From the
Department of Medicine

CONTENTS:

2025 NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award

2025 CIHR Undergraduate Student Research Award
(for Black students)

2025 NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award

Department of Medicine NEW Deadline:  
Monday, February 17, 2025 at 11:59 p.m.

The following information is from Nicole Kosturic, Program Coordinator, FoMD:

The Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry has been notified that a total of 22 NSERC USRA awards will be allocated to FoMD 2025. 

• NSERC no longer requires professors to hold an active NSERC grant when applying to supervise a USRA student. Supervisors must be authorized to independently supervise students and must be eligible to hold research funding in accordance with the U of A's Eligibility to Apply for and Hold Research Funds Policy and the proposed research project must still clearly lie within the natural sciences and engineering.
• Students cannot be currently enrolled in an undergraduate professional degree program in the health sciences (e.g., MD, MLS, DDS, BScN) to apply for an NSERC USRA.
• For 2025-2026, the base value for all USRA awards will be $6000.  Supervisors or departments must supplement the award value to at least a minimum wage equivalent ($15/hour x 35 hours/week x 16 weeks = $8400).  
  • For U of A students, the minimum top-up amount is $2400 ($600/month), paid as an undergraduate scholarship.  
  • For WCB and insurance purposes, non-U of A students must be paid as casual (excluded student) employees, and supervisors/departments are responsible for all mandatory employment-related costs (e.g. EI, CPP, etc.), in addition to the top-up amount. The required top-up amount (including mandatory employment-related costs) can be estimated using the U of A’s total compensations calculator (Excluded Student - Hourly). This also applies for U of A students who are classified as employees (e.g. co-op placements). 
• NSERC continues to accept nominations for Indigenous researchers in excess of the institutional NSERC USRA allocations. Applicants must self-identify as Indigenous researchers and provide consent to share this information with NSERC in order to be excluded from the institutional allocation. 
• Applications must be completed electronically via the NSERC Online System. See the NSERC USRA Application Information for instructions on how to complete the application. 

Departments are invited to submit nominations for eligible summer students. 

Application Process and Internal Deadline:

1. Complete NSERC's online application

• All applications are to be completed electronically using NSERC's Online system 
• As per NSERC's guidelines, paper applications will not be accepted by the agency. 
• The online application is completed in two parts.

1. Applicants must select the NSERC agency (via the NSERC portal) in their Form 202. Students must complete Part 1 of Form 202 of the application. This includes uploading official/unofficial transcripts and the Self-Identification questionnaire on the NSERC Portal. (In order to be considered for funding that is exclusively for Indigenous student researchers, applicants MUST complete the self-identification questionnaire and provide consent to share this information.) This self-identification information does NOT appear in the PDF copy of the USRA application. Therefore, when applying for funding, students must complete the self-identification questionnaire found under the student’s NSERC profile:  eConsole → Account Management → Maintain User Profile. The data gathered in this form provides information on the diversity of the population applying for and receiving agency funds and which applications are eligible for an exemption to FoMD's NSERC USRA allocations. Since self-identification information does not appear on the Form 202 PDF, departments will need to collect this information separately to identify applicants eligible for targeted funding. A sample application checklist/cover page template is provided to support departments in collecting this information.
2. Students will then forward their application reference number to their supervisor who will need it to complete Part 2 of Form 202 of the student's application. 
3. Instructions for completing the application can be found here. 
4. This video from NSERC provides step-by-step instructions for submitting Form 202

Supervisors are responsible for ensuring that the applications include the following information:

• Grant Application Number is no longer used by NSERC. Enter 999999 or any six-digit number.
• NSERC Personal Identification Number (PIN)
• Research subject code

When supervisors complete their portion of the application, they will have to provide their "NSERC Personal Identification Number (PIN)". Supervisors will have an NSERC PIN if they have previously applied to NSERC for funding. For those who have not previously applied to NSERC, leave the field blank and a PIN will automatically be assigned by the Online System.

DON'T SUBMIT ONLINE TO NSERC YET 

2. Forward the NSERC application with related documents to your Department by following the instructions below:

• Supervisors must download a combined electronic copy (PDF) document of the application (with transcripts, supervisor's Common CV and self-identify if the student is Indigenous) and forward it to their department before clicking the submit button on NSERC's online portal. Self-identification template (provided above) must be included in the materials you provide to your department for internal review. Note: Once the application is submitted on the online portal there is no way to retrieve the application. 

3. Submit the application in NSERC's online portal. 

4. The department is asked to review and rank the applications and provide a brief (few sentences) description of the process/criteria upon which their ranking is based. A NSERC_CIHR USRA Adjudication Rubric Template is provided to support departments. 

4. FoMD Internal Deadline: The department must provide its rankings and electronic copies of all completed applications, including transcripts and CV's, no later than 2:00 pm, Monday, February 24, 2025 to Nicole Kosturic, Program Coordinator, Office of Research via email at nkosturi@ualberta.ca.

5. The Office of Research will rank all applications from the FoMD and forward final recommendations to the Undergraduate Research Initiative (URI) Office. 

6. The successful applicant/supervisor will be notified by the Office of Research in March 2025. The student will have approximately one week to accept the award before the offer is withdrawn and offered to the next student on the FoMD list.  If the student declines his/her award offer, the Office of Research will offer the award to the student next in line on the FoMD list.

