MSFHR Career Investigator Program

Note: Please ensure that your are in compliance with the general Faculty of Medicine Salary Awards procedures.

The MSFHR Career Investigator Program is designed to attract and foster the development of outstanding health researchers in British Columbia. The intent of the program is to allow researchers to initiate an independent research career, build a leading research program and expand their potential to make significant contributions to their field of research.

The Scholar Award is an eight-year award at an increased amount, with a rigorous review in year four that will determine if recipients will receive the final four years of funding. MSFHR funding in years seven and eight will decline to 50 per cent and 25 per cent respectively as host institutions assume responsibility for long-term funding of scholars.

Eligibility

The short agency deadline means that nominees must have a current full-time faculty appointment (non-clinical) or a signed offer letter dated no later than February 29, 2012. Please be aware that MSFHR has allowed the eligibility to include applicants whose first full-time faculty appointment began on December 1, 2004.

Clinical Faculty are not eligible to apply for external salary awards.

Host Institution Commitment

Please note the funding commitments that are needed from the host institution (department), or a partner institution (e.g. BC Cancer Agency) with stable long term career funding available to commit in support of the applicant:

  1. Salary support in year 7 ($50,000) and year 8 ($75,000)
  2. Continuing and ongoing salary support beyond end of the grant: this is to be ongoing without term and is specified to come from the base budget of host institution (e.g. F-slot), or from a partner institution where the responsibility for funding will reside with the partner who will need to have a base budget to support the award without term.

For applications involving a partner institution, the partner must:

  • Contact Rashmita Salvi (rsalvi@msfhr.org) for specific instructions and a pre-screen of the partner institution
  • Send a letter, from the Director (or equivalent), outlining their commitments, to Rashmita, prior to the full application deadline

Grant Development (GD) and Internal Review (IR)

In view of the short deadline and overlap with other major funding competitions, we will allow a one-time exemption from mandatory GD and IR for this MSFHR Career Investigator competition only. Nonetheless, GD and IR are available for interested applicants.

Grant Development – CFRI only
CFRI applicants should contact the Research & Technology Development Office as soon as possible to discuss proposal development/review. Contacts include:

  • Dr. Tamara English, Senior Research Development Facilitator; tenglish@cfri.ca
  • Dr. Dawn McArthur, Head, Research & Technology Development; dmcarthur@cfri.ca

Grant Development – other sites
To register for GD with Elizabeth Cheu (604-822-2327, or echeu@medd.med.ubc.ca), complete this online form by February 16th.

Internal Review – all sites
To register for IR, email the following details to christy.mctait@ubc.ca by February 16th:

  1. Title of your MSFHR application
  2. Brief description of your proposed project (minimum 1-2 paragraphs)
  3. Your MSFHR Application Theme – Biomedical Research, Clinical Research, Health Services Research, or Population health Research (refer to MSFHR Scholar Award Instructions for definitions)
  4. Any Faculty reviewer requests, plus any Faculty who you would prefer NOT to review your grant
  5. Meaningful GD with Elizabeth and IR with Christy will only be available to those researchers who can submit the following materials by 3pm on February 27th:
    • Scientific summary
    • Career Expectations
    • Response to Previous Reviews (for resubmissions only)
    • Program of Research
    • Department Head form
    • Dean form

Dean and Department Head Forms

MSFHR requires the completion of Dean and Department Head forms online to support each application. Applicants are asked to draft these two documents, and then send to the Heads for approval.

As part of each application, the UBC Department Head must specify the source(s) of funding for years 7 and 8 and ongoing support in the Department Head form. If a partner is involved, the terms of the partner letter should be reflected in this form.

Approved Dean and Department Head forms are to be sent by the Department Head or his/her assistant via email to Bryan Wong (bwong@medd.med.ubc.ca) by March 14th. This will ensure that the Dean and Department Head can complete the online forms for each applicant in a timely fashion.

The Dean and Department Head forms are required, and we offer the following two templates for guidance purposes:

The Dean reserves the right to edit the Department Head form. Changes will be communicated to the Department Head and assistant if applicable. Bryan will inform the Department Head and assistant once the Dean’s Office has approved the Department Head form so that the Department Head can submit on ApplyNet.

Do not submit the Department Head form on ApplyNet until you hear from Bryan.

Action Due Date
Department Head or assistant sends Dean and Department Head form in MS Word format to Bryan March 14
Rest of application package sent to Bryan or dropped off at Dean’s Office at UBC March 19
Dean, Department Head, and referees submit corresponding sections on ApplyNet March 20
Applicant submits application on ApplyNet March 21, 10am
 

Application Procedures

For the February MSFHR Career Investigator Program (CIP), the Faculty of Medicine (FoM) has agreed with the Office of Research Services (ORS) on the following procedures/timelines:

  1. For your MSFHR full application, the Dean’s system account email and phone number are fomdean.msfhr@ubc.ca and 604-822-4303 respectively.
  2. Electronic versions of the Dean and Department Head forms must be sent to Bryan by Wednesday, March 14th, 2012.
  3. Your required documents must be submitted to the Dean’s Office here at UBC campus by Monday, March 19th, 2012 for Faculty approval. See below for a complete list of items required.
  4. The Dean and Department Head will strive to submit their forms online by Tuesday, March 20th, 2012.
  5. Ensure that your Department Head, Dean, and Referees have submitted their sections, then submit your full application by 10am on Wednesday, March 21st, 2012.
  6. A paper copy of your application will be taken to ORS by 10am on Wednesday, March 21st, 2012.
  7. ORS will electronically approve your application via ApplyNet for submission to MSFHR on or before Friday, March 23rd, 2012 at 4:30pm.
    If you submit your Department Head and Dean forms late, you run the risk of missing the ORS deadline to submit your application.

Please remember that because this is a salary award:

  • Faculty approval can only be obtained from the Dean of Medicine located here at the UBC Point Grey campus.
  • Department Head approval can only be obtained from your Department Head, and not his/her signing authority delegates. The Department Heads are listed in bold on the Signing Authority Sheet, available at http://www.med.ubc.ca/research/gad/Electronic_Forms.htm.
  • Internal Review and Grant Development are mandatory; however, because of the short notice and partial overlap with CIHR, IR and GD are optional for this competition only. Nonetheless, GD and IR are available for interested applicants.

Required Documents to be submitted to the FoM:

  1. FoM Grant Application Cover Sheet, including signatures of the Principal Investigator and Department Head (available at http://www.med.ubc.ca/research/gad/Electronic_Forms.htm)
  2. Request for Dean’s Approval of Salary Award applications (updated version, also available at website listed above)
  3. Pages 1 & 2 from MSFHR Full Application
  4. Lay summary page
  5. Letters of support/collaboration (if any)
  6. MSFHR Department Head form
    – You may use the UBC FoM template – available here (MS Word)
    – 3 sections, text is limited to 5500, 2500, and 2500 characters respectively
    – electronic version must be sent from your department head or his/her secretary to Bryan
  7. MSFHR Dean form
    – You may use the UBC FoM template – available here (MS Word
    – text is limited to 5500 characters
    – electronic version must be sent from your department head or his/her secretary to Bryan

Items 1-5 can be sent as scanned/electronic copies to Bryan (they will be printed), or delivered in person to the Dean’s Office at UBC Point Grey campus. Items #6 & 7 must be emailed to Bryan by Wednesday, March 14.

If you have any questions, please contact Bryan Wong at the FoM (604-822-7207 or bwong@medd.med.ubc.ca) or Lily Liew at the ORS (604-822-8581 or lily.liew@ors.ubc.ca).