TD Bank Financial Group Grant for Health Sciences Interdisciplinary Research Fund Awards

Award Description

The TD Bank Financial Group in agreement with the University of Alberta has established an endowment fund to be administered by the College of Health Sciences, University of Alberta.

For 2024, the fund will provide up to four (4) $10,000 awards to support students and trainees at the masters, doctoral, post doctoral, or fellowship level. 

Two awards (2) will be granted to applicants from the University of Alberta who have active roles with an interdisciplinary (cross- faculty or multiple health/allied health disciplines) research team, relevant to Precision Health and who demonstrate interest and potential to excel in interdisciplinary health research. 

For this competition, Precision Health research is defined as research on the emerging healthcare model that leverages a vast array of data, new technologies, and the study of factors such as genes and their expression (e.g., genomics, metabolomics), personal characteristics (e.g., diet/nutrition) and environmental exposures, to better predict, delay, understand and address diseases and disabilities of individuals. Under this definition, Precision Health also includes the study of population data to deliver new approaches to health promotion, rehabilitation, and increased equity of health outcomes in populations. 

Two (2) awards will be granted to applicants from the University of Alberta who have an active role in an interdisciplinary health research team. The proposed research should demonstrate the integration of knowledge/expertise from two or more disciplines.

These awards will be administered through the College of Health Sciences, according to University of Alberta Student Financial Supports Policy.  The recipients will be chosen based on the recommendation of an adjudication panel appointed by the Research Projects Manager of the College of Health Sciences.

Eligibility of Candidates

Those candidates who meet the following criteria are eligible to apply:

• Registered full-time in a graduate or fellowship program for the duration of the award  at the University of Alberta that links to health research.
• A GPA of 3.5 or higher for the past 12 credits.
• Interest in exploring opportunities to increase interdisciplinary or team-based scholarship in health research and/or collaborative practice in the healthcare system.
• Has a Supervisor who holds an academic appointment from the University of Alberta and possesses a record of productive health-oriented research including peer reviewed grants, publications and conference presentations/abstracts.
• Involvement in a health research project with an interdisciplinary focus and interdisciplinary team (i.e. cross-faculty or two or more health disciplines) relevant to Precision Health or another area of interdisciplinary inquiry.
• Holds less than $20,000 in awards/scholarships by the beginning of the award (April 2024).

Applications

Applications are to be submitted electronically as a single pdf file no later than 4:00 pm on Friday, February 2, 2024 to the College of Health Sciences, Office of Research at chsoor@ualberta.ca.

Please use the attached Award application (fill-in) form using the font as set in the form, and must be signed and dated appropriately by required signees. RSO signatures are not required for these applications.

Applications are to be submitted (hard copy) to the applicant's home faculty. Please deliver or forward applications to:

Application Checklist

1. Applicant’s Personal data (Section 1)
2. Signatures (Section 2, RSO signature not required)
3. Applicant’s up-to-date official or unofficial past and current transcripts (Section 3A)
4. Applicant’s interest in interdisciplinary health research scholarship (Section 3B)
5. Applicant’s CIHR format Biosketch (Section 3B).
6. Supervisor’s CIHR format Biosketch (Section 4A).
7. Location of proposed research (Section 4B).
8. Research project summary (Section 5).
9. Letter of reference submitted separately from the main application to the College of Health Sciences, Office of Research at chsoor@ualberta.ca. (Section 6).

Evaluation Procedure and Timelines

Appendix 1 on the application form outlines the criteria that the TD Award Adjudication Review panel will use to evaluate applications.

1. November 2023 – Request for proposals sent out to University of Alberta community.  Eligibility for trainees who are registered full-time in a graduate or fellowship program for the duration of the award.
2. February 2, 2024 – Submission deadline. Applicants should submit an electronic  copy of the complete application package to the CHS Office of Research at chsoor@ualberta.ca.
3. February 2024 – An adjudication  review panel consisting of representatives from health sciences faculties will review top submissions. An award will be given to top rank applicants for precision health (2) and interdisciplinary research (2) from different faculties. 
4. April 2024 - award commences.
   
   

Term of Award

The award is for a maximum period of one year from the date of allocation

Deliverables at end of the Award

Successful candidates will submit a final report to the CHS Office of Research by April  2025. The report must acknowledge support from the TD Fund. Additional reporting requirements will be provided to the successful applicants, who may also be required to present their final report at a CHS meeting and/or conference (suitable meeting and date to be determined).

CONTACT FOR QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS:

Questions regarding the application or process can be addressed to chsoor@ualberta.ca