provide personalized and targeted treatments for children based on their unique genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors. It involves taking a multi-disciplinary approach to harness advanced technologies and data analysis to better understand the complex interplay between genetics and environment in the development of diseases, and to develop targeted approaches and therapies for various disorders. 

The Precision Child Health Partnership (PCHP) between SickKids and CHU Sainte-Justine, two of the largest children’s hospitals in Canada, will provide the foundation on which to expand and accelerate collaborative research efforts of clinicians and researchers with complementary expertise in exploring the genetic, biologic, environmental, and social determinants of health and disease.  

The PCHP Scholarship Program aims to support trainees working towards discoveries and the development of tools and technologies that will enable faster, more accurate and efficient diagnoses, more appropriate treatments, increased drug safety and equitable access to individualized care for children and youth. 

Value:

• $26,000/year for up to 2 years for PhD Students 
• $60,000/year for 2 years for PhD-holding Research Fellows 

The scholarship activation date is September 1, 2024. 

Learn more about the Precision Child Health at SickKids. Apply for these awards via Restracomp and select precision child health or precision therapy in the keywords section of the application. 

The Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Children generously awards funding to Leong Scholars conducting research relating to child health equity.  

Value: $26,000/year for up to two years (Master’s level) or up to five years (PhD level). 

Get to know more about the Leong Centre and the current Leong Scholars. Apply for these awards via Restracomp/CSTP and select child health equity in the keywords section of the application. 

Garron Family Cancer Centre Clinician Scientist Fellowships

The Garron Family Cancer Centre (GFCC) offers a fellowship opportunity for clinical fellows looking to enhance their experience in cancer research. This fellowship opportunity aims to provide training through direct participation in basic science or clinical investigation under the supervision of world leaders in oncology research and clinical care. The goal is to promote career development in the clinician investigator and clinician scientist tracks.

Successful applicants will receive the PGY5 salary plus benefits which is in part made up of:

• $60,000 award/year for two years
• $22,000 supervisor contribution/year for two years

Applicants from a variety of clinical areas involved in cancer care are encouraged to apply including oncology fellows, surgical fellows, pathology fellows, etc.

Garron Family Cancer Centre Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Awards

The Garron Family Cancer Centre (GFCC) offers Postdoctoral Fellow and Graduate Student awards which provide funding for graduate students or postdoctoral fellows training and conducting cancer research at SickKids. 

The aim of these awards is to support the next generation of scientists to ultimately improve outcomes for children, adolescents and teens with cancer through fundamental and translational research. 

• $26,000/year for up to five years for graduate students 
• $60,000/year for two years for postdoctoral research fellows  

Learn more about the Garron Family Cancer Centre. Apply for these awards via Restracomp/CSTP and select cancer in the keywords section of the application.  

The Garry Hurvitz Centre for Brain and Mental Health offers the Integrative Fellowship which provides funding to pursue two years of training for individuals who have already obtained a PhD and/or a medical degree. The purpose of the integrative fellowship is to provide an advanced professional with a comprehensive training opportunity in a new or different clinical or research area, which enhances and supplements their prior training and professional background. 

Value: $60,000/year for two years 

Learn more about the Garry Hurvitz Centre for Brain and Mental Health. Apply for these awards via Restracomp/CSTP and select brain and mental health in the keywords section of the application.  

The Lap-Chee Tsui Fellowship for Research Excellence was established through the generosity of Dr. Tsui, one of Canada's best-known geneticists and a long-time member of the SickKids Research Institute. Dr. Tsui is celebrated for his identification of the defective gene that causes cystic fibrosis and for his significant contributions to the study of the human genome.  

The Lap-Chee Tsui Fellowship is a two-year award and provides research fellows with $39,550 in salary support including benefits per year, plus a one-time $5,000 research allowance.  

Apply through the Restracomp or CSTP Fellowship competition by following the link below.

Apply for the Lap-Chee Tsui Fellowship

The LiUNA! Fellowship for Research Innovation has been established through the generosity of LiUNA! Local 183, which was established in 1952 to ensure the safety of labourers. It has grown to be the largest construction local union in North America, serving more than 52,000 construction workers and their families in the Greater Toronto Area alone.  

The LiUNA! Fellowship is a two-year award and provides research fellows with in $50,000 salary support per year, plus a $5,000 research allowance per year.  

You can apply through the Restracomp or CSTP Fellowship competition - visit our Slideroom application portal below for online registration.

