The Vice-Principal Research Portfolio helps researchers attract competitive prizes and build their portfolio throughout their career. Prizes and awards raise the profiles of both the researcher and the university and increase researchers' chances of success when applying for funding.
Types of awards include:
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internal awards offered by Queen's, such as the Prizes for Excellence in Research
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external awards, such as those offered by the tri-council granting agencies and other national or international organizations
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disciplinary and interdisciplinary awards
The Research Awards Officer helps researchers apply for competitive external awards. Some competitions require an institutional nomination or limit the number of nominees from the university, while others are open to all.
Regardless of the competition type, crafting a strong nomination package is critical, and our team offers guidance in this process.
All nominations are handled confidentially, and for major international awards, an external review process is available through the Global Excellence Initiative, which aims to elevate Canada's research profile globally by supporting scholars and scientists in their nominations for major national and international awards.
Queen’s ranks #5 in Canada for faculty research awards
2026 Maclean's University Rankings
View our award recipients listInternal award
The Prize for Excellence in Research for Outstanding Emerging Researchers celebrates early career researchers at Queen’s University who have distinguished themselves through their significant contributions to research.
Apply for this prizeLatest calls for nominations
Date Published: Feb 02, 2026
Dorothy Killam Fellowship: 2026 call for applications
The Dorothy Killam Fellowships provide support for projects within the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, health sciences, and/or engineering.
Read more about the Dorothy Killam Fellowships
Date Published: Sep 17, 2025
Robbins-Ollivier Award for Excellence in Equity: Call for proposals
Nomination details for the Robbins-Ollivier Award for Excellence in Equity. An award for eligible Queen's University faculty members who lead bold and potentially game-changing projects
Date Published: Jul 21, 2025
Frontiers Planet Prize: call for applications
Frontiers Planet Prize was created by the Frontiers Research Foundation to address the colossal and urgent challenges facing our planet
Build your prizes and awards portfolio
Below are a few examples of high-profile awards for researchers in different stages of their careers. Contact our office for support in applying for these and other major awards.
Please note, disciplinary awards are usually managed by faculties and departments. Contact your Associate/ Vice Dean Research for more information.
National and provincial awards
The Robbins-Ollivier Award for Excellence in Equity recognizes researchers advancing equity within the Canada Research Chairs Program and Canada’s research ecosystem. Three $100,000 awards are conferred annually. Queen’s is invited to nominate one eligible faculty member — or a team of eligible faculty members — who are leading bold and potentially game-changing projects that challenge the status quo, spark change, and take action to address persistent systemic barriers in the research ecosystem and academia.
The RSC recognizes leaders in research and innovation in Canada and mobilizes them in open discussion and debate about complex and timely issues. RSC Fellows are recognized for exceptional and original publications, intellectual achievements, and creative activities in three Academies: Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, and Science.
The RSC College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists is a multidisciplinary system to recognize the emerging generation of intellectual leadership: those within 15 years of conferral of their PhD (or equivalent) who demonstrate leading scholarly, research or artistic excellence. Members of the College are elected for a period of seven years.
The RSC also confers Medals and Awards in specific disciplines.
The SSHRC Impact Awards recognize outstanding researchers and celebrate their research achievements, research training, knowledge mobilization and outreach activities funded partially or entirely by SSHRC:
- Gold Medal: SSHRC’s highest research honour, awarded to one whose sustained leadership, dedication and originality of thought have inspired both students and colleagues
- Insight Award: recognizes outstanding achievement arising from a single or multiple SSHRC-funded initiatives which have significantly contributed to knowledge and understanding about people, societies and the world. The research outcomes must have led to demonstrable impact within the nominee’s fields of research and/or beyond the social sciences and humanities research community.
