Doctoral Salary Award for Black and Indigenous Scholars

This award will provide $30,000 of salary support each year for up to 3 years maximum.

For Doctoral learners who defend their thesis before the 4-year term ends, the last day of the month that the revised thesis is accepted will act as the new end date for the award.  It is the supervisor’s responsibility to inform ENRICH of this change.  If funds are paid out beyond this time point, then it will need to be refunded to ENRICH by the Host Institution and/or supervisor.

Parental leave: 

Learners for the doctoral award are eligible to receive paid parental leave up to a maximum of 6 months if (a) interrupting the ENRICH award within six months of childbirth or adoption, (b) the learner will be the primary caregiver for the child, AND (c) the learner is not eligible for and will not be receiving employment insurance or other parental benefits from any other sources.  The leave must be requested at minimum 30 days in advance of leave start date. The maximum benefit payable by ENRICH is $12,500 for 6 months. This is equivalent to $2083.33 per month of the requested leave. Host institutions are not required to match parental leave funds. Any additional benefit-matching amounts are payable at the discretion of the learner’s host university/training center.   For further information regarding your eligibility and requirements, please contact the ENRICH Program Staff.

The award paid from the ENRICH’s grant will be placed “on hold” for the duration of the leave, and will resume upon the return of the individual to the training environment.  The term of the award will be extended by the length of the approved leave up to but not exceeding twelve months.

Medical or Family Caregiver Leave: Learners are eligible for medical or a family caregiver’s leave. The latter is to provide care or support to certain family members who have a serious medical condition. Awards will be placed “on hold” for the duration of the leave with supported documentation from the local institution. Awards will resume upon the return of the individual to the training environment.

Research Allowance:  The Award recipients and their supervisors will have their expenses paid to attend the ENRICH Annual Symposia and relevant Regional Mini Symposia. A written commitment from the supervisor/mentor stating their agreement to attend Annual Symposia, for each year that the learner is in the program, is mandatory with the application.

Deadline to apply:

A FULL application will be due January 10 of each year at 5 pm PST. Late or incomplete applications will not be considered. If the application competition date falls on a weekend or statutory holiday, applications will be due on the first business day following at 5pm PST.

When you are ready to submit your application online, you will be asked to upload each of the required documents below.

A complete FULL application that is due January 10th consists of:

Kindly complete this digital application for the ENRICH Doctoral Award for Black and Indigenous Scholars. Please have the following documents ready for upload during this process:

1. Proof of citizenship/permanent residency. Please name the file “1 CandidateLastname_Citizenship.”
2. Itemized response (for resubmissions only). Please name it “2R CandidateLastname_Reviewer Response.”
3. Research Proposal document.  Please name the document “2 CandidateLastname_Research Proposal.”
4. Your CIHR Biosketch and name it “3 CandidateLastname_Biosketch.”
5. Your Primary Supervisor’s CIHR Biosketch. Please name it “3a Supervisor 1 CandidateLastname_Biosketch.”
6. All other Co-supervisor’s CIHR Biosketch (when applicable). Please name it “3b Supervisor 2 CandidateLastname_Biosketch,” “3c Supervisor 3 CandidateLastname_Biosketch,” etc.
7. Indigenous Community Support Letter (when applicable). Please name this support letter “4 CandidateLastname_Indigenous Community Support.”
8. Signature page. Please name it “5 CandidateLastname_Sig Page.” Click to download Signature Page.

If you have any questions or concerns during this process please email enrich.admin@bcchr.ca.

French applications: Applications may be submitted in French. Please note, you are requested to advise the ENRICH Program office of your intent to submit in French a minimum 4 weeks prior to the application deadline.  If you are successful in the written portion, interviews can be accommodated in French at the candidate’s request.

Important Dates:

Reviewer Assignment and Conflict of Interest:

1. After application deadline, the Program Staff collates applications and ensures that each applicant meets all eligibility requirements.

2. An email is sent to all Selection Committee members with a list of applicants, for conflicts of interest and declaration of expertise.

3. The Program Staff sends the Selection Committee Chair, Co-Chair and Director the list of applicants, project title, abstract, and conflicts of interest. Individuals with a conflict of interest will not be assigned to the applicant in question.

4. The Selection Committee Chair, Co-Chair, and Program staff will assign the following reviewers to each candidate:
   • Scientific review: 3 reviewers consisting of selection committee members, invited ENRICH mentors, or external reviewers if needed
   • Patient Engagement review: 1 patient partner
   • EDI review: EDI Champions within the ENRICH program
   • The Selection Committee Chair, Co-Chair and Director will not be assigned any applications to review.

Reviewers who accept a review will also be required to join the Selection Virtual Meeting. The Program Staff sends each reviewer the applications they will be reviewing with an evaluation form.

Reviews and Scoring:

5. Reviewers are given approximately 4-6 weeks to complete their reviews and return the evaluation form with scores one week before the Selection Committee virtual meeting.
6. A structured review using the following evaluation criteria will be used when assessing your application.

Scientific Review: Reviewers will score the candidates based on the following components.

1. Applicant Qualifications: activity profile, career goals, research experience, curriculum vitae (committee experience, volunteer work, publications, productivity, honours, awards) and sponsor assessments.
2. Training Environment: location, research team, supervisors/mentors, resources, interdisciplinary nature, EDI composition, and support.
3. Community Engagement (if applicable)
4. Research Proposal: clarity, feasibility, and rationale.

