BC Environmental and Occupational Health Research Network

Each year the Canadian HIV Trials Network, in partnership with the sponsors featured below, provides several CTN Postdoctoral Fellowships worth $50,000 plus up to $5,000 for travel expenses to promising new HIV clinical investigators.
The fellowships, which go exclusively to researchers working in Canada, provide career support and are renewable for up to two years. Also, if the fellow’s research is in collaboration with an institution in a developing country up to 50% of the fellow’s time may be spent at that institution.

NARSAD’s Young Investigator Award Program provides support for the most promising young scientists conducting neurobiological research. One and two year awards up to $30,000 per year are provided to enable promising investigators to either extend research fellowship training or begin careers as independent research faculty. Basic and/or clinical investigators are supported, but research must be relevant to serious psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, or child and adolescent psychiatric disorders.

The INNOVATOR Award for Personalized Cancer Medicine provides a two-year grant of $100,000 ($50,000 per year) for direct research expenses, which may include salary and benefits of the grant recipient, postdoctoral or clinical research fellows, and/or research assistants, research/laboratory supplies, and equipment.

This Award will support highly meritorious research that is being conducted collaboratively by investigators in different countries around the world. The goals of the program are to:
• overcome barriers to international collaboration by providing funding for costs traditional grant mechanisms may not support;
• raise the profile of the importance of collaboration to conquering the cancer problem; and
• provide the means to facilitate travel and the sharing of knowledge that otherwise may have been difficult to achieve.

In order to honour the contributions of James Kreppner to Canada’s blood system, a personnel award has been established in his name to support a researcher in the area of blood safety. James Kreppner was a long time volunteer and member of the Canadian Hemophilia Society, a member of the Board of Directors of Canadian Blood Services and always committed to blood safety.
This award is open to investigators working in any aspect of research in blood system studies, with special consideration of excellent applicants working in any area of health law that may benefit the mission and mandate of Canadian Blood Services, including organs and tissues and cord blood banking.

A new two-year postdoctoral training fellowship will commence in 2010, in partnership between the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There is widespread scientific consensus that the world’s climate is changing and that there will be a broad range of impacts on health through a variety of factors, including greater heat stress, air pollution, respiratory disease exacerbation, and changes in the geographic distribution of vector-, food- and water-borne disease. The complexity of such influences requires that the next generation of climate and health scientists undergo training in a multi-disciplinary setting to ensure that they can address climate-related public health challenges. To this end, a postdoctoral program in which fellows are trained and conduct research in epidemiology, ecology, behavioral science, modeling and atmospheric science is being implemented.

IWH seeks to build research capacity by providing mentoring opportunities for graduate students and recently graduated researchers to develop their research skills and research portfolio on the topics and concerns of this initiative. To this end, IWH is recruiting a new researcher to take up a post-doctoral fellowship for a period of two years. This position is to begin in early 2010.
The fellowship is affiliated with McMaster University. The activities of the initiative are across the province, with most group meetings held in Toronto. The person taking up the fellowship must be based in Ontario, be able to attend initiative meetings in Toronto, and be able to participate in initiative activities. IWH encourages the post-doctoral researcher to locate themselves at one of the partner organizations.

Applications are now being accepted for six 2010-2011 Post-Doctoral Research Fellowships in cardiac electrophysiology. Research fellowships are available for one or two years and an annual stipend of $50,000 is allocated for each year, along with complementary registration to the Heart Rhythm Annual Scientific Sessions.

The mission of the ICRH is to support research into the causes, mechanisms, prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, support systems, and palliation for a wide range of conditions associated with the heart, lung, brain (stroke), blood vessels, blood, critical and intensive care, and sleep. In addition, ICRH embraces a range of research from fundamental bio-medical and clinical research, to research on health systems, health services, the health of populations, societal and cultural dimensions of health and environmental influences on health. The Young Investigator (YI) Forum is a major training and educational initiative of CIHR’s Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health. Each year, the YI Forum provides young investigators and trainees with an opportunity to showcase research, interact with senior researchers and faculty, and learn about career development and state of the art research and technologies.

The UCAR Visiting Scientist Programs is pleased to announce the PACE Fellowship Program. This program has been developed to:
• Grow the pool of scientists qualified to work at the interface between climate science and its applications,
• Transition advances in climate science and climate prediction into climate-related decision making tools and frameworks, and
• Increase and strengthen collaborations between climate research institutions and decision making institutions across all sectors.
The program seeks recent or anticipated PhDs who have expertise in climate science and who are interested in applying their knowledge of the climate system to decision-making capacity in climate-sensitive sectors. Preference is given to those who have held a PhD for no more than five years.

