CIHR Undergraduate Student Research Awards

What you will need

• ✓ Form 202, Part I, completed by you in NSERC's online system (the single system used for CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC)
• ✓ Form 202, Part II, completed by your proposed research supervisor
• ✓ Self-identification as Black, by checking the box on the application form (required for CIHR USRAs)
• ✓ Submission to the university where you want to hold the award, by that university's internal deadline

About this award

Each award is worth $6,000 from CIHR (the Canadian Institutes of Health Research — the federal agency that funds health research), and the university where you hold it is required to add to that amount. The award covers 14 to 16 weeks of full-time research work. This is not a loan, so you do not have to pay it back. This is for you if you are a Black undergraduate student who wants to spend a term doing health research under a supervisor approved by your university. CIHR and SSHRC USRAs are currently available only to Black student researchers; NSERC USRAs, for the natural sciences and engineering, are not limited in this way. There is no single national deadline. Each university sets its own internal deadline, and you apply to the university where you want to hold the award, not to CIHR. Ask the USRA liaison officer at that university (usually in the scholarships office) for this year's date. Awards can be held in the May, September or January term. Your university chooses the winners from its own allocation of awards, based on academic excellence, research potential, and the quality of the training and mentorship you would receive. CIHR allocates 165 USRAs a year across Canadian institutions, so each school has only a few — for example, 25 at the University of Toronto and 12 each at McGill and UBC, while some schools have none. The university pays you the full value of the award through its own pay procedures and issues you a T4 or T4A slip at the end of the year. You work full time on the research during the award, and you may take at most two courses, with your supervisor's approval. You can hold only one USRA per fiscal year (April 1 to March 31) and at most three over your whole undergraduate degree, counting all three agencies.

Who qualifies

You must be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or Protected Person, and registered full-time or part-time in a bachelor's degree program at an eligible Canadian institution as of that institution's application deadline. CIHR USRAs are currently open only to students who self-identify as Black on the application form. You need a satisfactory cumulative average (normally at least B-; check with your university). To hold the award you must have finished at least the first year (or two academic terms) of your bachelor's degree. You cannot have completed all your degree requirements, and you cannot be registered now, or have been registered before, in a graduate program in the same field. Unlike NSERC USRAs, CIHR USRAs are open to students in undergraduate professional health programs such as MD, DDS or BScN.

This is what the award's official page said when we last checked. Rules change, so confirm on the award's official page before you apply.

• ✓ Canadian citizen, permanent resident or protected person
• ✓ Open to undergraduate students
• ✓ Studying health sciences or medical research

How to apply

1. 1

   Read the award's official page

   Check you meet every requirement, and note each document they ask for.

2. 2

   Check this year's deadline

   We don't have a confirmed date for this round. The award's official page will have it.

Tips for applying

• SupervisorAvoid applying before you have a supervisor lined up. Instead, find a researcher whose health research interests you and ask whether they will supervise you, since part of the application (Form 202, Part II) is completed by your proposed supervisor.
• DeadlineAvoid waiting for a national announcement. Instead, contact the USRA liaison officer at your university early to ask for its internal deadline and how many CIHR awards it has this year.
• StrategyAvoid limiting yourself to one school. You may apply to more than one department or institution, but check first whether that institution accepts students from other schools, and remember you can hold only one USRA per fiscal year.
• RealismAvoid counting on an award at a school with few CIHR spots. Instead, check the allocation table on the official page, since some institutions have only one CIHR award and some have none.

Questions students ask

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