Canada’s CIHR Doctoral and Postdoctoral Scholarships for Health Professionals: What to Know
Canada continues to offer a range of federally funded research training awards open to individuals holding a professional health degree, such as medicine, dentistry, nursing or veterinary medicine, who wish to pursue doctoral or postdoctoral research through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and its partner agencies.
At the doctoral level, the primary vehicle for this funding is the Canada Graduate Research Scholarship – Doctoral (CGRS D) program, part of the newly restructured Canada Research Training Awards Suite jointly administered by CIHR, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). The program provides $40,000 per year for up to 36 months to support doctoral-level research across health, natural sciences and engineering, and social sciences and humanities disciplines, including interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary work. Importantly for holders of a professional health degree, joint programs combining a professional qualification with a PhD, such as MD/PhD, DVM/PhD or JD/PhD arrangements, are eligible for the award provided they include a significant, autonomous research component, as are clinically oriented programs of study such as clinical psychology.
The CGRS D is open to Canadian citizens, permanent residents, protected persons, and international students, with the scholarship typically held at an eligible Canadian degree-granting institution. Canadian citizens, permanent residents and protected persons may also hold the award at an international institution if they have completed at least one prior degree in Canada, with up to 20 per cent of all doctoral awards available to be held abroad. The direct-to-agency application deadline for the current competition is October 17, 2026, at 8pm Eastern Time, though applicants submitting through their home institution should expect an earlier internal deadline and are advised to confirm this directly with their university’s graduate studies office.
For those who have already completed a professional health degree and are looking to pursue postdoctoral-level research, CIHR’s Canada Postdoctoral Research Award (CPRA) program offers a further avenue of support. Eligibility requires that the Nominated Principal Applicant have completed all requirements for a doctorate or health professional degree no more than three years before September 1 of the year in which they apply, though this eligibility window can be extended without limit for candidates who undertook non-research clinical training, such as a residency, following completion of their degree. Further extensions to the eligibility period, up to a maximum of three years, may also be granted for career interruptions related to parental leave, medical leave, family responsibilities, mandatory military service, or disruptions caused by war, civil conflict or natural disasters. International applicants are also eligible for the CPRA program provided they are enrolled in, or have completed, a doctorate or health professional degree at a Canadian institution, or are conducting postdoctoral research in Canada, with up to 20 per cent of postdoctoral awards reserved for international applicants.
Applicants interested in either program are encouraged to consult CIHR’s official funding opportunity pages directly for the most current eligibility criteria, evaluation processes and application instructions, as well as to check with their home or prospective Canadian institution regarding internal deadlines and available quotas, since these can vary considerably between universities and change from one competition cycle to the next.
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