CIHR's Health Research Training Strategy aims to equip research trainees so that they emerge from their training as scientific, professional, or organizational leaders within and beyond the health research enterprise. Generating Research Leaders of tomorrow is a key objective for CIHR.
Fellowships provide support for highly qualified applicants in all areas of health research at the post-PhD degree or post-health professional degree stages to add to their experience by engaging in health research either in Canada or abroad.
It is expected that applicants integrate sex and gender perspectives into their research to promote rigorous science that has the potential to expand our understanding of health determinants for all people. As such, applicants are required to indicate how they will account for sex (biological factor) and gender (socio-cultural factor) in the research design, methods, analysis and interpretation, and dissemination of findings. For more information and resources, please see the Sex, Gender and Health Research page on the CIHR website.
Research Areas
Additional funds are available through this competition to support Fellowship award applications in the following specific research areas:
Fellowship: Fall 2023 Priority Announcements (Specific Research Areas)
Eligibility to Apply
For an application to be eligible, all the requirements stated below must be met:
- The Nominated Principal Applicant must be a trainee (and maintain such status throughout the award duration) and meet the minimum commitment of 75% of their time in the proposed research training (Research + Course Work) throughout the tenure of their award.
Note: For the purpose of this funding opportunity, trainees cannot hold or be on leave from an independent research position. - A primary supervisor must be identified on the application. An additional supervisor may also be identified.
- As of the application deadline, the Nominated Principal Applicant must hold or be completing a PhD or a regulated health professional degree. The Nominated Principal Applicant must expect to complete all of the requirements of the degree by the latest possible date on which they can take up their award (see Conditions of Funding). For examples of health professions, please consult the list Eligible Health Professions.
- Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada are eligible to hold a CIHR Fellowship award in Canada or abroad. Nominated Principal Applicants who are neither Canadian citizens nor permanent residents of Canada may only hold a CIHR Fellowship award at a Canadian institution.
- A recipient of a CIHR doctoral–level award 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 CIHR doctoral–level award with a health professional degreeapplies to the Fellowship funding opportunity for doctoral support before the last year of the doctoral award, funding for the currently-held doctoral award 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.
- The Nominated Principal Applicant may submit only one (1) 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 (other exceptions may apply depending on the program objectives; these would be indicated in the specific funding opportunities).
- The Nominated Principal Applicant must complete one of CIHR's three interactive modules on sex and gender in research and include the completion certificate with their CIHR Fellowship application (see How to Apply section for further details).