- Connection Award: recognizes an outstanding SSHRC-funded initiative that facilitates the flow and exchange of research knowledge within and/or beyond the social sciences and humanities research community
- Partnership Award: recognizes a SSHRC‑funded formal partnership for its outstanding achievement in advancing research, research training or knowledge mobilization, or developing a new partnership approach to research and/or related activities
NSERC offers a wide range of prizes celebrating exceptional examples of research excellence:
- Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering: awarded to one whose body of work, conducted in Canada in the natural sciences or engineering, has demonstrated persistent excellence and influence
- Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering: recognizes outstanding Canadian teams of researchers from different disciplines who came together to engage in research drawing on their combined knowledge and skills
- John C. Polanyi Award: given to an individual or team whose research, conducted in Canada, has led to a recent outstanding advance in any NSERC-supported field
- NSERC Awards for Science Promotion: honours the promotion of science in Canada through activities encouraging popular interest in science or developing science abilities
- Synergy Awards for Innovation: recognize examples of collaboration that stand as models of effective partnership between partner organizations and colleges or universities
- NSERC Donna Strickland Prize for Societal Impact of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research: honours outstanding research leading to exceptional benefits for Canada’s society, environment and/or economy
- Arthur B. McDonald Fellowships: recognize early-stage academic researchers in the natural sciences and engineering to enhance their research capacity so that they can become leaders in their field and inspire others
- Canada Gairdner Momentum Award: recognizes mid-career investigators (typically 10-15 years past their first independent research appointment) working in Canada who, in their last six active years, have produced exceptional scientific research contributions with continued potential for impact on human health
- Canada Gairdner International Award: awarded to outstanding biomedical scientists who have made original contributions resulting in an increased understanding of human biology and disease
- John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award: honours scientifically based research that has improved the health and wellbeing of those facing health inequities worldwide
Learn more about the Canada Gairdner Awards.
- Killam Prizes: awarded to active Canadian scholars who have distinguished themselves through sustained research excellence, making a significant impact in their respective fields
- Dorothy Killam Fellowships: provide support to mid-career (typically no more than 15 years since PhD completion) scholars of exceptional ability by granting them time to pursue research projects of broad significance and widespread interest
- Killam NRC Paul Corkum Fellowships: aim to create opportunities for mid-to-late career Canadian and international scholars to collaborate with National Research Council (NRC) researchers, supporting advanced study and research excellence and providing scholars access to the NRC’s unique infrastructure and resources
Discover the National Killam Program.
Molson Prizes are awarded to distinguished individuals, one in the arts and one in the social sciences and humanities. The prizes are intended to encourage continuing contributions to the cultural and intellectual heritage of Canada.
Invested by the Governor General of Canada, the Order is the centrepiece of Canada’s honours system, recognizing a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community, and service to the nation for people in all sectors of Canadian society who have enriched the lives of others and made a difference to this country.
Discover the Order of Canada.
Invested by the Lieutenant Governor, the Order is the province’s highest honour for an Ontarian who has shown outstanding qualities of individual excellence and achievement with a lasting legacy in the province, Canada, and beyond.
Discover the Order of Ontario.
International awards
Fellows of the Royal Society are elected for life through a peer review process on the basis of excellence in science where up to fifty-two fellows and up to ten foreign members are elected from a proposed group of 700 candidates.
The L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards honour five eminent women scientists from five regions of the world. These exceptional researchers are rewarded for their important contributions to the progress of science, either in life sciences or in the fields of physical sciences, mathematics and computer science.
Awarded by the BBVA Foundation, the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards recognize fundamental contributions in a broad array of areas of scientific knowledge, technology, humanities and artistic creation. Categories include basic sciences, biology and biomedicine, information and communication technologies, climate change and environmental sciences, economics, finance and management, humanities, social sciences, and music and opera.
The Falling Walls Global Call brings together science enthusiasts from diverse backgrounds, looking for the most recent and innovative Science Breakthroughs of the Year. Categories include life sciences, physical sciences, engineering and technology, social sciences and humanities, art and science, science start-ups, science engagement, and women’s impact.
The Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually to early-career researchers whose creativity, innovation, and research accomplishments make them stand out as the next generation of leaders. Candidates hold a PhD (or equivalent) in chemistry, computer science, Earth system science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, physics, or a related field. Candidates must be tenure-track, though untenured, as of September 15 of the nomination year, and must carry a regular teaching obligation.
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation offers fellowships to exceptional individuals in pursuit of scholarship in any field of knowledge and creation in any art form, under the freest possible conditions. This award targets mid-career individuals who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts and exhibit great promise for their future endeavours.
The Global Young Academy seeks applications from young, independent scholars who combine the highest level of research excellence with a demonstrated passion for delivering impact. Applicants are typically in the early to middle years of their independent careers, i.e. no more than ten years from PhD and aged 30-40.