Keyboard Grants

Potential Research Funding Sources

The funding information below, although not comprehensive, is a good place to begin.

New research funding sources are added regularly. Links to further information are provided. Please email cip@ucalgary.ca if any links are broken.

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The Research Services Office works with the University of Calgary’s research community. Email rsogrants@ucalgary.ca to be directed to the appropriate Research Grants Officer.

As announced in Budget 2024, the scholarship and fellowship programs administered by the three federal research funding agencies – the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) – have been streamlined into a new harmonized talent program called the Canada Research Training Awards Suite (CRTAS)

  • Alberta Innovates Postdoctoral Fellowship - Must have completed a PhD. $55K - $70K per year for two years
  • 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.
  • 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 Tech Commercialization  Supports Alberta innovators who are ready to commit to commercialization of their health innovation through funding and connections to partners.

Doctoral students (in their first or second year of a full-time PhD) at Canadian institutions may apply directly to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholarship through the Foundation’s official application portal after registering for an information webinar. Applications are accepted in September. 

The scholarship provides up to CAD 50,000 per year for tuition and living expenses, plus an additional CAD 20,000 per year for research, travel, networking, and Foundation programming - available for up to three years.

Research projects must align with the four themes: 1) Human Rights & Dignity – an example may be studying how access to palliative care differs across socioeconomic groups and its impact on patient dignity; 2) Responsible Citizenship – for example, evaluating the role of physicians in shaping equitable public health policies during a pandemic; 3) Canada & the World – an example could be investigating Canada’s contribution to global infectious disease surveillance and management strategies; and 4) People & Their Natural Environment – for instance, examining the health effects of climate change on rural and Indigenous populations in Canada.

Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar
  • 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.

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.

  • CIFAR Global Scholars Program offers early-career researchers the opportunity to develop and lead high-risk, high-reward interdisciplinary research, expand their professional networks and receive focused leadership training in their pivotal first years as independent investigators. 
  • 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
  • Endowment Funds The competition is open to junior investigators at or coming to the Cumming School of Medicine at the time of the application deadline.
  • 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"

Alberta benefits at a glance  From CaRMS

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

Federal research funding highlights

Recent federal budgets included several investments relevant to research trainees, postdoctoral fellows, and clinician-investigator training. Budget 2024 increased the value of federal research awards to $27,000 for master’s students, $40,000 for doctoral students, and $70,000 for postdoctoral fellows. The same measure also increased the number of awards available, with approximately 1,720 additional graduate students or fellows expected to benefit each year through the new streamlined talent program. Budget 2024 provided $1.8 billion over five years to CIHR, NSERC, and SSHRC to increase core research grant funding.

Budget 2024 also included $30 million over three years to support Indigenous participation in research, with $10 million each for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit partners. Earlier federal budgets also included Indigenous post-secondary education investments, including enhanced support for the Post-Secondary Student Support Program and distinctions-based Indigenous post-secondary education strategies. 

Budget 2025 added further research-related measures, including up to $1.7 billion to help recruit international researchers, doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-career researchers to Canada.