Government of Canada 2024 Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships for National and International Students, Canada

The Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships program provides funding to the very best postdoctoral applicants, both nationally and internationally, who will positively contribute to the country's economic, social, and research-based growth.

70 fellowships are awarded annuallyFootnote1;
approximately 140 awards are active at any time.

Fellowships are distributed equally among:

• the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
• the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)
• the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)

• Table of Content
• About Government of Canada
• Government of Canada Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships
• Aim and Benefits of Government of Canada Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships
• Requirements for Government of Canada Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships Qualification
• Interview date, Process and Venue for Government of Canada Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships
• Application Deadline
• How to Apply

About Government of Canada

The federal government of Canada is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. In Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council.

Government of Canada Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships

Aim and Benefits of Government of Canada Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships

The objective of the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships program is to:

• attract and retain top-tier postdoctoral talent, both nationally and internationally
• develop their leadership potential
• position them for success as research leaders of tomorrow

Value: $70,000 per year (taxable) for 2 years (non-renewable)

Requirements for Government of Canada Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships Qualification

Confirm that you and your proposed host institution meet the criteria below before you apply for a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Applications that do not meet all of the eligibility criteria will be deemed ineligible.

For a list of eligible health professions, please see CIHR's webpage.

Applicant eligibility

Citizenship and location of host institution

Canadian citizens, permanent residents of Canada and foreign citizens are eligible to apply, provided they meet the following conditions:

• Applicants who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada may only hold their Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at a Canadian institution.
• Applicants who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada and who obtained their PhD, PhD-equivalent or health professional degree from a foreign university may only hold their Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at a Canadian institution.
• Applicants who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada and who obtained their PhD, PhD-equivalent or health professional degree from a Canadian university may hold their Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at either a Canadian institution or an institution outside of Canada.

Eligibility window for degree completion

Applicants to the 2023-24 Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships program must fulfill or have fulfilled all degree requirements for a PhD, PhD-equivalent or health professional degree:

• between September 15, 2020 and September 30, 2024 (inclusively), and
• before the start date of their award.

Applicants who have not fulfilled all requirements for their degree at the time of application must submit proof no later than October 15, 2024.

For applicants who have completed more than one PhD, PhD-equivalent or health professional degree, the eligibility window applies to the most recent of these degrees.

Allowable extensions to eligibility window

The window of eligibility could be extended by a cumulative maximum of three years if the applicant had their career interrupted for extenuating circumstances, such as parental leave, illness, health-related family responsibilities, mandatory military service, disruptions due to war, civil conflicts and/or natural disasters in the country of residence, socio-economic reasons/lack of research opportunities, pandemic-related reasons, etc. It will only be extended by the duration of the eligible delay(s)/interruption(s).

"Career interruption" refers to a period of time when the applicant was not working (full-time or part-time) and when their research output was completely interrupted.

Additionally, for health professionals who have engaged in post-degree non-research-related clinical training (e.g., residency), the eligibility window can be extended by the duration of this training.

For other professions that require post-degree, non-research-related training to be certified by a professional body, please consult the Vanier-Banting Secretariat to confirm whether an extension to the eligibility window is allowable.

Interruptions used to extend the eligibility window for degree completion must have occurred after the fulfilment of your degree requirements and before the application submission deadline.

Justification must be provided in the Special circumstances attachment.

"Fulfilled all requirements of the degree" refers to the date that the applicant completed all the steps required for obtaining their degree. Although these requirements may vary by institution and degree type, they normally include thesis defence corrections and thesis deposition. Note that convocation is not considered a degree requirement.

Host institution eligibility

Institutions eligible to host a Banting postdoctoral researcher include Canadian and foreign universities, affiliated research hospitals, colleges and not-for-profit organizations with a strong research mandate and capacity.

Canadian governments (federal, provincial, municipal) and all for-profit organizations are not eligible to participate as host institutions.

Questions regarding institutional eligibility should be directed to the Vanier-Banting Secretariat well in advance of the submission deadline.

Other eligibility restrictions

• Applicants who currently hold or have held CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC postdoctoral fellowships are eligible to apply to the 2023-24 Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships program only if the term of that funding officially ends on or before September 30, 2024 and prior to the start of the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship. Early termination of the agency-specific postdoctoral award for the purpose of application to the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships program is not permitted.
• Applicants can apply for both the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships program and other agency-specific postdoctoral fellowships programs (whether to the same or a different federal granting agency) at the same time, provided that the research proposed in each application falls within the mandate of the federal granting agency to which the application is submitted. For more information, please refer to Identify area of research.
  *Applicants who are successful in both competitions will have to choose which award to accept.
• Applicants must not hold a tenure-track or tenured faculty position, nor can they be on leave from such a position. Generally, "tenure or tenure-track" refers to an open-ended academic position in which the holder can form a research group, apply for externally funded research as a principal investigator, and teach. (If unsure, please contact the Vanier-Banting Secretariat.)
• Only in rare circumstances will a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship be awarded to an applicant who is staying at the same institution or within the same research environment where they completed their PhD, PhD-equivalent or health professional degree. If an applicant chooses to apply in collaboration with the same institution (or its affiliated hospitals, research centres and other laboratories) or within the same research environment from which they obtained their PhD, PhD-equivalent or health professional degree, a solid justification must be provided in the Special circumstances attachment. Examples of valid justifications are scientific reasons (e.g., availability of specialized equipment/infrastructure or expertise), family reasons (e.g., family obligations), health reasons (e.g., proximity to health care facilities), applicants conducting research with Indigenous communities and/or reasons related to community or cultural responsibilities. Indigenous communities are broadly defined as individuals, groups, organizations, and populations who self-identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit and or Métis) living and working anywhere in Canada.
• Applicants can submit only one application per competition year to the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships program.
• Without exception, Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships:
  • are tenable only at the institution that supported the original application for the program;
  • must be taken up no earlier than April 1st and no later than October 1st following the year of application;
  • are for two years;
  • cannot be held concurrently with another tri-agency training award; and
  • can only be held once in a lifetime.

Note: This fellowship is not intended for students (including Health Professionals) to complete a degree.

Interview date, Process and Venue for Government of Canada Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships

Application Deadline

How to Apply

Applications must be prepared and submitted by applicants. It is the applicant's responsibility to ensure that the application is complete. This includes ensuring that all host institution documents and referee assessments have been submitted.

Information provided in the application package must be self-contained. Links to external websites or documents hosted on a drive should not be included in the application.

Applicants should read the Selection committee guide prior to commencing their application. This guide lists the three evaluation criteria and has useful information on how the criteria are evaluated. Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships selection committees are multidisciplinary, and applications should therefore be written with a non-specialist research audience in mind.

You must also review the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion page before beginning the preparation of an application.

DORA: The agencies have signed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), a global initiative whose purpose is to support the development and promotion of best practices in the assessment of scholarly research. As signatories of DORA, the agencies recognize and value a broad range of contributions and emphasize their quality and impact.

Individual application documents can be submitted in either English or French. If another language is required to express a particular idea (e.g., specialized concept), be sure to provide an explanation in French or English.

NOTE: Applications submitted in French are allowed an additional page for the Research proposal.

This provision will ensure an equitable amount of space for research proposals written in either official language, as evidence demonstrates that documents written in French require approximately 20% more space than similar documents in English.

Any pages over the allotted page limit for the Research proposal (maximum of 4 pages for English applications and maximum of 5 pages for French applications) will be removed with no further notification to the Applicant.

An application is completed through the following tasks:

Application Steps

For more details visit: Government of Canada website.