The Canada Impact+ Research Training Doctoral Award is valued at $40,000 per year with a duration of three years, and must be awarded to a student supervised by a faculty member who holds Tri-Agency funding. See the full Faculty member nominator eligibility criteria here.

Nominees can be of any citizenship, including Canadian citizens, permanent residents and protected people. Nominees cannot have a current affiliation with a Canadian institution and must be currently studying or working abroad. See the full nominee eligibility criteria here.

These awards prioritize eight research areas identified by the Canadian Government:

• Advanced digital technologies (AI, quantum, cybersecurity)
• Health, including biotechnology
• Clean technology and resource value chains
• Environment, climate resilience, and the Arctic
• Food and water security
• Democratic and community resilience
• Manufacturing and advanced materials
• Defence and dual-use technologies

Queen’s Process:

Queen’s has been assigned a quota of a minimum of 9 Doctoral Awards. The deadline for forwarding our Doctoral Student Award nominees is on or before March 4, 2026.

There will be a two-tiered selection process, as follows.

1) Faculty members with current Tri-Agency funding may nominate an incoming doctoral student who meets the eligibility criteria. Departments will review the eligible doctoral applicants within their unit and forward a letter of support for one nominee to the SGSPA here by Monday, February 9, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. Nominees must have completed an application to Graduate Studies via the SGSPA application portal, which will be accessed for adjudication at Step 2.

2) A pan-University committee organized by SGSPA will review the departmental nominations and select 9 Doctoral Student Award nominees.

Notes:

• All nominees are required to comply with the Policy on Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern (STRAC Policy), and, as applicable, the National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships (NSGRP).
• If the nominee’s proposed research, or research conducted by the nominator, falls under the Sensitive Technology Research Areas list, the STRAC policy requires the nominee to include in the application a completed Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern attestation form.

Adjudication of the nomination packages will be based on the:

• Research excellence of the applicant
• Alignment with one of the eight priority areas
• Quality of the research environment and nominator
• Institutional strength in the proposed area

The University will provide support in its recruitment processes to applicants with disabilities, including accommodation that takes into account an applicant’s accessibility needs.

The Tri-Agency has prepared a Q&A Resource to support the program which includes more information including more detailed eligibility criteria.  Access the Q&A resource here.

Please direct any questions about the Doctoral Canada Impact+ Research Training Awards competition to Tara MacDonald at sgspa.stem@queensu.ca

The Canada Impact+ Research Training Postdoctoral Award is valued at $70,000 per year with a duration of two years, and must be awarded to a postdoctoral researcher who will be supervised by a faculty member holding active Tri-Agency funding. See the full nominator eligibility criteria here.

Nominees can be of any citizenship, including Canadian citizens, permanent residents and protected people. Nominees must be studying or working abroad at the time of application and cannot have a current affiliation with a Canadian institution. See the full nominee eligibility criteria here.

These awards prioritize eight research areas identified by the Canadian Government:

• Advanced digital technologies (AI, quantum, cybersecurity)
• Health, including biotechnology
• Clean technology and resource value chains
• Environment, climate resilience, and the Arctic
• Food and water security
• Democratic and community resilience
• Manufacturing and advanced materials
• Defence and dual-use technologies

At this time, Queen’s has been assigned an allocation of 6 postdoctoral awards.

Any Queen’s University faculty member who is the primary grant holder on an active Tri-Agency grant (i.e. CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC), as listed on the Training Program Q&A page, is eligible to nominate one (1) postdoctoral researcher through this program. The nomination package will then be reviewed by an internal pan-university adjudication committee who will select the 6 nominees to forward to the Tri-Agency.

How to apply:

A full postdoctoral Impact+ Research Training Awards nomination package must include the following:

• Nominee’s CV (max 10 pages)
• Research Proposal (max 2 pages)
• Description of the Research Environment and Fit with the Respective Priority Area (max 1 page)
• Nominator Letter of Support (max 2 pages)
• All nominees are required to comply with the Policy on Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern (STRAC Policy), and, as applicable, the National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships (NSGRP).
• If the nominee’s proposed research, or research conducted by the nominator, falls under the Sensitive Technology Research Areas list, the STRAC policy requires the nominee to include in the application a completed Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern attestation form.

Nominators can submit the complete nomination package as one pdf here:

Postdoctoral Nomination Application - Canada Impact+ Research Training Awards

Adjudication of the nomination packages will be based on the:

• Research excellence of the applicant
• Strength of the research proposal
• Alignment with one of the eight priority areas
• Quality of the research environment and nominator
• Institutional strength in the proposed area

Queen’s University Deadline:

• Completed nomination packages due Monday, February 9, 2026 at 5:00pm EST.

The University will provide support in its recruitment processes to applicants with disabilities, including accommodation that takes into account an applicant’s accessibility needs.

The Tri-Agency has prepared a Q&A Resource to support the program which includes more information including more detailed eligibility criteria. Access the Q&A resource here.

Please direct any questions about the Postdoctoral Canada Impact+ Research Training Awards competition to postdoc@queensu.ca.