Merit Awards Program 2025-2027

The Merit Awards Program is designed to fund faculty members at any stage of their career. We welcome applications for all areas of inquiry including pre-clinical and clinical sciences, education, and safety and quality assurance-related research.

The condition of each applicant must be:

• A member of the conforming practice plan
• Have a full-time clinical academic appointment at the University of Toronto

Note: Full time academic appointment refers to your appointment status, not the number of hours worked of your commitment to a partnership plan. Learn more about academic appointments.

Additional information on the Merit Awards Program:

• Excellence in Research Award and Merit Awards are open for experienced and early investigators. 
• Early investigators are candidates within the first 5 years of their academic appointment as of July 1, 2022. The appointment date will be defined as the date on their letter of appointment to the university. Include your appointment date in your CV if you wish to be considered for an Early Investigator Award.
• Formal periods of leave will be considered in determining the 5-year period for Early Investigator Awards.
• Awards are intended to support non-clinical research time or salary support for high-potential trainees who faculty members supervise (e.g., graduate students and postdoctoral fellows). Ineligible expenses include research operating expenses, technician and research associate salaries and travel expenses.
• Awards will be assigned for two years, from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2027. 
• A billing agreement will be issued to the Hospital Department Chiefs that outlines the procedure to transfer funds from the university to practice plans every quarter.
• All recipients will provide a Progress Activity Reports semiannually to understand the progress of the research project, this is a requirement for accepting the award.  
• In the case of a justified leave of absence, the Award will be put on hold and will resume at the end of the leave.

The application package and instructions are modelled after the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Foundation and Project Grant programs.

The applications will be assessed by an independent review committee. This committee comprises independent and experienced reviewers from varied education, clinical and research sectors. The committee will assist with reviewing all applications.

Please note that Faculty applying for an award will not be invited to review applications.

Additional information:

• Decisions will be based on the score and ranking of the application and eligibility criteria.
• We seek to support research excellence as judged by standard metrics, such as peer-reviewed publications, external grants, and the development of high-quality investigators and trainees.

• At least one award has been allocated for education-related research, although applicants will be considered for all available awards. To foster evolving areas within the specialty, one additional award will be offered for Safety and Quality Improvement Project.

The scoring criteria are as follows:

Senior applicants (excluding new investigators)

New Investigator applicants (< 5 years since faculty appointment)

Further criteria

Specific research activity criteria (related to this award)

Does a peer-reviewed grant already fund the research​​​​​​? Y/N

Will this research lead to an application for a peer-reviewed grant? Y/N

Will this merit award promote cross-disciplinary, collaborative research across hospital sites, varied academic units / or labs? Y/N

General research engagement criteria

Are you appointed to the School of Graduate Studies? Y/N

Do you currently supervise graduate students? Y/N

Do you currently supervise research fellows? Y/N

Are you a member of national or international research consortium? Y/N

Does your research align with the research priorities of your hospital? Y/N

• A step-by-step guide on how to submit your application on Survey Monkey Apply (last updated: February, 2025)
• Grant Writing: Guidelines and Best Practices
• Incorporating EDI considerations into your research:
  • Addressing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Your Research
    Funding Application – Research Teams and the Training of
    Highly Qualified Personnel - A Tips & Resources Handbook from the office of the Vice-president, Research and Innovation, University of Toronto
  • NSERC Guide for Applicants: Considering equity, diversity
    and inclusion in your application

If you have questions that are not addressed in our list of resources and guides, kindly contact us.