Apply for LiUNA! Fellowship

The MICe Scholarship for Research Excellence has been established through the generosity of the Mouse Imaging Centre (MICe) at SickKids. MICe became operational in 2002 under the direction of Dr. Mark Henkelman as a unique resource and comprehensive imaging facility combining the latest state-of-the-art digital medical imaging technologies for the characterization of mouse functional genomics. Since then, MICe has grown to include more than 40 investigators whose research at MICe has been featured in more than 340 publications.

The MICe Scholarship is a two-year award and provides graduate students pursuing reserch at MICe with $30,000 per year in stipend support plus a one-time $5,000 research allowance. 

Apply for the MICe Scholarship through the Restracomp or CSTP Fellowship competition - follow the link below for registration details!

Apply for the MICe Scholarship

The RTC offers up to $1,000 in financial support for graduate research students and fellows travelling or virtually presenting at a conference, attending a research skills workshop, or visiting an external lab to learn a new technique. 35 awards are available per year.

The RTC also offers up to $1,500 in financial support for Research Associates travelling to a conference or visiting an external lab to learn a new technique. 10 awards are available per year.  

Apply for travel awards by heading to our REDCap application portal by following the link below!

Apply for RTC Travel Awards

Presented in memory of an outstanding clinician-scientist, the Andrew Sass-Kortsak Award honours the work of two exceptional research and clinician research fellows with a $2,500 prize and an invitation to present the annual Andrew Sass-Kortsak Lecture to the Research Institute Community. Nominations are invited each spring.  

You can learn more about Dr. Andrew Sass-Kortsak by visiting the Canadian Liver Foundation's website below.

Read about Dr. Andrew Sass-Kortsak

The Research Institute honours the work of graduate research students and research fellows with the Exceptional Trainee Awards, which are presented annually to one trainee in each of the seven research programs. 

Exceptional Trainee Award winners are selected by the heads of the seven Research Institute programs and presented with plaques, and a $500 prize at the spring Scientific Advisory Board Meeting.  

See ResearchNet for the next CIHR Doctoral Research Award global deadline. The next SickKids internal deadline is October 1, 2023.

The CIHR Doctoral Research Awards Program funds applications in any area of health research. Doctoral Research Awards are valued at $35,000 per year in salary support. 

Graduate students who are pursuing research under the supervision of a SickKids scientist should select The Hospital for Sick Children as both their research location and institution paid when applying for a CIHR Doctoral Research Award and should follow the application process and deadlines below.  

Deadline 

See ResearchNet for the next CIHR Doctoral Research Award global deadline. The SickKids internal deadline is always 8:00 p.m. the Friday before the CIHR Doctoral Research Award global deadline.  

Eligibility and Award Duration 

Visit ResearchNet for current eligibility rules. For Doctoral Research Award, applications will be accepted in all areas of health research, including biomedical, clinical, health services, and social, cultural, environmental, and population health.  

Applicants seeking support for interdisciplinary research in areas that may overlap with the mandates of CIHR, NSERC, and/or SSHRC (for example, research in Biomedical Engineering) should consult with Beth Munro, RTC Program Manager, in advance of the SickKids internal deadline.  

The RTC will seek a ruling from the appropriate granting agencies about subject matter eligibility to ensure that your application is not deemed ineligible after submission. Please consult with the RTC if there is any potential overlap or lack of clarity; see the Tri-Council guidelines for selecting the appropriate federal granting agency for more information about each agency's mandate and research areas.  

How to Apply 

• Complete a Notice of Application in the SickKids myFinance system. 
  
• Note: when completing a NOA, please ensure that you list yourself as the trainee (TRN) and your supervisor as the “PI” in the "Applicant" section, and that the "SK Primary" box is checked next to your supervisor's name. If your graduate funding is not currently paid by SickKids please have your proposed supervisor complete the NOA for you and include you as an external applicant as you do not have access to myFinance. 
• If you are not yet a SickKids research student, please contact your supervisor regarding the completion of the NOA, as external applicants do not have access to myFinance. 
• Complete and submit your CIHR Doctoral Research Award application to ResearchNet by the internal deadline above. 
  
• Select SickKids (code CEAB) as your location of research and institution paid.
  
• If you have done the above, no institutional signatures are required. You must still upload your signature page to your application, and your supervisor's signature is still required.

The CIHR Fellowship Program funds applications in any area of health research. Fellowships are valued at between $40,000 and $50,000 per year depending on area of research training and licensure, which includes salary support and a $5,000 research allowance.  

Fellows who are pursuing research under the supervision of a SickKids scientist, or are proposing a project to be supervised by a SickKids scientist, should select The Hospital for Sick Children as both their research location and institution paid when applying for a CIHR Fellowship, and should follow the application process and deadlines below.  

