Research Trainee Program

Our Research Trainee Program supports health researchers in the training phase of their research career to enable career development and enrich BC’s health research talent. 

The Research Trainee Program is one of Health Research BC’s flagship funding opportunities. Since 2001, we’ve granted more than 1,400 Research Trainee awards helping to develop, attract and retain BC’s best and brightest health researchers and support the advancement of world-class health research in BC.

  • This competition is

    CLOSED

  • Important Dates

  • Applications Open

    November 16, 2023

  • Webinar

    November 22, 2023, 10:00 a.m. PT

  • Letter of Intent (LOI) Deadline

    December 12, 2023, 4:30 p.m. PT

  • Full Application Deadline (applicants)

    February 23, 2024, 4:30 p.m. PT

  • Full Application Deadline (host institution)

    March 01, 2024, 4:30 p.m. PT

  • Anticipated Start of Funding

    September 01, 2024

  • Award Term

    Up to 3 years

  • Award Amount

    $60,000/annum

Program details

  • Award amount: $60,000/annum and a research and travel allowance of $4,500/annum.
  • Award term: Applicants may request up to three years of support.
  • Provides salary support for talented post-doctoral or health professional researchers and develops their health research careers.
  • Helps post-doctoral researchers increase their, and their labs’, research productivity.
  • Prepares post-doctoral researchers for successful careers in research, biotech, health policy and more.
  • Note: A section in the application form is provided for applicants to describe how they will meaningfully and appropriately account for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the design of their research projects, in the analysis and interpretation of the findings, and in their knowledge translation activities.
  • Note: The weighting of the evaluation criteria:
    • Applicant expertise and experience 30%
    • Research project 50%
    • Environment and support 20%

Partnered awards are
available for this program!

Learn more

Eligibility

Applicants must:

  • Have a PhD and commit to a minimum of 75 percent of their time conducting research, or be a health professional in active clinical service and commit to a minimum of 50 percent of their time conducting research.
  • Hold or be eligible to hold a post-doctoral fellowship position by the award start date, and for the duration of the award, at a BC institution that holds a memorandum of understanding with Health Research BC (formerly known as MSFHR).
  • Be within six years of achieving their PhD or have been a health professional in active clinical service for 11 years or less for the duration of the Health Research BC/MSFHR award.
  • Not have held a previous Health Research BC/MSFHR post-doctoral fellowship award.

How to apply

Applications to our funding competitions are coordinated through Health Research BC's ApplyNet, our online grants management system that allows users to manage their entire award lifecycle, from application submission to post-award monitoring.

Log in to ApplyNet:

Applynet
Learn more about Health Research BC's ApplyNet
View the Health Research BC ApplyNet quick start guides

Application resources

2024 Guidelines

Download

2024 Evaluation Criteria

Download

2024 Conditions of Award

Download

Sample PDFs

Sample Letter of Intent

Download

Sample Full Application

Download

Sample Reference

Download

Sample Supervisor Information

Download

Sample Co-Supervisor Information

Download

Webinar

The 2024 Research Trainee webinar has now passed. To watch the recording, please click “view” below and enter the passcode. The slides are also available for download.

Passcode: p?ikR+C8

View

2024 Research Trainee Information Webinar Slides

Download

Fostering health research capacity

As a funding agency with a provincial mandate, we recognize the importance of fostering health research capacity in all regions. Additionally, we’re working to increase applications from around the province, including the north, Interior, Fraser Valley, and Vancouver Island, to support research of importance to those communities and train tomorrow’s researchers to strengthen health research capacity across the province. For this competition we are implementing process changes to identify and remove barriers to success for applicants from around the province, including:

  • Revising peer review processes and evaluation criteria to ensure applications from across BC are reviewed fairly and equitably.
  • Recruiting peer reviewers from underrepresented regions and institutions in BC and from smaller institutions outside of BC.
  • Working with Health Research BC partners to proactively identify partnership opportunities for fundable applications from regions and institutions outside of the Lower Mainland.