Patient Partner Review: Reviewers will be asked to read through the lay summary and patient engagement section. The candidates will receive a pass, revision, or major revision rating based on the relevance and impact to perinatal and child health and well-being, communication in plain language, and the patient engagement plan.

EDI Review: An EDI champion will review the lay summary. The candidates will receive a pass, revision, or major revision rating based on the CIHR Best Practices in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Research guide.

Preparation for panel review (Selection Virtual Meeting):

7. The Program Staff sends out a personal score card to each Selection Committee member one week before the meeting.

8. The Program Staff shares the reviewer scores and their averages with the Selection Committee Chair, and Co-Chair. If scores for a candidate are highly variable, the Selection Committee Chair and Co-Chair may request to see the reviews.

9. Based on (a) the compatibility of the scores among reviewers for each candidate and (b) conflicts of interest among Selection committee members, the Selection Committee Chair and Co-Chair will determine the order of discussion for each candidate. Reviewers with a conflict of interest will be asked to leave the meeting when reviewing the applicant in question and prompted to return when the discussion is complete. Should the Director have a conflict, the Director will leave the call and the Selection Chair will act as the Director and Selection Co-Chair as the Chair. Should the Selection Chair have a conflict, they will leave the call and the Selection Co-Chair will act as the Selection Chair.

Selection meeting and consensus scoring:

10. At the Selection Virtual Meeting, each candidate will be reviewed in the order determined by the Selection Committee Chair and Co-Chair.

11. Streamlined applications: For applicants who attained low scores, the Selection Committee Chair and Co-Chair may request to streamline the application. If approved by all reviewers, this application will not be discussed. Candidates can be streamlined if:

• Scientific Review:
  • Two reviewer scores are under 4.0
  • The average of all 3 reviewer scores is under 4.0.

Should there be a large number of applications, the boundary for streamlining applications may change to ensure that only 15 applications maximum are discussed by reviewers. The scores reported to streamlined candidates will be the average score for each review category and will be identified as “Streamlined: score.”  Candidates whose applications are not streamlined are identified with a “Discussed: score” in the feedback report.

12. Discussed applications:
    • Scientific review: Reviewers 1, 2, and 3, will each state their scores and then respectively outline their reviews of the proposed application.
    • Patient Partner review: The patient partner will state their rating, providing reasoning.
    • EDI Review: The EDI Champion will state their rating, providing reasoning.

13. A discussion then follows with the rest of the selection committee who may have additional questions, concerns or insights.

14. The 3 scientific reviewers agree on a consensus score based on the application discussion, taking into consideration both the patient partner and EDI Champion feedback. If the reviewers cannot reach a consensus, the Selection Co-Chairs will negotiate a consensus score. All scientific review members of the selection committee are then asked to (a) record the consensus score on their score cards; (b) score the candidate plus or minus (+/-) 0.5 of the consensus score.

15. Items 11 to 14 are repeated for each candidate until all candidates have been reviewed. 

16. Immediately following the virtual meeting, each reviewer emails the Program Staff their completed personal scorecards. Any revisions to reviews must be submitted within 24 hours of the Selection Committee virtual meeting.

17. A tally and average of the personal scores is created by the Program Staff. The Selection Committee Chair, and Co-Chair are sent the final average only of the tally for each candidate. In general, candidates who have scored 4.0 or above are considered for an interview approximately 4 weeks later. Should many candidates have attained a score of 4.0 or higher, at least two candidates will be interviewed for each award. These candidates will be those with the highest score for each award.

18. Candidates who have not been selected for an interview will be sent copies of each reviewer’s forms, along with official notes from the Selection Committee detailing any constructive feedback that came up during the discussion. These notes will be drafted by the Program Staff, then reviewed by the Selection Committee Chair, and Co-Chair. 

Interview preparation:

19. Interview candidates will be sent official feedback in the form of a letter. This will include feedback from the scientific reviews, patient partner, and EDI Champion. Candidates will be requested to submit a brief 2-page response before their interview.

Interview day and ranking:

20. The Interviews will be conducted by a representation of the Selection Committee panel consisting of the Selection Chair, Co-Chair, Director, 2 other Selection Committee members, a patient partner, and the Program Staff (ex-officio). Any member of the interview panel with conflicts will be asked to leave during the interview. Should the Director have a conflict, the Director will leave the room, and the Selection Chair will act as the Director and Co-Chair as the Chair. Should the Selection Chair have a conflict, they will leave the room and the Co-Chair will act as the Chair.

21. Candidates will be scored on a 5-point scale based on their vision for a scientific career, ability to clearly articulate the research project to the non-expert and discuss the project in the broader context of research in the field, address any reviewer comments raised in the written feedback, mentorship plan, discuss interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary integration potential for their project, and explain their patient engagement and EDI plan for the research. Panel members will also ask follow-up questions as they may arise during the discussion.

22. Based on post-interview discussions and average panel scores, a rank order will be determined for candidates.

Executive Committee Approval:

23. The rank order will be presented, and funding cut-off will be discussed and approved at the Executive Committee. This decision will be based on funding availability and recommendations from the Director and Selection Committee Chair and Co-Chair.

Notice of Award:

24. Following the Executive vote, notification letters will be sent to the interviewed candidates. These letters will be drafted by the Program Staff, then vetted by the Selection Committee Chair, Co-Chair, and Director.

Grievances:

25. All grievances with the selection process can be brought to the Executive Committee via the Chair or Co-Chair of the committee.
26. A follow-up telephone call with the Selection Committee Chair can be requested if a candidate has specific questions regarding feedback provided by the selection committee and the outcome of the competition.