Deadline 

Visit ResearchNet for the next CIHR Fellowship global deadline.  

The SickKids internal deadline is October 2nd, 2023 5:00 p.m.

Eligibility and Award Duration 

Consult ResearchNet for current eligibility rules. For CIHR Fellowships, applications will be accepted in all areas of health research, including biomedical, clinical, health services, and social, cultural, environmental and population health.  

Applicants seeking support for interdisciplinary research in areas that may overlap with the mandates of CIHR, NSERC, and/or SSHRC (for example, research in Biomedical Engineering) should consult with Beth Munro, RTC Program Manager, in advance of the SickKids internal deadline.  

The RTC will seek a ruling from the appropriate granting agencies about subject matter eligibility to ensure that your application is not deemed ineligible after submission. Please consult with the RTC if there is any potential overlap or lack of clarity; see the Tri-Council guidelines for selecting the appropriate federal granting agency for more information about each agency's mandate and research areas.  

How to Apply 

• Complete a Notice of Application in the SickKids myFinance system.
  
  • Note: when completing a NOA, please ensure that you list yourself as the trainee (TRN) and your supervisor as the “PI” in the "Applicant" section, and that the "SK Primary" box is checked next to your supervisor's name. If your funding is not currently paid by SickKids please have your proposed supervisor complete the NOA for you and include you as an external applicant as you do not have access to myFinance. 
• If you are not yet a SickKids fellow, please contact your supervisor regarding the completion of the NOA, as external applicants do not have access to myFinance. 
• Complete and submit your CIHR Fellowship application in ResearchNet by the internal deadline above. 
  
• Select SickKids (code CEAB) as your location of research and institution paid.
  
• If you have done the above, no institutional signatures are required. You must still upload your signature page to your application, and your supervisor's signature is still required. 

The Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships program provides funding to the top postdoctoral applicants, both nationally and internationally, who will positively contribute to the country's economic, social, and research-based growth. Fellowships are valued at $70,000 per year for two years.  

The objective of the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships program is to: 

• attract and retain top-tier postdoctoral talent, both nationally and internationally 
• develop their leadership potential 
• position them for success as research leaders of tomorrow 

Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship applicants require the support of the institution at which they will be performing research in order to apply. All potential SickKids Banting Fellows go through a rigorous internal review and application development process prior to final application submission.   

Deadline 

Visit the SickKids SlideRoom site for the next Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship internal deadline. 

View Banting Fellowship deadlines

Eligibility and Award Duration 

Consult the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship site for current eligibility rules. Applications will be accepted in all areas of health research, including biomedical, clinical, health services, and social, cultural, environmental, and population health.  

Applicants seeking support for interdisciplinary research in areas that may overlap with the mandates of CIHR, NSERC, and/or SSHRC (for example, research in Biomedical Engineering) should consult with Beth Munro, RTC Program Manager, in advance of the SickKids internal deadline.  

The RTC will seek a ruling from the appropriate granting agencies about subject matter eligibility to ensure that your application is not deemed ineligible after submission. Please consult with the RTC if there is any potential overlap or lack of clarity; see the Tri-Council guidelines for selecting the appropriate federal granting agency for more information about each agency's mandate and research areas.  

A new award has been created to support Latin American, Spanish and Portuguese graduate students or postdoctoral fellows interested in collaborative research with one of the laboratories of the Cell Biology Program of The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, Canada.

The Jacobo and Estela Klip Fund will provide $10,000 (CAD) to support the travel and accommodation expenses for successful candidates to spend a period of 4-6 months in a laboratory of their choice in the Cell Biology Program. Visit Cell Biology to learn more about the research team and their areas of interests.

You can apply for the award on our Slideroom application portal below!

Apply for Cell Biology Travel award

SickKids researchers have access to Pivot, an international funding database the University of Toronto subscribes to on behalf of faculty researchers, postdocs, and research students.  

Pivot allows you to conduct and save advanced funding searches, including Canadian and international opportunities, track opportunities, receive notifications on upcoming deadlines, and share opportunities with colleagues.  

Register for a Pivot account below to get started!

Register for a Pivot account

The Government of Canada’s International Funding database provides funding for Canadian students and fellows pursuing research abroad, and international students and fellows coming to Canada. 

View International Funding database

Please contact Beth Munro, Senior Grants Officer—Graduate and Postdoctoral Awards, for information on securing institutional signatures or matching funds for graduate scholarships, fellowships, and awards.  

Email Beth

Any scholarship, fellowship, or award that will be paid through SickKids must be reviewed prior to submission by the RTC and requires the submission of a Notice of Award in myFinance.