The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) has established the JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowships for Foreign Researchers. A limited number of promising young researchers are given the opportunity to conduct research in Japanese universities and in designated research institutions and laboratories. NSERC is responsible for selecting Canadian nominees for JSPS Fellowships.

The purpose of the Ajaib (Jab) and Nirmal (Munni) Sidhoo Charities Fund is to support and strengthen the training, continuing education, and collaborative work of young researchers working at VGH and UBC Hospital in the areas of Diabetes or Urology. As participation at scientific conferences is an important activity in the development of a research career, this competition will support VCHRI research trainees to present at an international conference.

Postdoctoral fellowships are designed to attract qualified, promising scientists entering their professional career in the diabetes research field. The applicant is required to work with a sponsor who can provide a training environment conducive to beginning a career in type 1 diabetes-relevant research. At the time of activating the award, the applicant must have a doctoral degree (PhD, MD, DMD, DVM), or the equivalent from an accredited institution and must not be simultaneously serving an internship or residency.

The Advanced Postdoctoral Fellowship program is designed to attract qualified and promising health scientists, to provide an opportunity to receive full time research training, and to assist these promising individuals in transitioning from a fellowship to an independent (faculty-level) position. JDRF envisions the 3-year award term as a period in which fellows will receive critical research training that will position them to work at the leading edge of their chosen field. An additional, optional 1-year “transition” award will further assist fellows to proceed to independent faculty or research appointments and will serve as a bridge between the fellowship and independent competitive research funding. During the fellowship phase, the applicant is required to work with a sponsor who can provide a training environment conducive to beginning a career in diabetes-relevant research. At the time of activating the award, the applicant must have a doctoral degree (PhD, MD, DMD, DVM, or equivalent) from an accredited institution and must not be simultaneously serving an internship or residency.

To honour Dr. Smith, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) has established the Canada’s Health Researchers of the Year: Michael Smith Prizes in Health Research (formerly, the Michael Smith Award for Excellence). One Prize is provided annually to an outstanding Canadian researcher who has demonstrated a high degree of innovation, creativity, leadership and dedication in health research. This year, the Prize will be awarded to an individual whose main research area is health services or population and public health research.

Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Thomas R. Camp (1895–1971) advanced state-of-the-art engineering and technology in the drinking water field. His early years were spent as a practicing engineer, followed by a professorship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Subsequently, he became co-founder and senior partner of Camp Dresser & McKee, Inc., the international environmental consulting firm. During his career he displayed a relentless passion for learning and research. The water treatment processes that Dr. Camp developed for mixing, flocculation and sedimentation set standards for the industry. Other contributions included the advancement of dual-media filters, porous underdrains, and direct filtration of municipal water supplies. Camp Dresser & McKee created the Thomas R. Camp Scholarship in honor of the contributions of Dr. Camp to support and encourage outstanding graduate students conducting applied research in the drinking water field.

Larson Aquatic Research Support (LARS) scholarships honor the memory of Dr. Larson by providing support and encouragement to outstanding graduate students preparing for careers in the fields of science or engineering to which Dr. Larson made significant contributions. “Lars” Larson was a brilliant, articulate, and dedicated water chemist and researcher. He made numerous scientific contributions in diverse areas, including but not limited to corrosion control, treatment and distribution of domestic and industrial water supplies, aquatic chemistry, analytical chemistry, and environmental chemistry.

This fellowship was created in honor of Dr. Abel Wolman, the “Dean of Water Supply.” Wolman’s contributions to the water industry defined the development of the engineering profession, most notably in the public health aspects of engineering. He established standards for planning for the future needs of people everywhere. The Abel Wolman Fellowship is designed to support promising students in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico pursuing advanced training and research in the field of water supply and treatment. To accomplish this objective, a doctoral fellowship providing up to two years of support will be awarded annually to the most outstanding student.

The APS Postdoctoral Fellowship in Physiological Genomics has been established in recognition of the fact that many advances in genomics ultimately require a functional understanding in the context of the organism, and special training is needed to conduct this type of research. The ideal candidate is one who has completed outstanding work in a top-flight graduate program (e.g., molecular biology, genetics, etc.) and who has the intention of employing organ system approaches during his/her postdoctoral training. Alternatively, a well-trained graduate in integrative physiology might wish to expand his/her work through the use of molecular biological tools and genomics. A central criterion of the postdoctoral project requires the scientist to use the tools of cellular and molecular biology in the setting of the whole animal.