Potential Funding Sources

The funding information below, although not comprehensive, is a good place to begin. New funding sources are added regularly. Links to further information is provided.

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For some grant application examples - see this NIH webpage 

  • UofC Awards Search - search the University of Calgary database of awards and scholarships
  • Clinical Research Fund - Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) and Alberta Health Services (AHS) Funds up to $300,000 will be available to support high impact clinical studies that improve health or influence clinical practice and health-care delivery. Seed funding and funds for planning and pilot work will also be available to support high quality research that will be competitive for peer-reviewed funding and/or partnerships with industry.
  • Teaching and Learning Grants Funded by the Provost's Office, the University of Calgary Teaching and Learning Grants are designed to enhance students' learning experiences at the University of Calgary. Specifically, they support the development, implementation, critical examination, and dissemination of innovative, evidence-based approaches to student learning.
  • Resident Precision Medicine Primer Grant  Up to four grants with a maximum available funding of $5000 per award are available (group applications are welcome).The purpose of this PGME grant competition is to encourage approaches to education concerning Precision Medicine as it relates primarily to the PGME environment.  Consideration will also be given to educational models that may be extended for use along the continuum of medical education and in patient care environments.Priority will be given to proposals that show promise in contributing to educational curricula related to Precision Medicine. The proposal must focus on proposed educational content, tools and/or activities related to Precision Medicine, not on research in Precision Medicine.
  • Funding Deadline Calendar This calendar lists the most commonly held grants at the University of Calgary, and their associated deadlines.
  • COS-Pivot The University of Calgary subscribes to COS-Pivot, a searchable funding database. Check the link for more information on accessing this database.
  • Faculty of Medicine - All External Grants See left side of the link page for: AIHS, CIHR, NIH, NSERC etc.
  • UofC Graduate Awards Database  See yellow Database link on right of page
  • Cumming School of Medicine / AHS Clinical Research Fund. Funds available to support high impact clinical studies
  • Faculty of Medicine External Grants See links on left sidebar for AIHS, CIHR, NIH, NSERC etc.
  • Graduate Science Education GSE administered awards. Some may not be available to CIP trainees.
  • Recruitment Scholarships Graduate Funding Opportunities including the Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI)
  • QuICR Thomas E. Feasby Fellowships and Studentships »Deadline: February 28
    Awarded to summer students, Master's students ($17,850), PhD students ($20,000), postdoctoral fellows ($40,000), and clinical fellows.
  • The Graduate College at the University of Calgary  Graduate students (including MD students who hold an undergraduate degree) interested in taking on a role as either a resident or non-resident scholar are invited to apply. Both incoming and in-program graduate students and postdocs are eligible to apply. All successful graduate and postdoctoral scholars receive College Scholarships ($1500-$3000). See their blog site as well, The Monocle
  • Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship - Master’s Award value:  up to $10,800 per year. Doctoral Award value: up to $15,000 per year
  • Graduate Student & Community Scholarships - The scholarships and awards offered by third party organizations or various Alberta universities with support from Alberta Student Aid.
  • Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta - Various awards for cardiology trainees
  • Alberta SPOR Graduate Studentship The Alberta SPOR Graduate Studentship provides opportunities for individuals enrolled in the first year of their thesis-based MSc or PhD program to undertake health-related research with a patient-oriented approach.
  • Prion Funding - Continuous intake. The Prion Institute focuses on the following areas of research excellence: protein folding and misfolding; pathobiology of TSEs; surveillance and control; and TSEs and society.
  • WCB Alberta Grants - Worker's Compensation Board-Alberta encourages scientific exploration into topics applicable to workers' compensation (e.g. outcomes of shoulder and knee injuries, rehabilitation, occupational diseases or injuries). Guidelines and FAQ are HERE
  • Alberta Innovates Health Solutions (AIHS)  Clinician Researcher Training
  • L'Oreal Foundation for Women in Science - Canada National Fellowship for Doctoral and Postdoc Must be female Canadian citizens or permanent residents, candidates must conduct their research at a Canadian host institution. Alternates every year between Life & Physical Sciences Fields.
  • UofC Awards Search - search the University of Calgary database of awards and scholarships
  • Scholarships Canada - link searches for MSc or PhD funding based on Medicine as keyword
  • NIH Matchmaker - enter text describing your research and get a list of funded projects that are most like yours.  The abstracts yield insight into what reviewers find attractive, and the institute that most commonly funds your type of research. The search is worldwide, and can be restricted to Canada or the UofC only.
  • COS-Pivot The University of Calgary subscribes to COS-Pivot, a searchable funding database. Check the link for more information on accessing this database.
  • National Research Opportunities posted on Edge for Scholars. Many opportunities are available to Canadian researchers. Check often as list is constantly updated.

If your project was highly rated, but remained unfunded

  • Online Partnership to Accelerate Research (OnPar): In partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), OnPar offers a new funding paradigm with the goal of matching highly scored, unfunded applications with potential non-government organizations.

The Innovation Development Award. See here for the FAQ. Innovation Development Awards are available to all UCalgary graduate students who are looking to productize their research, or those who have an innovative product or service idea. The award package features upwards of $20,000 in prizes, free professional business mentorship services from Innovates Calgary and much more in subsidized in-kind services.

At the University of Calgary, Clinical Fellows refer to medical doctors who have successfully completed a residency training program in Canada or elsewhere and who are pursuing short term specialized fellowship training beyond the requirements of residency certification.

