Eligibility

This fellowship is not intended for students (including Health Professionals) to complete a degree.

Confirm that you and your proposed host institution meet the criteria below before you apply for a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Applications that do not meet all of the eligibility criteria will be deemed ineligible.

For a list of eligible health professions, please see CIHR's webpage.

Applicant eligibility

Citizenship and location of host institution

Canadian citizens, permanent residents of Canada and foreign citizens are eligible to apply, provided they meet the following conditions:

Eligibility window for degree completion

Applicants to the 2024-25 Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships program must fulfill or have fulfilled all degree requirements for a PhD, PhD-equivalent or health professional degree:

Applicants who have not fulfilled all requirements for their degree at the time of application must submit proof no later than October 15, 2025.

For applicants who have completed more than one PhD, PhD-equivalent or health professional degree, the eligibility window applies to the most recent of these degrees.

Allowable extensions to eligibility window

The window of eligibility could be extended by a cumulative maximum of three years if the applicant had their career interrupted for extenuating circumstances, such as parental leave, illness, health-related family responsibilities, mandatory military service, disruptions due to war, civil conflicts and/or natural disasters in the country of residence, socio-economic reasons/lack of research opportunities, pandemic-related reasons, etc. It will only be extended by the duration of the eligible delay(s)/interruption(s).

"Career interruption" refers to a period of time when the applicant was not working (full-time or part-time) and when their research output was completely interrupted.

Additionally, for health professionals who have engaged in post-degree non-research-related clinical training (e.g., residency), the eligibility window can be extended by the duration of this training.

For other professions that require post-degree, non-research-related training to be certified by a professional body, please consult the Vanier-Banting Secretariat to confirm whether an extension to the eligibility window is allowable.

Interruptions used to extend the eligibility window for degree completion must have occurred after the fulfilment of your degree requirements and before the application submission deadline.

Justification must be provided in the Special circumstances attachment.

"Fulfilled all requirements of the degree" refers to the date that the applicant completed all the steps required for obtaining their degree. Although these requirements may vary by institution and degree type, they normally include thesis defence corrections and thesis deposition. Note that convocation is not considered a degree requirement.

Host institution eligibility

Institutions eligible to host a Banting postdoctoral researcher include Canadian and foreign universities, affiliated research hospitals, colleges and not-for-profit organizations with a strong research mandate and capacity.

Canadian governments (federal, provincial, municipal) and all for-profit organizations are not eligible to participate as host institutions.

Questions regarding institutional eligibility should be directed to the Vanier-Banting Secretariat well in advance of the submission deadline.

Other eligibility restrictions

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