2025 CIHR Undergraduate Student Research Award

Department of Medicine Deadline:  
Monday, February 17, 2025 at 11:59 p.m.

The following information is from Nicole Kosturic, Program Coordinator, FoMD:

The CIHR USRAs are continuing again this year. At present, they are exclusively for Black student researchers, which means that FoMD may have qualified applicants and supervisors. Additional details about this aspect of the program can be found below. Due to the limited number of targeted allocations for Black student researchers, allocation of this funding will be coordinated institutionally. The Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, Office of Research will be notified of the allocations by mid-March. 

• For 2025-2026, the base value for all USRA awards will be $6000. Supervisors or departments must supplement the award value to at least a minimum wage equivalent ($15/hour x 35 hours/week x 16 weeks = $8400).  
  • For U of A students, the minimum top-up amount is $2400 ($600/month), paid as an undergraduate scholarship.  
  • For WCB and insurance purposes, non-U of A students must be paid as casual (excluded student) employees, and supervisors/departments are responsible for all mandatory employment-related costs (e.g. EI, CPP, etc.), in addition to the top-up amount. The required top-up amount (including mandatory employment-related costs) can be estimated using the U of A’s total compensations calculator (Excluded Student - Hourly). This also applies for U of A students who are classified as employees (e.g. co-op placements). 
• Additional eligibility criteria can be found here.
• Supervisors must be authorized by the institution to independently supervise students and they must be eligible to hold research funding in accordance with the U of A’s Eligibility to Apply for and Hold Research Funds Policy.
• Presently, CIHR USRAs are exclusively for Black student researchers. To be eligible to apply for these awards, applicants are asked to disclose within the application form that they self-identify.
• For applications to the CIHR USRA students can currently be enrolled in an undergraduate professional degree program in the health sciences (e.g., MD, MLS, DDS, BScN).
• Applications must be completed electronically via the NSERC Online System. See the NSERC USRA Application Information for instructions on how to complete the application. Applications for CIHR USRAs are processed by NSERC and must be also submitted through the NSERC Online System. Select CIHR in the NSERC application portal.

Departments are invited to submit nominations for eligible summer students. 

Application Process and Internal Deadline:

1. Complete NSERC's online application

• All applications are to be completed electronically using NSERC's Online system 
• As per NSERC's guidelines, paper applications will not be accepted by the agency. 
• The online application is completed in two parts.

1. Applicants must select the CIHR agency (via the NSERC portal) in their Form 202. Students must complete Part 1 of Form 202 of the application. This includes uploading official/unofficial transcripts and the Self-Identification questionnaire on the NSERC Portal. (In order to be considered for funding that is exclusively for Black student researchers, applicants MUST complete the self-identification questionnaire and provide consent to share this information.) This self-identification information does NOT appear in the PDF copy of the USRA application. Therefore, when applying for funding, students must complete the self-identification questionnaire found under the student’s NSERC profile:  eConsole → Account Management → Maintain User Profile. The data gathered in this form provides information on the diversity of the population applying for and receiving agency funds and which applications are eligible for an exemption to FoMD's NSERC USRA allocations. Since self-identification information does not appear in the Form 202 PDF, departments will need to collect this information separately to identify applicants eligible for targeted funding. A sample application checklist/cover page template is provided to support departments in collecting this information. 
2. Students will then forward their application reference number to their supervisor who will need it to complete Part 2 of Form 202 of the student's application. 
3. Instructions for completing the application can be found here. 
4. This video from NSERC provides step-by-step instructions for submitting Form 202

Supervisors are responsible for ensuring that the applications include the following information:

• Grant Application Number is no longer used by NSERC. Enter 999999 or any six-digit number.
• NSERC Personal Identification Number (PIN)
• Research subject code

When supervisors complete their portion of the application, they will have to provide their "NSERC Personal Identification Number (PIN)". Supervisors will have an NSERC PIN if they have previously applied to NSERC for funding. For those who have not previously applied to NSERC, leave the field blank and a PIN will automatically be assigned by the Online System.

DON'T SUBMIT ONLINE TO NSERC YET 

2. Forward the NSERC application with related documents to your Department by following the instructions below:

• Supervisors must download a combined electronic copy (PDF) document of the application (with transcripts, supervisor's Common CV and self-identify if the student is a Black student researcher) and forward it to their department before clicking the submit button on NSERC's online portal. Self-identification template (provided above) must be included in the materials you provide to your department for internal review. Note: Once the application is submitted on the online portal there is no way to retrieve the application. 

3. Submit the application in NSERC's online portal. 

4. The department is asked to review and rank the applications and provide a brief (few sentences) description of the process/criteria upon which their ranking is based. A NSERC_CIHR USRA Adjudication Rubric template is provided to support departments.

4. FoMD Internal Deadline: The department must provide its rankings and electronic copies of all completed applications, including transcripts and CV's and Adjudication Rubric, no later than 2:00 pm, Monday, February 24, 2025 to Nicole Kosturic, Program Coordinator, Office of Research via email at nkosturi@ualberta.ca.

5. The Office of Research will rank all applications from the FoMD and forward final recommendations to the Undergraduate Research Initiative (URI) Office. 

6. The successful applicant/supervisor will be notified by the Office of Research in March 2025. The student will have approximately one week to accept the award before the offer is withdrawn and offered to the next student on the FoMD list.  If the student declines his/her award offer, the Office of Research will offer the award to the student next in line on the FoMD list.