Learners registered in specialty or subspecialty Residency Training Programs at the University of Calgary are not considered to be Clinical Fellows.

  • Burroughs Wellcome Fund Postdoctoral Enrichment Program (PDEP) provides a total of $60,000 over three years to support the career development activities for underrepresented minority postdoctoral fellows in a degree-granting institution in the United States or Canada
  • The Peter Lougheed Research Award The competition is open to junior investigators at or coming to the Cumming School of Medicine at the time of the application deadline. Applicants can request up to $ 39,239.50
  • New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) Administered by the Tri-agency (CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC) this first investment of $38 million (announced in May 2019) will support early career researchers with five years or less of experience since their first academic appointment. Each recipient will receive up to $250,000 over two years.
  • Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation Program - Worldwide program to Accelerate Clinical Trials to increase the number of innovative pharmacologic interventions tested in clinical studies for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Up to $5 million based on stage and scope of research.
  • North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society (NANETS) - Clinical Investigator Scholarship is to encourage clinicians in North America at the end of their fellowship who have secured a faculty appointment or beginning of their faculty appointment to pursue a clinical career focused on neuroendocrine tumors. Award: $100,000 up to 2 yrs.
  • The Craig H. Neilsen Foundation research funding - Spinal cord injury research grants are awarded only to qualifying non-profit organizations in the U.S. and Canada. Grants are directed across a broad spectrum, including mechanistic, translational, clinical and psychosocial research, with a goal of opening innovative areas of inquiry and emphasizing progress across the entire translational spectrum.
  • FARA Grants - Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance. Grant submissions are accepted internationally for FA or associated illnesses and drugs.
  • Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Awards in Neuroscience - To qualify for an award, investigators must hold the Ph.D. and/or M.D. degrees, and have completed all research training, including post-doctoral training and be tenure track.
  • American Cancer Society - The Clinician Scientist Development Grant (CSDG) fosters the development of clinicians to clinician scientists.Applicants must be full-time and within the first 6 years of their initial faculty appointment. Awards range from 3 to 5 years, for a maximum $135,000 Direct costs, plus 8% allowable indirect costs per year.
  • Physician jobs in Alberta - All physician positions in Alberta will be posted on this site. To find CI specific jobs use keywords such as "clinician scientist" or "translational"
  • AIHS Health Research New Investigator Award 
    Up to a maximum of $1,000,000 over 5 years with the possibility of a 2 year maximum extension.
  • AAUW's Research Publication Grant in Engineering, Medicine, and Science Application - Deadline Dec. 1st
    Grants are open internationally to women scholars conducting basic research in STEM. The grantee must publish their research in a scholarly publication and be listed as a primary author. The grants are for tenure track, part-time, and temporary faculty, as well as new and established researchers at universities.
  • Career Awards for Medical Scientists (CAMS)
    Competitive program sponsored by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund  provides $700,000 awards over five years for physician-scientists at any degree granting institution in the US or Canada. The program is for physician-scientists, who are committed to an academic career, to bridge advanced postdoctoral/fellowship training and the early years of faculty service.

    • CAMS proposals must be in the area of basic biomedical, disease-oriented, or translational research.  Proposals in health services research or involving large-scale clinical trials are not eligible.

Alberta benefits at a glance  From CaRMS

PARA Agreement (New December 13, 2018)   May require login

Research funding highlights of the 2019 Federal Budget

General Funding

  • Graduate student scholarships. Over five years starting in 2019, through the Canada Graduate Scholarship program, $26.5 million per year is allocated annually to the federal granting councils (NSERC, CIHR and SSHR) to create 500 new master’s level scholarships awards and 167 more three-year doctoral scholarships awards.
  • New Strategic Science fund. Starting in 2022-23 this fund will support third-party science and research organizations.

Organization Specific Funding

  • Genome Canada $100.5 million over five years, starting in 2020-21, to launch new large-scale research competitions and projects.
  • Stem Cell Network renewed funding of $18 million over three years, starting in 2019-20.
  • The Brain Canada Foundation Brain Research Fund  For neuroscience discovery research, the budget proposes to provide the Brain Canada Foundation’s Canada Brain Research Fund with up to $40 million over two years, starting in 2020–21.
  • Ovarian Cancer Canada. $10 million over five years beginning in 2019-20 to help address existing gaps in knowledge about effective prevention, screening, and treatment options for ovarian cancer.
  • TRIUMF (which includes medical isotopes research) $195.9 million over five years, starting in 2020-21.

 Other Benefits to Post-Secondary Students

  • Leave of Absence (parental or medical). Student researchers and postdoctoral fellows who receive granting council funding will also get 12 months of parental leave coverage, up from six months. For borrowers taking temporary leave from their studies for medical or parental reasons, including mental health leave, interest-free and payment-free leave will be implemented in six-month stackable periods, for a maximum of 18 months,
  • Lower interest rates. Post-secondary students will benefit from a lower floating interest rate (to prime rather than prime plus 2.5) on Canada Student Loans starting this fiscal year, along with a six-month interest free grace period after graduation.
  • Students with Disabilities Increase cap from $8k-$20K for students with permanent disabilities, expand the Severe Permanent Disability Benefit so more students can qualify for loan forgiveness.
  • Indigenous Peoples $540 million over five years to support Indigenous Post-secondary Education.